Another good reason to quit the Anglican false church - they've chosen a lesbian bishop!

  

ALAN FRANKLIN writes: My dismay at the antics of the Anglican church -C of E and Episcopalians -increased when I read this report in The Times.
Although there have been- and are - good men in this church they should clearly come out of it and start supporting a Bible believing fellowship. We need you! They have chosen a lesbian to be a bishop, despite God's repeated warnings about homosexuality and the clear Biblical injunction not to have woman lead churches - or even to speak in church, something I wish more western churches would obey.
  

Anglicans split over election of lesbian bishop

The future of the worldwide Anglican Communion was in jeopardy last night after the Archbishop of Canterbury said that the election of a lesbian bishop in the United States raised “very serious questions”.

Dr Rowan Williams added that the choice of Canon Mary Glasspool to be a suffragan bishop in Los Angeles had “important implications”. The election of Canon Glasspool, who has lived with the same female partner since 1988, is the second appointment of an openly homosexual bishop in the US Episcopal Church. It confirmed fears among evangelicals in the Anglican Communion of more than 70 million people that crucial votes at last summer’s General Convention of the Episcopal Church had in effect ended the moratorium on gay bishops.

Dr Williams said: “The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop-elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion but for the Communion as a whole. The process of selection, however, is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

“The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury and a majority of the other 38 Anglican primates had requested a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex blessings in an attempt to prevent the Communion from splitting between evangelicals and liberals.

The influential American Anglican Council was among the first of the conservative bodies to condemn the latest election, accusing the Episcopal Church of a further departure from biblical teaching.

“Unfortunately, this election provides further clarity to the rest of the Anglican Communion,” said Bishop David Anderson, its president. “Should the rest of the Episcopal Church consent to this election, there can be no more pretending that the Episcopal Church holds to Anglican Communion doctrine. Not only has it elected another non-celibate homosexual bishop, but it repeatedly defies the moratorium on same-sex blessings.”

These concerns were echoed by the leading UK conservative body, Anglican Mainstream, which was set up to oppose the consecration of Dr Jeffrey John, a homosexual, as Bishop of Reading — a battle that it won. Dr Philip Giddings, its convenor, said: “We are saddened but not surprised by this announcement.”

The Rev Rod Thomas, of the conservative evangelical group Reform, said that he was “deeply ashamed” that Canon Glasspool had been elected. He added that a schism was “absolutely inevitable”.

Liberals in England are increasingly frustrated that Dr Williams, who was elected for his supposedly liberal views, has embraced conservative Christian values in the name of unity.

Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of a home in the Roman Catholic Church to Anglo-Catholics, many of whom are opposed to the ordination of women bishops in England, has further jeopardised the unity that Dr Williams has made the central plank of his leadership.

However, it is almost certain that Canon Glasspool’s consecration will go ahead. She said: “Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights.” She was elected on a seventh ballot that included two other candidates, winning 153 clergy votes and 203 lay votes, just enough to emerge as the winner.

Campaigners for equality for lesbian and gay Christians welcomed the election result. The Very Rev Mark Kowalewski, Dean of St John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles, said: “I don’t think it’s a referendum on electing a woman or a gay person. Those are secondary characteristics.”

Canon Glasspool was ordained in 1981 and has led parishes in Annapolis in Maryland, Boston and Philadelphia. Bishop Jon Bruno, who leads the Los Angeles diocese, urged Episcopal dioceses to approve her election.


22/05/2010

 
 
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