Events | 2009.12.06
Rowan Williams urges calm as church in US votes for lesbian bishop
The archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the election of a lesbian as an assistant bishop in a Los Angeles diocese raised "very serious questions" for the divided church.
Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world\'s 77 million Anglicans, urged restraint following the choice of the Rev Mary Glasspool to become the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican fellowship. The election needs approval from a majority of Episcopal church dioceses before she can be consecrated.
Williams said: "The election of Mary Glasspool by the diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal church and its place in the Anglican communion, but for the communion as a whole.
"The process of selection, however, is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications."
Glasspool\'s victory on Saturday underscored a continued Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships, despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans to change their stand.
"Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights," Glasspool said in a statement thanking the diocese.
The head of the Episcopal church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is scheduled to consecrate Glasspool on May 15 if the church accepts the vote.
The bishop of Los Angeles, Jon Bruno, urged Episcopal dioceses to approve Glasspool\'s election and not base their decision on fear of how other Anglicans will react.
The Episcopal church, the Anglican body in the US, caused uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America. Several overseas Anglicans have been pressuring Williams to officially recognise the new entity.
In 2004, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal church for a moratorium on electing gay bishops as they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.
Since the request was made, some gay Episcopal priests have been nominated for bishop, but Glasspool is the first to be elected. Last July, the Episcopal General Convention, the church\'s top policy-making body, affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops.
Williams today reminded Anglicans that church leaders believed "a period of gracious restraint" was necessary "if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold".
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec[...]williams-church-lesbian-bishop
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