Lesbian Episcopal bishop-elect has the standing committee consents

The Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool unofficially has the consent of 61 of the 109 Episcopal dioceses in the United States, Episcopal Life reported. That majority approval of her ordination and consecration was required for her to become first openly lesbian bishop in the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.

Referring to both Glasspool and Bishop Suffragan-elect Diane Jardine Bruce, Los Angeles Bishop Diocesan J. Jon Bruno said on March 10:

I give thanks for the standing commitees' prompt action, and for the consents to the elections of my sisters. I look forward to the final few consents to come in from the bishops in the next few days, and I give thanks for the fact that we as a church have taken a bold step for just action.

That last phrase refers to the fact that a majority of diocesan bishops must also consent. Episcopal Church headquarters in New York keeps the bishops tally and probably will not release it until the outcome is settled.

ReligionLink documents the long struggle over the election homosexual Episcopal bishops. Glasspool's final affirmation was expected when she was selected amid controversy in December. If as apparently the case she is affirmed, she will be the second openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion and the first since the consecration of V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003 brought the communion's already decades-old division over homosexuality into the open.

Bruce was the first woman bishop elected in the 114-year history of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was the first woman elected as a primate of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Her election demonstrated the widespread support in the Episcopal Church in the U.S. for the ordination of women and is nonetheless a matter of ongoing controversy in some quarters of the church.