In which I take pride in my church

From CNN:

Los Angeles Episcopalians elected an openly lesbian bishop late Saturday, the denomination's news service reported.

The Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, 55, will become the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson took office in New Hampshire in 2004, if she is formally approved.

Good. After the ridiculous, mealy-mouth moratorium on the election of gay/lesbian bishops was lifted at the last General Convention, it was only a matter of time before another openly gay, partnered bishop was elected. I am pleased that the time in question was no brief. Congratulations to Rev. Glasspool.

Speaking of mealy-mouthed:

The archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion, issued a statement Saturday saying that 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," according to the Episcopal Church's Web site.

No. Actually, I don't this raises any new questions at all. I think it just reinforces what we already knew, which is that the Episcopal Church in America is not going to be held hostage to the social mores of Communion's arch-conservative factions.

In searching around the Internet tubes, I came across a mostly good commentary in the Telegraph. (The author is far too snippy and presumptuous with regard to Gene Robinson, one of the most gracious and big-hearted people I have been privileged to meet.) One point the author makes that bears a bit more context is this:

If archbishops in Uganda and Australia feel that, in all conscience, they can't be in communion with the new suffragan bishop of Los Angeles, because she has a live-in partner who happens to share her gender, then I'm pretty sure that doesn't deliver us Armageddon, a final doomsday battle between good and evil, from which Christ will emerge with his righteous elect. It gives us Anglicans who don't agree. Big deal. Small schism, not many killed.

Uganda? I should be grieved by a broken communion with Uganda? This Uganda (h/t Andrew)? The one with this horrid law? I think it's interesting that on one side of the "don't agree" schism we have a church promoting the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people, and on the other side we have a church that thinks we should be imprisoned and killed. You tell me which is more Christ-like, and you'll pardon me if I don't much time in sackcloth and ashes mourning the loss of communion with the likes of them.

I applaud the diocese of Los Angeles. I roll my eyes in the direction of Canterbury. I turn my back on Uganda.