The lesbian bishop recently elected in the United States insisted last night that there would be no “closing of the door” on the question of equal rights for homosexuals. She said that evangelical opponents of homosexuals in the Church were more concerned about power and authority than with sexuality.
Canon Mary Glasspool, 55, whose election as a suffragan bishop in the Los Angeles diocese has led to protests from conservatives worldwide, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the issues at the heart of the debate tearing the Anglican Communion apart were not really about sex. What was at stake had more to do with power, authority and a postcolonial Church.
She said that support for the liberal policies of the Episcopal Church in the US had spread worldwide, including to Africa, traditionally a religiously conservative continent. She is the second openly homosexual bishop to be elected in the US, after Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in 2003.
Speaking to The Times in her first interview with a British media organisation since her election on Saturday night, she said that she prayed every day for Dr Rowan Williams, who before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury had expressed liberal views on sexuality but has since moved towards the conservative end of the debate.
Canon Glasspool, who has lived with the same female partner since 1988, remained hopeful that the Anglican Communion would survive: “We want to be a part of the Anglican Communion. But we are no longer willing to close the door to a significant number of people who look to the Episcopal Church for leadership.”
She also queried whether the Bible texts often quoted against homosexuality were being accurately represented. “The Biblical authority is of love and justice and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she said, implicitly criticising those who took individual verses out of context. “The overriding message is that love is the good news.”
She said that the liberal approach of the Episcopal Church had been a lifeline for many: “There are many people who have been freed from the prison they have been put in.” She defended her Church’s stance on the issue of homosexuality, taken without agreement from the other 37 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church had not moved quickly to ordain gays but had been debating the issue for 30 years, she said. In 1979, when Canon Glasspool spoke in the debate, the General Convention voted to affirm homosexual people as members of the Church and children of God.
She said that many Episcopalians had close relationships with Anglicans worldwide. She recently attended the enthronement of an archbishop in Africa as the representative of her present diocese in Maryland. At least one senior member of the Anglican Church in Ghana will attend her proposed consecration in May.
While calling for unity, Canon Glasspool remained unrepentant: “My perception of where the Episcopal Church is is that we are embracing God’s ever-unfolding reign of love and justice. I have heard from hundreds if not thousands of people who feel freed up by this, who are proud of the Episcopal Church, who are anxious to realign themselves with a Church that takes seriously the love of Jesus Christ for all people.”
She declined to comment on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s warning that her election raised “very serious questions”. Anglican leaders meeting in Canterbury this week have called for the Episcopal Church to show “gracious restraint” when it comes to assenting to her election.
“I pray daily for the Archbishop of Canterbury as I do for our presiding bishop,” she said, adding that she was “deeply grateful” for the trust shown in her by the Los Angeles diocese.
Already one bishop, in the conservative diocese of Texas, has said that he would not endorse her election. Having been chosen, her selection must be confirmed or rejected by diocesan bishops and standing committees. She said this was not something she could control: “I am praying about it and offering information when requested and giving it over to God.”
Canon Glasspool said that, of more than 1,000 e-mails she has received, only two had been hostile. A gay Roman Catholic couple wrote from England to congratulate her, as did a gay teenager from New Zealand and a heterosexual couple from Dallas.
She was a member of the committee that organised security for the consecration of Barbara Harris, the first Anglican woman bishop, as a suffragan in Massachusetts in 1989. Bishop Harris, like Bishop Robinson 14 years later, had to wear a bulletproof vest at her consecration.
Canon Glasspool said that she had experienced “much more” prejudice as a woman than as a lesbian in the Church. “It is very subtle. I have been ordained for 28 years and people are very often too polite to express their prejudice directly.”
She believes that there is still hope of maintaining unity. “As long as we can all come to the table and share Eucharist together, I think we will stay together,” she said.
The issue of sexuality has taken the Church close to schism as entire dioceses attempt to defect, leading to property battles in the courts. The woman at the centre of the latest storm said: “I think the Anglican Communion will move ahead. I don’t know what form it will take, but am hopeful and positive about it.”
Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles, where Canon Glasspool is to be one of two new women suffragans, said that Canon Glasspool’s election had been the work of the Holy Spirit.
“It was not the election of a lesbian, but of a competent priest,” he added.
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