By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The ordination of two women bishops in Los Angeles this weekend, one of whom is a partnered lesbian, has caused more sorrow and alienation in the traditional Episcopalian community.
The Christian Post is reporting that nearly 3,000 Episcopalians gathered in Long Beach, California on Saturday for the consecration of lesbian Mary Glasspool and Diane Jardine Bruce as bishops suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
The women are the first female bishops to serve in the diocese and Glasspool is the second openly homosexual bishop to be confirmed. The first, Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, was on hand for the service.
While those in attendance celebrated what was billed as an “historic event,” many evangelicals and conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Communion saw it as a moment of alienation and sorrow.
“We wish to express our support for the many people within The Episcopal Church who feel alienated and hurt by this development,” said evangelical members of the Church of Ireland. “Many Christians of all traditions and denominations will share our sorrow and see Mary Glasspool’s consecration as a defiant rejection of pleas for restraint and, even more importantly, as a rejection of the pattern of holiness of life called for in Scripture and endorsed by believers over the centuries.
“The elevation to senior church leadership of a person whose lifestyle is contrary to the will of God revealed in Scripture is both wrong and disappointing.”
Glasspool, who has been living with her lesbian partner since 1988, was elected in December to serve as assistant bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. She received the required number of consents from the wider church and approval from the presiding bishop’s office in March.
She promised to reach out to those who disagree with her in an interview with the BBC on Saturday. “I will seek to reach out and engage with people who … think differently than I do and try to build a relationship with them.”
The ordination has caused even more problems for the embattled Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion who is struggling to hold his fractured church together. Williams officially distanced himself from the consecration, saying the decision to elect and consecrate Glasspool “cannot speak for our common mind” and said the move deepened the divide between the Episcopal church and the rest of the Anglican family.
The increasingly liberal policies of the Episcopal church, including the ordination of women and active homosexuals, have caused hundreds of members of the worldwide Anglican communion to embrace a new policy created by the Vatican last November that will enable disaffected Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church en masse.
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