- Mary Glasspool
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Mary Douglas Glasspool (born February 23, 1954) is a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. She is the first open lesbian to be consecrated a bishop in the Anglican Communion.[1]
Glasspool was born on February 23, 1954, in Staten Island Hospital, New York, to Douglas Murray Glasspool and Anne Dickinson. Later that year the Glasspool family moved to Goshen, New York, where her father served as Rector of St. James’ Church until his death in 1989. She entered the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1976 and was ordained a deacon in June 1981 and a priest in March 1982. In 1981, Glasspool became assistant to the rector at St. Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, where she served until 1984. She was the rector of St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Church in Boston from 1984 to 1992, then the rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Annapolis, from 1992 to 2001, and was called to serve as canon to the bishops for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in 2001.
Glasspool was elected a bishop suffragan on December 4, 2009, on the seventh ballot at the 115th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in Riverside, California.[2] On March 17, 2010, the Presiding Bishop’s Office certified that her election had received the necessary consents[3] and she was subsequently consecrated on May 15, 2010, in Long Beach, California.[4] Glasspool is the 17th woman and the first openly gay woman elected to the episcopate in the Episcopal Church. Her election has gained worldwide attention in the context of the ongoing debate about gay bishops in Anglicanism.
References
- ^ BBC: "Mary Glasspool: Anglicanism's first lesbian bishop", 14 May 2010, retrieved 24 May 2010
- ^ Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles: "Election of two Bishops Suffragan," December 4-5, 2009, accessed March 20, 2010
- ^ EpiscopalLife Online: "Los Angeles Bishop-elect Glasspool receives church's consent to ordination," March 17, 2010, accessed March 20, 2010
- ^ EpiscopalLife Online: "Diane Bruce, Mary Glasspool consecrated bishops in joyous celebration in Los Angeles diocese," May 15, 2010, accessed May 17, 2010
Categories:- Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
- American Episcopal priests
- Homosexuality and Anglicanism
- LGBT clergy
- LGBT people from the United States
- Female bishops
- 1954 births
- Living people
- Ordained Christian women
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