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[Ed. Note:  The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church conducts the Church's business between General Conventions.  They meet quarterly and are in session this week in Maryland.  It is significant that Canon Kenneth Kearon from the Anglican Communion office is coming to the meeting to address the Council.  They will get the "up close and personal" explanation for why the Archbishop of Canterbury has removed members of TEC from several international ecumenical committees since the consecration of Mary Glasspool, an avowed lesbian, in Los Angeles.  The Archbishop warned repeatedly that there would be consequences for this action.  It is not a surprise, however, that the hierarchy of TEC is dismayed that His Grace has actually acted.   Cheryl M. Wetzel]

Episcopal News Service
June 16, 2010

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, [Episcopal News Service -- Linthicum Heights, Maryland]

The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, is to speak to the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council here on June 18.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the council at its opening plenary session that Kearon would engage with the council in a
question-and-answer session at 9 a.m. on the last day of the council’s June 16-18 meeting at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute.

His presence at the meeting will come 11 days after he announced that he had sent letters to five Episcopal Church members of the inter-Anglican ecumenical dialogues with the Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic and Orthodox churches “informing them that their  membership on these dialogues has been discontinued.” Kearon also said on June 7 that he had written to the Episcopal Church member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO), withdrawing her membership and inviting her to serve as a consultant to that body.

Kearon’s move came in response to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ May 28 Pentecost letter in which he proposed that
representatives serving on some of the Anglican Communion’s ecumenical dialogues should resign their membership if they are from a province that has not complied with moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate. He specifically referred to the May 15 consecration of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the unauthorized incursions by Anglican leaders into other provinces.  Glasspool is the Episcopal Church’s second openly gay, partnered bishop.

On the same day Kearon announced that he had terminated the Episcopal Church memberships, he said after a speech to the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod that “the archbishop did have to act” following Glasspool’s consecration.

Kearon said in a post-address press conference that the actions taken were “fairly minimal.”

“There’s no doubt that the election and confirmation of Mary Glasspool is a full, well-thought out decision of the Episcopal Church and we must respect that fact,” he said. However, he said the decision implies that the Episcopal Church does not “share the faith and order of the vast majority of the Anglican Communion…. [and so] they shouldn’t represent the communion on faith and order questions.”

Kearon said that such questions are often a part of ecumenical dialogues, and “they ought to be discussed on the Anglican side by
bodies who share that faith and order, at the very minimum to be honorable to our ecumenical partners, so that they know who they are in conversation with.”

Similarly, he said those who do not share the faith and order of the Anglican Communion should not be making decisions on matters in the communion. “We’ve asked them to be consultants and we would hope that they would participate in the conversations and discussions,” he added.  The Rev. Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church’s interim deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Diocese of North Carolina (Diocese of North Carolina) Assistant Bishop William Gregg were serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue.   Read more…

[Ed. Note:  It is still not known if Archbishop Rowan Williams will speak to the Glasspool consecration.  This is not one of those situations where "silence is golden."   Please pray that Archbishop Rowan will be given discernment and the same courage that the bishop of Los Angeles encouraged the voting delegates at the electing convention to exercise.   Cheryl M. Wetzel]

Posted by George Conger on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

for the Church of England News,  Friday, May 21, 2010

The consecration of a lesbian bishop in Los Angeles has drawn a quick response from partisans of left and right in the US, but little comment from church leaders across the Communion.

On May 15 US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori consecrated the Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool as suffragan bishop of Los Angeles.  Following Canon Glasspool’s election in December, the Archbishop of Canterbury said the election of a lesbian bishop “raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.”

In his video address to the Singapore South to South Encounter last month Dr. Williams said he was “in discussion with a number of people around the world about what consequences might follow from [the Glasspool election], and how we express the sense that most Anglicans will want to express, that this decision cannot speak for our common mind.”

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace last week told The Church of England Newspaper that Dr. Williams would not comment again, but would likely speak after the consecration.

Sources close to the archbishop tell CEN that Dr. Williams will likely consult with the House of Bishops this week during their meeting in York before he makes a formal response, so as to make sure the bishops are on board before he acts.

The Archbishop of York has also been silent over the Glasspool consecration, but in an interview with Radio New Zealand, Dr. John Sentamu said that “the difficulty I have got with the Episcopal Church is that while we are in the [listening] process, they have decided to go ahead” with the consecration of gay bishops.

However, Dr. Sentamu dismissed suggestions the Communion would fall apart, stating on March 13 the Anglican tradition of “scripture, tradition and reason” coupled with “experience” would see the church through the crisis.  “Once you have got these four strands working together” the church can accommodate diverse opinion, he said.

