Ugandan Church Angry Over Los Angeles New Lesbian Assistant Bishop
publication date: Dec 8, 2009
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author/source: Tabu Butagira & Stephen Otage/Monitor.co.ug
The Church of Uganda has expressed dismay over news that a lesbian in the diocese of Los Angeles in the United States has been elected an assistant bishop.
Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, 55, married to a female companion for 21 years, won 153 and 203 votes from clergy and the lay, respectively to beat two other candidates.
However, the National Episcopal Church will have to approve her pick before an expected enthronement that would make her the second homosexual bishop in history after New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson, consecrated in 2003.
Disaster recipe
On Monday, Archbishop Luke Orombi’s assistant for International Relations, Ms Alison Barfoot, described as “funny and unbiblical” the choice of Ms Glasspool.
“We believe the Bible condemns homosexual behaviour as immoral. So how can a homosexual be a bishop?” she said. “This decision of the Episcopal Church in America [the equivalent Anglican Church there] will only bring more problems and divisions.”
Canon Glasspool appeared unfazed by the criticisms, telling The Times newspaper of London in comments published on Monday: “Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, spoke out on Sunday, expressing unease over the latest developments in the Episcopal Church in the US, already reeling with adverse effects of the consecration of Robinson.
At the height of the gay row, dozens of traditionalist American churches sought pastoral refuge under their counterparts in Africa with Uganda absorbing 50 of them. They have since reverted to the care of the biblically orthodox Province of the Anglican Church in North America formed in June this year, Ms Barfoot said.
The new Church, however, is yet to be recognised formally.
Serious questions
The worldwide Anglican Communion of more than 70 million followers comprises 38 provinces. But their liberal and conservative Primates are at odds on issues such as acceptance of homosexuals and consecration of women as bishops.
Last week’s election of Glasspool raises “serious questions” and will have “important implications”, Dr Rowan Williams told The Times.
He said: “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.”
In the US, campaigners for equality for lesbian and gay Christians welcomed the development.
The Dean of St John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles Mark Kowalewski, said: “I don’t think it’s a referendum on electing a woman or a gay person. Those are secondary characteristics.”
The choice of Ms Glasspool comes at a time the Vatican is wooing disaffected Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, putting to test Dr William’s knack to keep his polarised Communion together.
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