The news came through last night that the Anglican Communion is to have its second bishop who happens to have a gay partner. Canon Mary Glasspool was elected as a new suffragan bishop in Los Angeles a few months ago. What’s happened since is that the wider American church has had a chance to say yes or no to her appointment. The system in the US is that after an election, bishops with jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees are asked to confirm the election of a new bishop. There has to be a majority of both bishops and standing committees.
Our system is different in Scotland. It used to be that after an election, the College of Bishops was asked to confirm it. Now, the confirmation process takes place before the election in that the bishops agree to each of the names that go onto the shortlist, confirming that they will consecrate anyone from that list who is elected. (It is this confirmation process which our bishops have abandonned for partnered gay candidates in Scotland, preferring to declare a blanket ban on such people being considered rather than to accept due process and vote amongst themselves in regards to each candidate).
Anyway, Mary Glasspool has the requisite number of consents. She will be consecrated. There will be a fuss. The world will keep turning. She is not the first partnered lesbian bishop we are in full communion with anyway. That honour went to Eva Brunne some time ago.
I think people are weary of the fuss and generally just want to get on with being the church.
So, good wishes to the Diocese of Los Angeles and to Bishop-Elect Mary who will serve them. Peace and blessings be upon the fuss-makers.
P.S – great comment, David!
Well, I have set the cat among the pigeons!
To Father Kelvin I ask: was Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the Church just an obsession of his?
To David I wish to say that my comment was in no sense meant to be flippant or insulting – such an accusation is both unfair and unjust. I was but expressing a deep concern that many fellow Anglicans have about the way that the issues of sexuality and of gender seems to be dominating many of the agendas of the Church. It would be great if we could move on to the task to which we have all as Christians been called – the proclaiming of the Good News of Jesus.
I am not sure how my personal theology (of which you can only guess) could ever be a threat to the unity of the Church – certainly not at my age. Not do I have any personal aspirations – I am now retired – if I ever had one it was simply to be a parish priest.
To Rosemary I would say that I do not ‘loathe’ anyone’s opinions – I might well disagree with them but I can only respect them if sincerely held.
One final point : your reference to ‘closet gays” – do I detect in your use of this term an intolerance towards those who prefer to keep their personal lives private – or am I being unfair?
One final point if the SEC really is an inclusive church
(and I am fully in favour that it should be) why does there seem to be less room or tolerance for those who hold with ‘traditional’ theology.
Well, we don’t hear a great deal about what Jesus thought the church would become so he does seem very far from obsessed about it. (He does seem obsessed by other things, not least the way people use their money for example).
I’m presuming you mean two verses in John 17: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
I’d say that’s about being one in Christ and perhaps recognising a sense of belonging one to another. I struggle rather a lot to think that it might be about any institutions or denominations at all.
I can but presume that if Jesus’s prayer should be meant to be interpreted as asking God the Father for Anglicans to maintain a pseudo-unity at any cost, God the Father in his wisdom has said a resounding “no” to the request. Fearing the theological implications of that possibility, I’m prepared to conclude that maybe Jesus did not have Anglican troubles in mind at the time.
I hold with traditional theology (not least in the fact that I say the Nicene Creed and mean it) and however much bother I may occasionally find myself in the thick of, I find that there is room for me in the SEC.
Well, Ross, you may not loathe anybody’s opinions, but I confess I do. And I frequently struggle to love those who appear to look down on me and those I love and support because we hold the opinions we do. I get very angry when I am accused (and trust me, I very frequently HAVE been accused of this) of not being ‘really’ a Christian because of the views I hold. But you may equally believe me when I tell you that I always pray for the gift of tolerating and loving those others.
‘Closet gays’ – it is fine by me if people do not want to speak at all about their personal lives. It is not fine with me if people feel afraid that speaking about their lives because to do so invites reactions of disgust or condemnation.
‘Being one in Christ’ is the goal – but we are to be one as Jesus and his Father are one – and that must include openness, and trust, and respect. I doubt me that it contains great swathes of no-go subjects.