Liberal activists in the US have applauded the Glasspool consecration.  Los Angeles priest, the Rev. Susan Russell, commented that at the service she “sang out of hope that the steps we took Saturday in the Diocese of Los Angeles would be a beacon of light and life to all who are looking for signs of God’s love, peace, justice and compassion.”

Conservative activists have been less sanguine.  The Rev. Todd Wetzel of Anglicans United saw the Glasspool consecration as evidence the Episcopal Church was walking away from the Anglican Communion.  “While the public rhetoric of the Episcopal Church continually affirmed their care and consideration for the rest of the Communion, the actions of this insular body made those statements empty sentiment,” he said.  Read more…

[Ed. Note:  The secular press has moved on to yesterday's election news.  However, the rest of the Anglican world is still reacting.  Cheryl M. Wetzel]

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/anglican-leaders-around-globe-decry-ordination-of-openly-lesbian-bishop/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

May 17, 2010 the Catholic News Agency

Los Angeles, Calif., May 19, 2010 / 01:10 am (CNA).- In response to an openly gay woman being ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church on Saturday, Anglican leaders from around the world decried the action  as “gravely concerning and wrong,” with some adding that the move has “hurt and alienated” many within the Episcopal community.

Fifty-five year-old Mary Glasspool, an openly parterned lesbian, was ordained a bishop at Long Beach arena on May 15.  Some 3,000 people attended the ceremony which featured a procession with liturgical dancers in bright colored outfits, costumed dragons and drums, according to Virtue Online.

This recent move by the Episcopal church in the U.S. has caused tremendous controversy within the global Anglican church, prompting Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to issue a statement of caution when the announcement of Glasspool’s ordination was first made last year. He urged church leaders at the time to consider the “implications and consequences of this decision.” Archbishop Williams wrote in March that the Episcopal leaders’ later confirmation of Glasspool’s election as bishop-suffragen was “regrettable.”

Several world leaders within the Anglican community denounced Saturday’s ordination.

“The decision of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America to consecrate as a bishop a woman in a sexually active lesbian relationship is gravely concerning and wrong,” said Rev. Dr. H. William Godfrey, bishop of the Anglican Church of Peru on May 15.

“It is impossible,” he added, “to know by what authority the Episcopal Church is taking this action. It is disobedient to the Word of God, to the teaching of the Church, and deeply hurtful and damaging to their Christian brothers and sisters.”

“It appears,” the bishop observed, “that their decision is being taken in accord with their instincts and feelings, and the ways of the liberal society in which they live, and that they have forgotten the moral values and teachings of the Holy Scriptures and their Church.” Read more…

[Ed. Note:  The Glasspool consecration in Los Angeles last Saturday continues to garner a large percentage of the news today.  Most are still waiting on a statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury - or hoping that there will be one.  Cheryl M. Wetzel]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1278869/U-S-Church-ordains-lesbian-bishop-Mary-Glasspool-despite-warning-split-Anglican-Church.html#

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 5:04 PM on 16th May 2010

from the London Daily Mail, May 17, 2010

Openly gay: Reverend Canon Mary Glasspool smiles following her ordination and consecration ceremony in Long Beach, California

The U.S. Episcopal Church has ordained an openly lesbian bishop despite warnings from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Mary Glasspool, 56, became an assistant bishop at a ceremony attended by 3,000 people in Long Beach, California, on Saturday.

She is only the second openly gay bishop in Anglican church history after Gene Robinson was ordained in November 2003.

Dr Rowan Williams had urged the American Church not to proceed with the ordination, warning that it would further alienate traditionalists who believe active homosexuality to be a sin.

Just before the ceremony began, a man stood, shouted about the need to repent and held up a sign that read: ‘Do not be deceived, homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.’

After he was escorted out, a young boy in the same section rose holding a Bible and shouted similar slogans. Security guards also led him out.

The Reverend Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, of San Clemente, California, was also ordained Saturday.

The two women were elected last December to serve as assistant bishops in the Los Angeles diocese’s six-county territory but conservative Episcopalians had urged the church not to ordain Glasspool.

The decision to do so highlights a continued Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans.

Female affair: Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, bottom left, and Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce kneel before Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, top left

Controversy: Protesters try to disrupt the ceremony, but were eventually led out by security guards

Warning: Dr Rowan Williams urged the American Church not to proceed with the ordination of the lesbian bishop

Bishop Jon Bruno, who gave a sermon at the ceremony, said he once opposed ordaining women, but now would be happily serving alongside two.

Bruno defended the church’s inclusive policies.

‘The world’s transformed only if we turn to each and every one of our brothers and sisters and see the face of Christ superimposed on them,” he told the audience.

‘The ones we disagree with most are the ones we’re obligated to share our lives and teach the most.’

The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican body in the U.S., caused turmoil in the church in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. 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 Dr Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77million Anglicans, to officially recognise the new conservative entity.