Responses have been swift and vigorous to the election of the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool as a suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
 
The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement on Nov. 6, one day after Canon Glasspool’s election.
 
Canon 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,” Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote. “The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.”
 
“This decision represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching,” said the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon of the Diocese of South Carolina. “It will add further to the Episcopal Church’s incoherent witness and chaotic common life, and it will continue to do damage to the Anglican Communion and her relationship with our ecumenical partners.”