Bishop and Standing Committee Differ on Glasspool Vote
“I’ve been clear I would not consent to the election of the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles,” said Bishop Andy Doyle, March 5, 2010, “although I was challenged by a number of people who encouraged me to simply abstain from voting at all.”
The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Texas voted February 11, 2010, to approve the election, highlighting the diversity of opinion within the diocese over consecrating homosexual clergy in committed relationships. Glasspool, a lesbian in a partnered relationship for 22 years, was elected suffragan on December 5. The Diocese of Los Angeles reported March 3 that Glasspool has received 55 of the needed 56 to her election. The consent process concludes May 5.
“We voted on the side of justice” said Sandra Kelley, a member of the Standing Committee who was elected president following the conclusion of Council on February 13. Kelley said she believed Glasspool was qualified and that the Canons had been followed. “I felt any dissent to her election was only based on her sexuality and we’ve been discussing that in this diocese for 30 years,” she said.
Kelley said the Standing Committee discussed the consents via e-mail but voted during a several hour meeting in Killeen before the 161st Council. “It was one of seven other bishops [for whom] we gave consent,” she said. Barbara Williams cast the one dissenting vote. The Standing Committee’s vote testifies to a person’s suitability for office and whether or not there is an impediment to their suitability, Williams explained in an email to the editor. “I do believe there is an impediment in the fact that [Mary Glasspool] is in a lesbian relationship,” she added.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that approving someone in a same-sex relationship would “strain the bonds of affection” between the Episcopal Church and the rest of the Anglican Communion, Williams noted. She called the election “poorly timed and a clear breach of the requested period of ‘gracious restraint’ by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Doyle said his decision to withhold consent came in response to this “gracious restraint” while the Church considers the proposed Anglican Covenant and participates in a deeper theological discussion around sexuality issues.
“In the end, I had done my discernment and I felt it was disingenuous not to vote,” the bishop said. “I called Mary Glasspool, Bishop Jon Bruno (of Los Angeles) and Bishop Eugene Sutton (Glasspool’s bishop} to talk to them personally and let them know how I was voting,” he said.
“I’ve been very clear about where I am on this issue,” Bishop Doyle said. “I have been in conversation with both conservative and liberal clergy and laity in our diocese and I am actively pursuing avenues for discussion and study within our parishes so we can discern together how we will continue to be a united Church through these issues.
“In the meantime, I believe we have a commitment to the rest of the Communion to do the theological work on the issues before we act against the wishes of the broader Church, and we have not done that,” Bishop Doyle said, admitting that there is a broad spectrum of positions within this diocese as there are within the Episcopal Church’s 109 other dioceses.
“In fact,” he added, “we have just received the report from the theological committee of the House of Bishops on Same Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church and will be discussing it at the upcoming House of Bishops meeting, March 19-24 at Camp Allen.”
This is not the first time a Standing Committee vote has been in opposition to the diocesan bishop’s vote in an episcopal election. When Jack Iker was elected bishop of Ft. Worth in 1994, Bishop Ben Benitez voted to consent while the Diocese of Texas’ Standing Committee voted unanimously not to consent. Iker left the Episcopal Church to join the Anglican Church in North America in 2008.