Traditional theology? Great! All for it! Hold it myself! If, that is, you mean what to me are the key, core, creedal issues. To me, traditional views on gender and gender roles are not creedal issues, and do not do anything for inclusivity.
Morally, I am pretty conservative, too. I certainly believe that EVERY Christian should live a life in which Christ comes first, and where dedication is a daily reality, and each person’s vocation before God is the top of their priorities. Where each works for justice for all, and makes the necessary sacrifices to ensure peace both in home and community, and on the national and international stage. Where peace and justice are one. Where each Christian positively serves the church, with the gifts of time and talent, seeking occasions to put themselves at her service. I believe we should also seek to serve the wider community, and those in it, and any life which does not find opportunities to offer help and support to others is some of missing life’s sweetness.
I believe in orientation towards God at all times, and to our fellows, and away from self. I believe in a dispassionate love of self.
Further, I believe the only place for sexual activity with others is in a committed long term relationship.
I have to admit, that this comes a long way down my list of moral priorities, however, because personally I have a great deal more time managing my time and money than my sexuality (probably a reflection of my age, I fear!)
Urgh, that should be ‘a great deal more trouble managing my time and money’ – soz.
” Personal asperations before the unity of the Anglican Communion” Oh come off it. The AC is dead in the water and perhaps this is a good thing
That’s just great Rosemary – I’m with you in most of what you have written, although I still think ‘loathe’ is too strong a word.
All the same, I’m afraid Imust remain one of Father Kelvin’s so called ‘fuss makers’ and I will continue to pray for the unity of the Anglican Communion as I believe it is of concern to God (if not to others) .
To David I wish to say that my comment was in no sense meant to be flippant or insulting – such an accusation is both unfair and unjust. I was but expressing a deep concern that many fellow Anglicans have about the way that the issues of sexuality and of gender seems to be dominating many of the agendas of the Church. It would be great if we could move on to the task to which we have all as Christians been called – the proclaiming of the Good News of Jesus.
Father Ross, your original post is little more than a drive-by pot shot. Not unlike bored teens in a borrowed car, on a lonely rural road, with a BB or pellet gun and dozens of innocent mailboxes. There is no analysis, nor a tiny hint that you have tried to understand what has gone before and what this may mean for the GLBTQ folks for whom the Revd Canon has been directly called to proclaim the Good News of Jesus from the Episcopate of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and its parishes, or for the greater Episcopal Church in North, Central & South America, the Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean, and ultimately scattered throughout every province of the Anglican Communion.
If you are the average, white, male Scottish cleric, then I doubt that you have ever been in a position of wanting acceptance of who you are, he who by God’s grace you are. You have never been part of a class denied equality, pressed into moratoria, nor asked to stand in a crucified place. Instead, from your insulting remark, you are one of those who always appears and shouts to the others of us to sit down and stop rocking the boat.
Tell me Ross, what Gospel did you proclaim all those years? It must have been a very comfortable one. But was it the Gospel of The One who was always rocking the boat and making the comfortable, privileged male clerics of his generation uncomfortable? Because that is the true Gospel, the one that looks ever outward to find greater opportunities to draw the circle ever larger and bring in more unwanted and disenfranchised into its embrace..
The coming of the Kingdom is perpetual. Again and again, freshness, novelty, power from beyond the world break in by unexpected paths bringing unexpected change. Those who cling to tradition and fear all novelty in God’s relation to the world deny the creative activity of the Holy Sprit, and forget that what is now tradition was once innovation; that the real Christian is always a revolutionary, belongs to a new race, and has been given a new name and a new song.
Evelyn Underhill
To David, my dear brother in Christ – ouch! But may the peace of the Lord be always with you.
God bless and good night!
Ross
I think we’ve fallen away from our usual standards here, and have moved from debating ideas to criticizing each other. That’s not going to help any of us.
One of the ways in which the SEC (and this blog) is inclusive is in accepting that those who describe themselves as Christian are Christian, however challenging our theological differences. That basic good-will and trust seem to be a bit fragile in the comments right now too.
Can we try again to return to the norms Kelvin has helped create over the years, and start treating each other a bit better, please?