The selection of a lesbian bishop in Episcopal Church, Los Angeles may lead to schism in the Anglican Communion.
Episcopalians voted for their new bishop on late afternoon and the majority voted for Mary Glasspool, a lesbian who is living a gay life openly, as their next bishop for the Episcopal Church, Los Angeles. Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion and this selection raised serious concerns among the community members. Anglican Communion is a worldwide community of churches with more than 70,000 member communities. The president of the Anglican Communion, bishop David Anderson, says that this selection proves that Episcopal Church had been pretending to be following the doctrine of the communion and this incident clarifies as they’ve made the selection of gay bishop second time. Dr. Rowan William, the chief bishop of the Anglican Communion, says that this selection raises ‘very serious questions’ and has raised doubts about the continued union of Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion doctrine discourage same-sex marriages and the member of the communion are bound to follow the doctrine which does not allow the appointment of gay or lesbians on any ministry of a member church. Rev. Rod Thomas, who represents conservative evangelical group, says that he was ashamed when he heard about the selection of a gay bishop and added that a schism is ‘inevitable’.
Schism is a term which is used for parting ways. In Christianity, schism is used for the process of elimination of a member church from a church communion. Many similar incidents have happened in history when a church underwent schism. For instance, the Great Schism of 1054 when Eastern Christianity parted ways from the Western Christianity. In 1054, the medieval Christianity was divided into two branches which were later named as Eastern Orthodox Church (Eastern Greek Christianity) and Roman Catholic Church (Western Latin Christianity) and the event is referred to as East-West Schism. It is one of the most important events in the medieval history of Christianity. Other important events include Western Schism and Photian Schism.
Schism
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