Archbishop Harper's statement to the Gazette on election of Canon Mary Glasspool
[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><![endif] <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font-face { panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-:12.0pt;"Times New Roman","serif";} .MsoChpDefault { font-:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> [if gte mso 10]><![endif] Statement to the Gazette by the Most Revd Alan Harper OBE, on the confirmation of the election of Canon Mary Glasspool to be a suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
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The Most Revd Katherine Jefferts Schori, in a letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion, informed them that a majority of the 'bishops with jurisdiction' of The Episcopal Church have confirmed the election of Canon Mary Glasspool to be a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Canon Glasspool is a woman in a partnered gay relationship. The Presiding Bishop also informed the other Primates that she would herself preside at the consecration of Canon Glasspool at an Ordination to take place on May 15th.
In her letter, the Presiding Bishop declared that ‘this is not the decision of one person, or a small group of people. It represents the mind of a majority of the elected leaders in The Episcopal Church, lay, clergy and bishops, who have carefully considered the opinions and feelings of other members of the Anglican Communion as well as the decades-long conversations within this Church.’
The Windsor Report of 2004 recommended that, ‘the Episcopal Church (USA) be invited to effect a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges’. [Section D subsection 134, bullet point no 3] That request was reiterated at the Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam and followed at the Primates’ Meeting in Alexandria with a request for ‘gracious restraint’. The decision of The Episcopal Church in respect of the confirmation of an election and subsequent consecration of a partnered gay person to the episcopate has clearly signaled the end of ‘gracious restraint’. This is a development which I deeply regret. Whatever may be ‘the mind of a majority of the elected leaders in The Episcopal Church’, it does not reflect the mind of a majority of those in positions of leadership in the Anglican Communion and it is bound to create even greater stresses within the Communion at a time when consultations on an Anglican Covenant are at an advanced stage.
The action of The Episcopal Church also has implications for another serious issue that has strained the bonds of affection within the Communion, namely extra-territorial interventions by other provinces in the life of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. A moratorium on such interventions and also on the authorization of public rites of blessing for same-sex unions was requested by the Primates at Dar es Salaam. In neither of these cases has ‘gracious restraint’ been wholly exercised. In particular, extra-territorial interventions have been sustained. They have now been added to by the setting up of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), an overtly extra-territorial province-in-embryo, embracing the national integrities of both the United States of America and Canada . The ACNA is now seeking recognition within the wider Anglican Communion.
It is very hard to see how these developments may shape the future of the Anglican Communion. The position of the Church of Ireland in respect of the churches with which it may be said to be ‘in communion’ will be determined, first and foremost in light of the provisions of the Preamble and Declaration prefixed to the Statutes of the Church of Ireland passed at the General Convention in 1870. It will also be governed by the response of the Church of Ireland to any future Anglican Covenant.
ENDS