From More than a via media (blog) via TitusOneNine:
Saturday, 5 December 2009
The diocese of Los Angeles has elected Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool as a suffragan bishop (h/t TitusOneNine). According to the diocesan website, Canon Glasspool is "the second woman to be elected a bishop in the diocese's 114-year history, [and] is also the first openly partnered lesbian to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church".
According the constitution and canons of TEC, other dioceses now need to consent to the election. One would expect this to be a matter of some controversy. Consents are not a pro forma routine. Earlier this year a candidate for bishop of Northern Michigan, who had heterodox views on the Trinity and salvation, failed to receive sufficient consents and was not consecrated.
LA diocesan bishop J. Jon Bruno has, however, stated, "to not consent in this country out of fear of the reaction elsewhere in the Anglican Communion is to capitulate to titular heads".
Notice the politicised language and assumptions. Nationalism - "in this country" - has no place in the Christian conception of koinonia. Lambeth, the other Instruments of Communion, and Anglicans across the globe are not "titular heads" - this is not how Anglicans refer to their pastors or brothers and sisters. Bruno's invocation of the spirit of 1776 signifies something of the cultural conformity in parts of TEC far more significant than differences over same-sex relationships.
Perhaps Los Angeles should be thanked. The diocese has now forced TEC to reflect on whether koinonia or independence is of greater significance. The forthcoming consent process is not about differences over pastoral approaches to and theological understanding of same-sex relationships. It is, put simply, about whether TEC's view of ecclesia is shaped by national independence or koinonia.
Posted by Burke's Corner at 23:42
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