This morning’s news sites, auto-aggregators, and bloggers are abuzz with thoughts upon and coverage of the consecrations yesterday in Los Angeles. Here’s a small sampling.
L.A. Times, on the moment of objections:
“I don’t think there’s anybody in this place who was more nervous than I was,” [Bishop] Bruno said a short time later in his sermon.
But the moment passed in silence, and the two women — Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool — were ordained to applause and cheers. Bruno said the church was “fuller and richer and more vital” as a result.
“Today, as we pray over these two magnificent women, bring into your hearts those things that you bear against any other human being and cast them away,” Bruno told the assembly. “For we cannot be separated from each other if God is for us and with us. . . . There are no outcasts.”
KTLA (Dave Meachem reporting):
The Maryland priest at the center of a seismic tumult in the worldwide international Anglican Communion is slim and stands just over 5 feet, wears her gray hair cut short and greets visitors with a strong two-handed grasp. She’s known to former parishioners and colleagues for emotional and insightful sermons, administrative skill, high energy — and for occasionally wearing a giant foam wedge of cheese on her head to honor her favorite NFL team.
The Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, due to be consecrated today as bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, is known to the rest of the world by a phrase that would fit on a bumper sticker: “first openly lesbian bishop.”
If the label seems handy, Glasspool said she hopes it soon outlives its usefulness.
Jonathan Wynne-Jones (Telegraph):
While it may well be true that some form of tear did occur in the communion following [Gene] Robinson’s consecration, life has gone on. And, despite Rowan Williams’s warning last year that the American Church’s decision to elect Glasspool could threaten unity, they’ve heard that one before.
This quote from Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, says it all: “With the election of the Reverend Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as a bishop in Los Angeles in The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion reaches another decisive moment.”
Yes, another decisive moment. Another yellow card, but never a red.
Use this space today to pass along news stories or blog entries that you think capture this moment in a unique or interesting way.