The Episcopal Church’s split with the Anglican Communion widened this week as two dioceses announced slates of candidates for the episcopate that include three gay and lesbian clergy.The news comes less than a week after the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams held that gay clergy were out of bounds for Anglican Churches. It was improper for any member of the clergy to be “living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond,” Dr Williams said, adding that the homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church's teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”
On Aug 1 the Diocese of Minnesota released its list of approved candidates standing for election on Oct 30: the Rev Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints’ Church, Chicago; the Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, rector of St John’s Church, Minneapolis, and the Rev Brian Prior, rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Spokane Valley, Washington.
In her autobiographical statement Ms Perry stated she lived with her partner of 22 years, the Rev Susan Harlow, a minister of the United Church of Christ. She conceded that in the “current worldwide Anglican climate it may be very difficult for me, an out, partnered lesbian, to be elected” but thanked the diocese for the invitation to test her vocation to the episcopate. Minnesota’s other two candidates stated that while they were not gay, they supported the full inclusion of gays and lesbians into the church. Ms Budde stated her parish offers “sacramental blessings of relationships, support[s] gay and lesbian candidates for ordination, and GLBT members exercise ministry throughout the congregation."
Mr Prior, vice-president of the House of Deputies of the General Convention, stated he also supported the inclusion of gays in the church, and it was not until he “began serving in the larger church that I became painfully aware of the level of homophobia, sexism, racism, ageism and bigotry in both our church and the larger culture.”
On Aug 2, the Diocese of Los Angeles announced that six priests had been selected to stand for election for the diocese’s two suffragan bishop spots. The nominees included two priests of Guatemalan background, the Rev Silvestre Romero, rector, St Philip's Church in San Jose, Calif., and the Rev Martin Vasquez, vicar, St George's Church in Hawthorne, Calif; two women priests from within the Diocese of Los Angeles, the Rev Canon Diane Jardine Bruce, rector, St Clement's by-the-Sea Church in San Clemente, and the Rev Zelda Kennedy, associate for pastoral care at All Saints Church in Pasadena; and California; and two clergy from outside the diocese, the Rev Canon Mary Glasspool, canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Maryland and the Rev John Kirkley, rector of St John the Evangelist in San Francisco --- both of whom identify themselves as being gay.
In a statement released with the list of nominees Los Angeles Bishop J Jon Bruno stated he had interviewed each of the nominees. “I affirm each and every one of these candidates and am pleased at the wide diversity they offer this Diocese.” The election is scheduled for Dec 4.
The president of Integrity --- the gay pressure group within the Episcopal Church --- applauded the nominations. “The Diocese of Minnesota is leading the way for the rest of The Episcopal Church," said the Rev Susan Russell on Aug 1, "as they move us forward into a future where the resolutions we passed at our recent General Convention become a reality."
Citing last month’s decision by General Convention in Resolution D025 to end the moratorium on gay bishops, Ms Russell stated she was pleased the Episcopal Church had now “put a sad chapter of discrimination against the LGBT baptized behind us."
On Aug 2, Ms Russell said the Los Angeles decision was “another sign that the 'season of fasting' at the expense of the vocations of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church is at an end."
Speaking at a July 18 press conference at the close of General Convention, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori denied the Episcopal Church had abandoned the moratoria on gay bishops and blessings. She stated her “understanding” was that “we reaffirmed the tenets of this church, that the discernment process is open to all people.”
During the debate on resolution D025 permitting gay bishops, the Bishop of Kentucky, the Rt Rev Edwin Gulick stated the “passing of the resolution will not end the moratorium.”
Distinguishing between intentions and actions, Bishop Gulick said the moratorium would be broken when the Episcopal Church consecrated a new gay bishop. He then turned to the Presiding Bishop and asked if this was not so. Bishop Jefferts Schori said that was “my understanding of it. We have been asked to exercise restraint, and we have done so.”
On July 18, Bishop Jefferts Schori stated the moratoria on gay bishops and blessings that had been agreed by the instruments of unity: the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates, the Lambeth Conference and the Archbishop of Canterbury had not been rescinded by General Convention. “Effectively a moratorium remains until it is ended,” she said.
Pressed to account for the negative responses from the Bishop of Durham and other overseas church leaders, Bishop Bruno said “we can’t do anything about their perceptions.”
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