COMMENTARY
By Mary Ann Mueller
Special Correspondent
www.Virtueonline.org
December 9, 2009
RIVERSIDE, CA---IT was an unusual happenstance. Two suffragan bishops were being conjointly elected in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles which is home to Disneyland and, of recent memory, host to the Episcopal Church's General Convention.
The eyes of the Anglican world -- indeed the entire Christian world -- and the Internet's cyberspace were again riveted to the City of Angeles to see what The Episcopal Church would do THIS time.
Six priests were in the running for the two croizers up for grabs. Three are male. Three are female. Three are persons of color. Three are married. Two are in a "partnered" same-gender relationship. One is widowed. Five have children. Three have children at home. Four have adult children. Three were born on foreign soil. Three were born east of the Mississippi. One is an early Baby Boomer. Two are mid-Boomers, one is a late Baby Boomer and two are members of Generation X. Five are minorities. One is a convert. One is a PK (priest's kid). One is still recovering from having successfully battled cancer. Two have learned English as a second language and one is learning more about Buddhism as a "second religious language".
Three originally come from Anglican Provinces other than The Episcopal Church. Three are rectors, two are canons, one is a vicar and one is an associate. Five are currently in simple parish ministry. One works on a diocesan level. Five live in the state of California. Three have their churches within the Diocese of Los Angeles. Two withdrew as the voting process proceeded. Two were elected bishop -- both women. One is the first woman elected as a bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. One is the second woman to take the mitre in the Diocese of Los Angeles and the first sexually active lesbian bishop who is also the second non-celibate non-heterosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church. Both are making headlines worldwide.
The news of the unprecedented election of Canon Diane Bruce as the first female bishop in the history of the century-plus old Diocese of Los Angeles was quickly eclipsed by the election of Canon Mary Glasspool, but not because Canon Glasspool was the second woman to be elected as bishop in the in the six county Diocese of Los Angeles in as many days. She will be the second openly homosexual priest to be consecrated an Episcopal bishop should her election be validated by the 120-day consent process of The Episcopal Church. A process Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson skirted when he was directly confirmed by the 2003 General Convention to his high post, thus throwing the entire Anglican Communion into a turmoil, an event from which the Communion may never recover, and thus changing the face of Anglicanism forever.
The headlines started early, as early as July, when the Episcopal General Convention voted to thumb its collective nose at the greater Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury in particular, who came miter-in-hand pleading with his American church cousins not to do what it was hell-bent on doing --- advancing the gay and lesbian agenda with abandon in the name of Christian charity.
"I hope and pray that there won't be decisions in the coming days that could push us further apart," the Archbishop personally pleaded last July 9 as he met with General Convention in a Eucharistic setting.
Convention turned a deaf ear to the Archbishop, the Anglican Communion, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and the rest of Christendom when it voted to resolve that as General Convention it would affirm the Sacramental rights and privileges to all baptized members of The Episcopal Church including "same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships" and that Convention further affirmed that "such individuals" may be called by God "to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church" and that Convention acknowledges that "members of The Episcopal Church as [part] of the Anglican Communion, are not of one mind, and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters".
So be it.
The so-called "vital key" in the LGBT mindset is a "partnered relationship" defined as: same-gender couples "living in lifelong committed relationships characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God".
The race was on. Which of the 100-plus Episcopal dioceses would be the first to not only present a sexually active non-heterosexual priest for the bishopric but also actually get that person elected? That would be the first major step in getting some like-minded company for Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson in the House of Bishops.
The Diocese of Minnesota edged out the Los Angeles diocese by a matter of hours. Barely two weeks after the final gavel was sounded at General Convention in Anaheim, the news broke from Minneapolis announcing there were three priests contending for the bishop's throne there. On Aug. 1 word came that a slate of three was being offered for consideration including two women and one man -- the vice president of the House of Deputies. One of the announced women, the Rev. Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago, was a lesbian living in a 22-year-long "partnered" relationship with another clergywoman from the United Church of Christ.
All caution was thrown to the wind. The Archbishop of Canterbury's carefully crafted cautionary words were forgotten. The counsel of the Windsor Report seeking restraint, which came as a direct result to the elevation of Vicky Gene Robinson to the episcopate in 2003, was ignored. The previous General Convention's Resolution B033 seeking a "moratorium on the consecration of bishops whose manner of life presented a challenge to the wider church" was jettisoned. Damn the torpedoes along with faith, Biblical truth, history, and tradition. It was full speed ahead.
