The Rev. Mary Glasspool

From Episcopal News, the news arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles:

Los Angeles Bishop-elect Mary Douglas Glasspool has received the required number of consents from diocesan standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to her ordination and consecration as a bishop, according to a March 17 statement from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s office.

Glasspool was elected on Dec. 5, 2009, the second of two bishops suffragan elected at the 114th annual convention meeting of the diocese. In an unofficial tally, the diocese had announced on March 10 that Glasspool had received 63 consents, seven more than the 56 required, from the church's diocesan standing committees.

Her consecration, along with that of the Rev. Canon Diane Jardine Bruce, who was elected a day earlier, is planned for May 15. Jefferts Schori will be the chief consecrator.

The daughter of a priest, Glasspool was one of two openly gay candidates on the Los Angeles slate but maintained that her sexual orientation was "not an issue" in the election. She is the second openly gay partnered priest to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The first was Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who was elected in 2003.

Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles issued a statement giving thanks for the standing committees and bishops who consented to the two elections, saying they "have joined the Diocese of Los Angeles in recognizing and affirming the many gifts and skills of these highly qualified and experienced clerics."

The response from Lambeth Palace? Predictable:

It is regrettable that the appeals from Anglican Communion bodies for continuing gracious restraint have not been heeded

How long, pray tell, Mr. Archbishop of Canterbury, should God's calling of gays and lesbians to ordained service 'graciously' be ignored? Since this is the same line that came from Lambeth in 2004, is six years long enough? Perhaps you'd rather wait until someone else were Archbishop to acknowledge that God calls servants to ordination and consecration as Bishop regardless of human prejudices toward sexual orientation? Since no one but a complete fool would deny that there have always been gays in the priesthood and bishopric, perhaps it's the honesty of the Rev. Glasspool and The Very Rev. V. Gene Robinson that you find distressing?