Divisive decision

The Episcopal Church has taken another step toward allowing openly homosexual bishops in its leadership ranks. If a majority of the bishops and standing committees approve, the Diocese of Los Angeles will install Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, as the first openly gay bishop since New Hampshire divided the church by electing Gene Robinson in 2003.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, considered the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, delivered a brusque statement saying Glasspool's election "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole." He warned that the decision of the bishops and standing committees "will have very important implications."

The Episcopal Church is not likely to heed Williams' warning. The church made its view on the issue quite clear in its General Convention last July, when it passed one resolution repealing the moratorium on electing gay bishops and a second resolution allowing, but not requiring, bishops to authorize same-sex blessing ceremonies in the churches they oversee. In places where civil authorities allow same-sex unions, the church has said it will respond to "changing circumstances" and allow bishops to provide a "generous pastoral response" to couples who want the church to bless their unions. Clergy are now free to solemnize same-sex unions in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and Diocese of Vermont, although the Episcopal Church has not yet written a liturgy for them to do so.

Since the bishops at the General Convention voted 99-45 to revoke the moratorium on gay bishops, it's unlikely that Glasspool's election will elicit a different response. Robert Lundy, communications officer for the conservative American Anglican Council, said the church will probably not change directions now: "We're at the stage where it's clear where the Episcopal Church is going. There's no pretending that they're going to remotely hold to Biblical teachings-not just on God's role for sex . . . but on lots of other issues they're totally walking apart from the rest of the Anglican Communion."

Lundy and his fellow conservative Anglicans are watching Williams to see if he follows his warning with action-but they have been disappointed in archbishop's leadership on the issue so far. Even if Williams did take a stand, his action would be mostly symbolic. He could state that the Episcopal Church is no longer in communion with him, no longer recognizing the church as an authentic Anglican church.

So far, the issue has created only divisions. Earlier this year, conservative North American Anglicans broke away from the Episcopal Church in protest, forming the Anglican Church in North America. And in October, the Vatican invited disgruntled Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church.