Reportedly, Bishop Ted Gulick, wearing his bishop's miter in both Kentucky and North Texas (Ft. Worth), was prophetic when he was quoted in the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal as saying that the 2006 "moratorium would end at such a time as The Episcopal Church elected a gay or lesbian individual in a partnered relationship to be a bishop, and then consecrated him or her."
Minnesota's stunning announcement was made on a Saturday. The next day, a Sunday, the Diocese of Los Angeles made known its own slate of bishop hopefuls including two homosexuals --- one male, the Rev. John Kirkley, rector of St. John the Evangelist Church in San Francisco, which is a hotbed of the gay lifestyle and activity; the other a female, Canon Mary Glasspool, the Canon to the Bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, a position she has held since 2001.
According to an "Episcopal Life" story, the Diocese of Los Angeles' slate of episcopal candidates was finalized as early as July 25, barely a week after the close of General Convention and a full week before Minnesota jumped the gun.
None of the three gay or lesbian candidates for bishop in either diocese showed any shame. Each proudly proclaimed their non-celibate homosexual lifestyle.
Running for the position of bishop in the Diocese of Minnesota was the second time Ms. Perry has reached for the crozier. She and two other gays were in the running three years ago for bishop in San Francisco. She lost out to Bishop Mark Andrus.
The Chicago priest is the co-creator and co-convener of the Chicago Consultation, a coalition of more than 100 bishops, theologians, clergy and lay church leaders from The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion committed to full inclusion for LGBT crowd in all orders of ordained ministry. The Consultation is fiercely committed to seeing the realization of the church's blessing of same sex relationships; the inclusion of LGBT persons in all orders of ordained ministry; and to increase the Anglican Communion's witness against racism, poverty, sexism, heterosexism, and other interlocking oppressions.
The Chicago Consultation was quick to respond to Canon Glasspool's episcopal election.
"We celebrate the election today of the Rev. Mary Glasspool as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles," the Consultation's statement says in part. "At General Convention earlier this year, The Episcopal Church affirmed that God calls partnered gay and lesbian people to all orders of ministry in the Episcopal Church... While there may be a temptation in some quarters to use Mary's election to foment further controversy in the Anglican Communion, those of us who know her understand that this is simply the next chapter in a lifetime of service to her church. We are grateful to her and to her partner, Becki Sander, for answering a new call in Los Angeles."
No mention was made of Canon Bruce's similar election to the same rank and title of Bishop Suffragan of Los Angeles. She was being lost in the dark shadow cast by Canon Glasspool.
Then the same organization took aim at Rowan Williams chastising him for sounding the alarm over the election of Canon Glasspool to the bishopric.
"Yet the election of the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, a remarkably qualified gay woman as a suffragan bishop of Los Angeles, incited the Archbishop's immediate statement of alarm, implying there would be grave consequences unless bishops and standing committees in The Episcopal Church refused to consent to her election," the Chicago Consultation missive states.
"We are as perplexed by the Archbishop's speedy condemnation of the former as we are by his prolonged silence of the latter," the statement continues, referring to the political situation in Uganda which increases the criminalizing of homosexual behavior. "We hope that when the Archbishop realizes the damage he has done to the Communion's ministry among gay and lesbian Christians and those who seek justice for them, he will reconsider both the words he has spoken and the words he has not."
According to her own pre-election statements, Bishop-elect Glasspool has struggled with her homosexuality since her college days. "It was during my college years (1972-1976) that I began to discern a vocation to ordained ministry and concomitantly to discover my sexuality," she wrote. "Both these areas were sources of intense struggle for me as I wrestled with such questions. "It was in Boston that I met my life partner, Becki Sander... We have been together since 1988," the Canon explained. "God has blessed us richly and continues to do so." The Canon to Bishops speaks about her "life partner" being lost in the shuffle when she was the rector at a church in Annapolis as she tried to be honest about who she was and about her sexuality. Meanwhile, Fr. John Kirkley refers to his mate as his "husband". "This year, my husband, Andrew Aldrich, and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary," the priest writes. "We are the proud parents of our eleven year-old son, Nehemiah.
