From the New York Times-
Only weeks after the Episcopal Church ended a de facto moratorium on promoting gay men and lesbians into the church hierarchy, church leaders in Los Angeles nominated two openly gay priests as assistant bishops on Sunday.
The move came a day after a church search committee in Minnesota announced that it had settled on three candidates, one of them a lesbian, for bishop.
The decisions are certain to rekindle the hostilities between the liberal and conservatives factions within the Episcopal Church in the United States and between the church and the Anglican Communion, the generally conservative global network of churches to which the Episcopal Church belongs.
The moratorium on ordaining gays and lesbians into the church hierarchy was adopted three years ago and helped calm conservatives in the Anglican Communion, which was nearly torn apart by the election in 2003 of the church’s first and only openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. But church members voted overwhelmingly on July 14 at a general convention in Anaheim, Calif., to reopen the door to bishops who are openly gay.
The Diocese of Los Angeles, one of the largest and most liberal in the country, announced Sunday the nomination of six priests as candidates for two assistant bishop jobs. The list included two openly gay clerics, the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, 55, who is currently canon to the bishops in the Diocese of Maryland, based in Baltimore, and the Rev. John L. Kirkley, 42, who is rector of St. John the Evangelist Church in San Jose, Calif., part of the Diocese of California.
“I affirm each and every one of these candidates, and I am pleased with the wide diversity they offer this diocese,” the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement.
More here-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/us/03bishop.html?hpw
3 comments:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 16, 2009
"The moratorium 'is still there. We did not repeal it,' said Bishop Robert Johnson, assisting bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh"
Diocesan website, July 30, 2009
"Bishop Johnson described both gender-issue resolutions as a description of where things stand. 'We did not turn the clock back, we did not move the clock forward,' he said."
1/3 of all the candidates for bishop in the first two openings after the convention are partnered gays. Is this what a moratorium looks like? How about some truth instead of "nuance"?
It remains to be seen if any of the partnered LGBT candidates is chosen. The "moratorium" will be lifted only when one is elected. I'm faintly amused by the people who are so sure that Godde can't possibly call a partnered LGBT person to leadership in Godde's church. I'm not amused by their unwillingness to follow Jesus's admonition to love all and judge none.
If there actually is a moratorium, as alleged by the Presiding Bishop and our Bishop Johnson, then the moratorium will not be "lifted" upon the consecration of a partnered GLBT person- it will be violated and broken. From my perspective the honest thing to say after the passage of D025 is that the moratorium has been lifted, which obviously LA and Minnesota believe.
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