Hooray for Bishop Glasspool!

I suppose that if Groucho Marx were around he could sing the subject line!

The Office of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has announced that Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool has received the necessary consents from Bishops with jurisdiction and Standing Committees. She will therefore be consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles on May 15th in Long Beach, CA. Coincidentally, the date is that of Long Beach Pride.

Canon Glasspool will be the first openly-Lesbian bishop in the Anglican Communion and the second openly-gay bishop after Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

There has been no announcement from Lambeth Palace, and no news items over here in England. I expect to hear something tomorrow on the Today program on Radio 4. If not, I’ll be very annoyed, as they made a big fuss about her election. His Grace the Most Rev’d Rowan Douglas Williams, DD, PC, by the Grace of God Archbishop of Canterbury, made a very po’faced press release in December after her election. I wonder what will be on the Lambeth Palace website tomorrow. Their Twitter account is @lambethpress, and I’ve subscribed.

I toyed with the idea of travelling to Los Angeles for the consecration, as I did for Gene Robinson’s consecration in 2003, but my feet and the fact that I’ll be hosting my brother here in London the previous week means that I doubt I’ll be able to swing it.

Cheers! Hooray! Just as with woman priests and bishops, soon the election and consecration of openly-gay and lesbian bishops will be seen as run-of-the-mill.

3 Responses to “Hooray for Bishop Glasspool!”

  1. trawnapanda says:

    hooray for bishop glasspool… the african explorer?

    I toyed with the idea of travelling to Los Angeles for the consecration, as I did for Gene Robinson’s consecration in 2003

    why would you have gone to Los Angeles for Gene Robinson’s consecration? He was ordained in New Hampshire. (on my 50th birthday, actually)

    Canon Glasspool will be the first openly-Lesbian bishop in the Anglican Communion and the second openly-gay bishop after Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.Canon Glasspool will be the first openly-Lesbian bishop in the Anglican Communion and the second openly-gay bishop after Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

    er, no. I think you mean “openly lesbian/gay and partnered.” There have been other out gay bishops, but because they’re neither partnered (nor american) they tend to get a lot less attention.

    One was Terry Brown, pictured here with yr scribe at Lambeth last year, recently retired bishop of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. Terry was quite explicit about his orientation, but managed to get invited to Lambeth nonetheless. I knew Terry decades before he became a bishop – he was honorary at my parish in the 70s.

  2. chrishansenhome says:

    why would you have gone to Los Angeles for Gene Robinson’s consecration? He was ordained in New Hampshire. (on my 50th birthday, actually)

    You know what I meant!

    I am not aware of any currently-serving bishops other than Gene Robinson who are openly gay and partnered. There are several who are retired and who came out after retirement, when it was relatively safe to do so. I was aware in the back of my mind of Bishop Brown, but I suppose his physical location militated against being top-of-mind elsewhere.

    Remember what happened to the kid who questioned Father William too much!

  3. tim1965 says:

    She got up this morning and shot an elephant in her pajamas. When the elephant was doing in her pajamas we’ll never know.

    Then they tried to remove the tusks. But they hard trouble with that, so they went to Alabama where the Tusksaloosa.