"We began the journey of adoption ten years ago. We didn't anticipate that we would fall in love with a beautiful, African-American baby boy named Nehemiah," Fr. Kirkley points with pride. "It was with some fear and trembling that we two white, gay men embarked upon raising our son."
He is also the president of the Diocese of California LGBT Ministry's Advisory Board, and has served on the steering committee of Claiming the Blessing, a national collaboration among LGBT ministries and justice allies throughout The Episcopal Church. The election process of two suffragan bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles was spread over two days. Bishop-elect Bruce won her election on the third ballot of the first day. Canon Glasspool showed in second place while the other female priest in the running, the Rev. Zelda Kennedy, placed a distant third. All the other male candidates were out distanced by the three women in the race.
Canon Bruce's election to the episcopate was announced at 2:45 p.m. Friday with a statement released on the diocesan website: "[Canon] Bruce, who is the first woman to be elected a bishop in the diocese's 114-year history... She is the 16th woman to be elected a bishop in the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church ..."
The in a cyber nanosecond the news hit the Internet. Back in California a second episcopal election was taking place to fill the second anticipated bishop's vacancy. Both Suffragan Bishop Chester Talton and Assistant Bishop Sergio Carranza will be retiring their mitres in 2010, thus facilitating the need to elect twin bishop suffragans to fill their rochets and chimeres.
Three ballots were taken before the Diocesan Convention broke for the night. Canon Glasspool pulled into an early lead followed by the Rev. Martir Vasquez in second with Ms. Kennedy in third place. Fr. Kirley and the Rev. Silvestre Romero were both way back in the vote count with single digits. Both eventually withdrew from the balloting process.
Results of two of the three late afternoon ballots were announced while the release of the third ballot outcome was held until the next morning.
Saturday dawned with no election. However, Canon Glasspool always maintained the necessary support in the clerical order. Fr. Vasquez gained needed support in the lay order after his brother priests dropped out of running. He could never garner enough support in the clerical order to undermine Canon Glasspool's strength. With Saturday's balloting, Ms. Kennedy's small double digit support dropped into single numbers, but she did not withdraw.
It looked like Fr. Vasquez' strong lay support left him between the castings of the fifth and the sixth ballots. Numbers show that 21 lay votes were not cast dropping his laity backing to less than the figure need thus signaling a shift in the mind of Convention. Fr. Vasquez started out strong while his nearest opponent's lay order numbers were weaker. Canon Glasspool gained needed lay support with each ballot, and at one point pulled within one vote of Fr. Vasquez's numbers before his lay backing withered.
When the seventh and final ballot was cast, enough lay delegates had apparently departed thus sufficiently dropping the number of lay votes needed for election and effectively eroding more of Fr. Vasquez' withering numbers. Canon Glasspool garnered the needed ballots and bounded into church history.
The Diocese of Maryland's Canon to Bishops immediately made banner headlines on both sides of the Atlantic and each side of the equator as she became the second women bishop suffragan to be elected in Los Angeles within hours of her episcopal sister. The significance of Bishop-elect Bruce's accomplishment paled considerably when Bishop-elect Glasspool's selection was announced.
The LGBT world shouted the news from the steeples.
Bishop Robinson who paved the way for Bishop-elect Glasspool to follow posted on his Diocese of New Hampshire website congratulations to both bishop suffragans-elect, carefully mentioning Bishop-elect Bruce in his comments.
"The people of the Diocese of Los Angeles have elected two extraordinarily gifted priests to serve them as Suffragan Bishops ... But let us be clear: it is Mary Glasspool's experience, skills and faith which will make her a good bishop, and are the reason for her election," the first gay bishop wrote. "...the people of Los Angeles have not let current arguments over homosexuality or threats to 'unity' impair their choosing the best persons for these ministries.
"I am delighted over the elections of Diane Bruce and Mary Glasspool and, upon consent by the wider church, look forward to welcoming them both into the House of Bishops," Bishop Robertson posted.
The New Hampshire bishop is also quoted in the LA Times as saying, "This has been an amazing six and a half years, but it has sometimes felt lonely, and I cannot think of a better partner in the House of Bishops than Mary Glasspool."
Bishop Robinson has spent the last six-plus years actively promoting the LGBT agenda, flitting from one gay event to another where he is treated like a queen. He was not invited to Lambeth Conference last year. But that didn't detour the churchman who became a "June bride" when he was "married" to his gay partner, Mark, as soon as New Hampshire allowed same-sex civil partnerships. Just a few weeks later, he went to England to hang out on the fringes of Lambeth drawing attention to himself and away from the work of the fractured Communion.
