>From The Times
December 10, 2009
Time for Church to open door to rights for gays, says lesbian bishop
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The lesbian bishop recently elected in the United States insisted last night
that there would be no “closing of the door” on the question of equal rights
for homosexuals.
She said that evangelical opponents of homosexuals in the Church were more
concerned about power and authority than with sexuality.
Canon Mary Glasspool, 55, whose election as a suffragan bishop in the Los
Angeles diocese has led to protests from conservatives worldwide, including the
Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the issues at the heart of the debate
tearing the Anglican Communion apart were not really about sex. What was at
stake had more to do with power, authority and a postcolonial Church.
She said that support for the liberal policies of the Episcopal Church in the
US had spread worldwide, including to Africa, traditionally a religiously
conservative continent. She is the second openly homosexual bishop to be
elected in the US, after Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in 2003.
Speaking to The Times in her first interview with a British media organisation
since her election on Saturday night, she said that she prayed every day for Dr
Rowan Williams, who before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury had expressed
liberal views on sexuality but has since moved towards the conservative end of
the debate.
Canon Glasspool, who has lived with the same female partner since 1988,
remained hopeful that the Anglican Communion would survive: “We want to be a
part of the Anglican Communion. But we are no longer willing to close the door
to a significant number of people who look to the Episcopal Church for
leadership.”
She also queried whether the Bible texts often quoted against homosexuality
were being accurately represented. “The Biblical authority is of love and
justice and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she said, implicitly criticising those
who took individual verses out of context. “The overriding message is that love
is the good news.”
She said that the liberal approach of the Episcopal Church had been a lifeline
for many: “There are many people who have been freed from the prison they have
been put in.” She defended her Church’s stance on the issue of homosexuality,
taken without agreement from the other 37 provinces of the worldwide Anglican
Communion.
The Episcopal Church had not moved quickly to ordain gays but had been debating
the issue for 30 years, she said. In 1979, when Canon Glasspool spoke in the
debate, the General Convention voted to affirm homosexual people as members of
the Church and children of God.
She said that many Episcopalians had close relationships with Anglicans
worldwide. She recently attended the enthronement of an archbishop in Africa as
the representative of her present diocese in Maryland. At least one senior
member of the Anglican Church in Ghana will attend her proposed consecration in
May.
While calling for unity, Canon Glasspool remained unrepentant: “My perception
of where the Episcopal Church is is that we are embracing God’s ever-unfolding
reign of love and justice. I have heard from hundreds if not thousands of
people who feel freed up by this, who are proud of the Episcopal Church, who
are anxious to realign themselves with a Church that takes seriously the love
of Jesus Christ for all people.”
She declined to comment on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s warning that her
election raised “very serious questions”. Anglican leaders meeting in
Canterbury this week have called for the Episcopal Church to show “gracious
restraint” when it comes to assenting to her election.
“I pray daily for the Archbishop of Canterbury as I do for our presiding
bishop,” she said, adding that she was “deeply grateful” for the trust shown in
her by the Los Angeles diocese.
Already one bishop, in the conservative diocese of Texas, has said that he
would not endorse her election. Having been chosen, her selection must be
confirmed or rejected by diocesan bishops and standing committees. She said
this was not something she could control: “I am praying about it and offering
information when requested and giving it over to God.”
Canon Glasspool said that, of more than 1,000 e-mails she has received, only
two had been hostile. A gay Roman Catholic couple wrote from England to
congratulate her, as did a gay teenager from New Zealand and a heterosexual
couple from Dallas.
She was a member of the committee that organised security for the consecration
of Barbara Harris, the first Anglican woman bishop, as a suffragan in
Massachusetts in 1989. Bishop Harris, like Bishop Robinson 14 years later, had
to wear a bulletproof vest at her consecration.
Canon Glasspool said that she had experienced “much more” prejudice as a woman
than as a lesbian in the Church. “It is very subtle. I have been ordained for
28 years and people are very often too polite to express their prejudice
directly.”
She believes that there is still hope of maintaining unity. “As long as we can
all come to the table and share Eucharist together, I think we will stay
together,” she said.
The issue of Canon Glasspool’s election has taken the Church close to schism as
entire dioceses attempt to defect, leading to property battles in the courts.
The woman at the centre of the storm said: “I think the Anglican Communion will
move ahead. I don’t know what form it will take, but am hopeful and positive
about it.”
Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles, where Canon Glasspool is to be one of two new
women suffragans, said that Canon Glasspool’s election had been the work of the
Holy Spirit. “It was not the election of a lesbian, but of a competent priest,”
he added.
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