Mary Glasspool, then a student, was among the attendees asked to give a short witness statement. "Shaking in my pulpit pumps", as she recalls, she told the audience of 1,500 people that "I trust that God's Love at this convention will transcend the issues and address the people -- all of us -- in our wholeness. I trust and I pray that that same love will prevent any of us from condemning others -- particularly in this case, homosexuals, in our human, and full, and loving wholeness."
Afterwards her bishop, Paul Moore, Jr., "came over to me, gave me a great big hug, and said: 'Now that you've come out to 1,500 people, don't you think it's almost time to tell your parents?"
Rev. Canon mary Glasspool (bottom left), Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce (right) and Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori (top left)
Thirty years later, the now Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool was ordained as the Episcopal Church's second openly gay bishop. Needless to say, this didn't happen without considerable protest, both from within and without the United States.
The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on
During the heyday of the Reformation, swords would clash and heretics would burn; and the tradition continues as best it can. Last month Archbishop Ian Earnest of the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean , disturbed by what he dubbed "theological innovations", announced that his conscience dictated that he "suspend all communication both verbal and sacramental" with the US-based Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, "until such time as they reverse" these innovations. Archbishop Earnest made exceptions for "those bishops and clergy who have distanced themselves" from the churches' direction. Only a few days before Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, whose country's consideration of sexual orientation cleansing has made the news in past months, wrote to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams characterizing the North American churches as "gross violators of biblical truth" who were "promoting revisionist theology."
In March, a Church of England group describing themselves as "open evangelicals" issued a statement condemning Glasspool's ordination.
The 3,000 people present at Rev. Glasspool's ordination included two male protesters, who were led out by security guards.
The 3-legged stool
As has been the case since the Reformation, however, questions about Protestant churches' "directions' have cycled regularly, as have the subsequent semi-clonings generally referred to as 'schisms.' However, in a profile provided by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, Rev. Glasspool reaffirmed a commitment to the church's most characteristic approach to ministry. "We hold that the three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason (which includes experience) is an appropriate way in which to descern God's Will. But we can be hampered by the disadvantages of the colonialism that is part of our history, institutional structures that change too slowly and a lack of the freedom that faith brings in response to fear."
Glasspool's involvement with the Episcopal Church has been lifelong. Her father, Rector of St. James Chapel in Goshen, New York, had opposed ordaining women as priests although "I became something of an exeption to the rule" for him.
She met her life partner of two decades, Becki Sander, "as she was studying for a dual degree in theology and social work. We have been together since 1988, and Becki has just earned her Ph.D. in Social Work, having written an excellent thesis on Restorative Justice.
"God has blessed us richly and continues to do so."
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