LA rebuffs Anglican conservatives

From Religious Intelligence via the AAC Weekly Update:

Wednesday, 13th January 2010. 4:27pm

By: George Conger.

The Bishop of Los Angeles has rejected the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council’s call to block the election of a lesbian priest as suffragan bishop of the diocese.

For “more than the past 30 years” the Episcopal Church has been “working on gradual, full incorporation of gay and lesbian people,” the Rt. Rev J Jon Bruno said in a statement he entitled “Be Not Afraid,” released on Dec 18.

However, “we have worked to be people of gracious restraint for all these years and have now come to a place in our lives that is normal evolutionary change which compels us to move from tolerance to full inclusion,” he said, rejecting the Standing Committee’s call for “gracious restraint” following the election of Canon Mary Glasspool.

On Dec 18, the Standing Committee of the ACC released the text of a resolution adopted at its Dec 15-18 meeting in London, stating that “in light of” the “recent episcopal nomination in the Diocese of Los Angeles of a partnered lesbian candidate,” it “strongly” reaffirmed the moratorium on the election of gay bishops adopted at ACC 14 in Jamaica last May.

Renamed the “Standing Committee” of the Anglican Consultative Council at ACC 14 following the decision to give the members of the primates’ standing committee membership in the ACC, the committee further asked that the introduction of “formal ceremonies of same-sex blessings” in the US and Canada be curtailed, as well as “continuing cross-jurisdictional activity” within the Anglican Communion.

The Standing Committee asked that Los Angeles honour the “request for gracious restraint in respect of actions that endanger the unity of the Anglican Communion by going against the declared view of the Instruments of Communion.”

However, Bishop Bruno said Los Angeles “must move forward and respect the dignity of all human beings which is called for in our Baptismal Covenant and canons.”

The diocese had acted in “good faith is moving forward in supporting the full inclusion and full humanity of all people in the Church,” he said.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop-elect Ian Douglas of Connecticut are members of the Standing Committee, and also outspoken supporters of the Episcopal Church’s ‘gay agenda.’

Asked by The Church of England Newspaper if the Presiding Bishop endorsed the resolution, her spokesman Neva Rae Fox said “as agreed upon by the members of the Standing Committee, the details of the conversations are considered private.”