ENGLAND: Inclusive Church supports L.A. elections, regrets Canterbury's response
Episcopal News Service. December 9, 2009 [120909-03]
Matthew Davies
The U.K.-based Inclusive Church network has welcomed the elections of the Rev. Canon Diane Jardine Bruce and the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool as suffragan bishops in the Diocese of Los Angeles, while disassociating itself from the subsequent response from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
On Dec. 4, Bruce became the first woman to be elected bishop in the Los Angeles diocese. The following day, the Los Angeles diocese elected Glasspool, an open gay and partnered woman, a move which Williams said in a Dec. 6 statement "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the communion as a whole."
Giles Goddard, chair of Inclusive Church, in a Dec. 9 open letter to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles, offered the network's congratulations for the elections and its regret for Williams' comments.
"We are aware that the process was carried out with great care and prayer, as will the decisions of bishops and standing committees who consider whether to confirm the elections. We wish the elected candidates all joy in their ministries and assure them of our prayers," said Goddard, priest-in-charge of St. John's Church in Waterloo, London.
Under the canons of the Episcopal Church (III.11.4), a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the Glasspool's and Bruce's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.
Williams, in his Dec. 6 statement, acknowledged that the election process "is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications."
Goddard urged the Episcopal Church's diocesan bishops and standing committees "not to be persuaded by responses from outside your province in considering the request to confirm these elections," and apologized that the reaction from the Church of England to Glasspool's election had been "at best grudging and at worst actively negative.
"While it gives us no pleasure to dissociate ourselves from the sentiments expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose wisdom in so many areas we deeply respect, we greatly regret the tone and content of his response, particularly in the context of his failure to make any comment on the seriously oppressive legislation being proposed in Uganda."
Williams has come under fire from other organizations and commentators for his silence in condemning proposed Ugandan legislation, which, if passed, would introduce the death penalty for people who violate portions of that country's anti-homosexuality laws.
Inclusive Church describes itself as a network of individuals and organizations that aim "to celebrate and maintain the traditional inclusivity and diversity of the Anglican Communion."
Goddard's statement noted that there are "a great many within the Church of England who like us are unequivocally supportive of [the Episcopal Church] in being open to the election of bishops without regard to gender, race and sexuality. We pray that the communion at large will grow in confidence and maturity, so that it can learn to celebrate both those things which hold us together and those things over which we disagree."
The Church of England currently makes no provisions for allowing women bishops, although its General Synod has been addressing the issue since 2005. The Episcopal Church opened its ordination process to women in 1976.
The full text of the Inclusive Church statement is available here.