Earlier this week, the Chicago Consultation sent the following email to its mailing list. It is reprinted here with permission:
Dear Chicago Consultation friends:
In this blessed Christmas season, the Chicago Consultation is looking for friends across the Episcopal Church. We hope that you can help us.
Soon after the new year, diocesan standing committees will be formally notified of the election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles. As you may know, the Rev. Glasspool is the second openly gay, partnered person to be elected bishop in the Anglican Communion. The Chicago Consultation, along with people across the Communion, celebrated her election in a statement issued on December 5.
The 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church affirmed, through Resolution D025, that God calls partnered gay and lesbian people to all orders of ministry in the Episcopal Church. The Chicago Consultation believes that this position is consistent with traditional Anglican polity and theology and, to aid standing committees with their role in the consent process, we have gathered essays from eminent theologians across the Episcopal Church. Later in January we will publish these essays in an electronic publication titled “God’s Call and Our Response.” We would like to provide these essays via email to standing committee members whom you believe would like to receive them and perhaps share them with colleagues.
If you know standing committee members, in your diocese or another diocese, who would value the Chicago Consultation’s new resource, “God’s Call and Our Response,” please email us at info@chicagoconsultation.org to tell us their names, dioceses, phone numbers and email addresses. We would also be grateful to know something about why you believe these leaders would value the Chicago Consultation’s resources. Later in January, we will send our new publication electronically to all of you and to the standing committee members you have suggested.
If you have questions or would like to know more about our work, please email us at info@chicagoconsultation.org. Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support.
Faithfully,
The Chicago Consultation
Co-Conveners:
The Rev. Jennifer Adams, Grace Episcopal Church, Holland, MI
The Very Rev. Dr. Brian Baker, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Sacramento, CA
The Rev. Lowell Grisham, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Fayetteville, AR
The Rev. Bonnie A. Perry, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Chicago, IL