Then at this year's General Convention, Bishop Robinson, along with retired Bishop Barbara Harris, the foul-mouthed former suffragan bishop of Massachusetts who paved the way for women wearing the mitre, reigned at the gala Integrity Eucharist.
It is because of Bishop Harris' denomination altering actions that Katharine Jefferts Schori was able to pierce the stained glass ceiling to become the Presiding Bishop, blazing a trail for others to follow. And it is possible that on the hanging fringed lappets (tails) of Bishop Robinson's mitre that the Rev. Eva Brunne became the first known active lesbian to be consecrated a bishop in the world. This action happened less than a month ago. Curiously, the Church of England and the Anglican Church of Ireland polity declined to send a representative to the ordination ceremonies in Stockholm. Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Armagh stayed home.
Now Canon Glasspool is not only the second partnered homosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, but she is also the second sexually active lesbian bishop in Christendom.
"I'm very excited about the future of the whole Episcopal Church," Bishop-elect Glasspool said in a statement following her election, "and I see the Diocese of Los Angeles leading the way into that future."
"The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles made history this weekend when it elected not one but two women bishops," proclaimed the Rev. Susan Russell, the immediate past president of Integrity.
"The big news for many will be that one of those women is a partnered lesbian. But the bigger news for me was that my church has actually become a place where candidates for bishop are evaluated on who they are, not who they love -- on the quality of their character, not on the orientation of their sexuality."
Then almost in the same breath, Ms. Russell lambasted the Archbishop of Canterbury.
"On Sunday, December 6th while the rest of us were lighting the second candle on the Advent wreath, the Archbishop of Canterbury was fanning the flames of homophobia," she wrote in a statement on the Integrity website. "The spiritual head of the Anglican Communion ... lost no time in issuing a statement that threatened the American Episcopal Church if we don't kill the election of a gay bishop."
The Rt .Rev. Jon Bruno quickly picked up on that theme. The white-haired fatherly-looking bishop is not about to let his girls be derailed in the confirmation process the way the Rev. Threw Forrester was in his bid for the bishop's throne in the Diocese of Northern Michigan. The circumstances are certainly different than what brought Fr. Forrester to his knees. The Upper Peninsula priest was dealing with theological issues where in California the matter at hand is moral. Women in the episcopate is a non issue there.
In a picture published in the Los Angeles Times, Bishop Bruno is the proud Papa. Bishop-elect Glasspool, to his left, is ecstatic with joy while her episcopal sister Bishop-elect Bruce seems to be a little overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the moment.
"If by chance people are going to withhold consents because of Mary's sexuality, it would be a violation of the canons of this church," the Los Angeles bishop warned. "At our last General Convention, we said we are nondiscriminatory.
"I will work my fingers to the bones, dialing telephones to talk to people and let them know what wonderful candidates we have here." Bishop Bruno told reporters. "The people of Los Angeles elected these women," said Bruno. "The people of the Diocese of Los Angeles said ... 'we want at least one woman.' Well, they got double their wish."
"This is a great day in the life of the Episcopal Church," proclaimed the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, the Bishop of the Diocese Maryland and Canon Glasspool's boss. "Mary has distinguished herself as a faithful and gifted priest who is well prepared to assume the mantle of leadership incumbent upon a bishop."
The Canon's name was thrown into the hat by the Rt. Rev. John Rabb, the suffragan bishop of Maryland who has worked closely with Canon Glasspool since she first took the position as Canon to the Bishops in 2001.
"In nominating Mary Glasspool for bishop suffragan of Los Angeles, I noted her leadership in the Diocese of Maryland and in The Episcopal Church," he posted on the Diocese of Maryland website.
Should both bishops-elect be confirmed in The Episcopal Church's consenting process, they will be jointly consecrated by the Presiding Bishop on May 15, 2010.
Almost lost in the flurry of news from LA (California) is that another LA (the Diocese of Louisiana) also elected a bishop at the same time as the West Coast episcopal elections were happening.
The Very Rev. Morris Thompson, dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington. Ky. was elected the 11th Bishop of Louisiana on the third ballot. After his confirmation process, he will be assuming the episcopal oversight of the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged diocese in south Louisiana.
---Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline
No comments:
Post a Comment