The global Anglican Communion has lurched closer
towards open schism after the North American branch pushed ahead with
ordaining the church's first openly lesbian bishop. Rev Canon Mary
Glasspool, from Baltimore, was consecrated as a assistant bishop of the
Los Angeles diocese over the weekend.
Her consecration – which came seven years after
the Episcopal Church caused uproar by making the openly gay Gene
Robinson a bishop in New Hampshire – sharply divided the world's 77
million Anglicans, with conservative leaders angrily denouncing liberal
opponents for their comparatively tolerant approach to homosexual
clergy.
Traditionalists in the States have already split
from the Episcopal Church to form their own off-shoot, the Anglican
Church in North America, which has yet to be officially recognised. The
ACNA has allied itself with fellow traditionalists in Africa, Latin
America and Australia.
Glasspool's promotion to
bishop threatens to re-open those wounds and cause a headache for
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who has the unenviable task of
trying to keep the world's Anglicans together amid bitter divides over
homosexuality and the role of women clergy.
In
2004, he helped broker a moratorium on any more gay consecrations, in a
bid keep traditionalists onside.