Updated Saturday evening
There are a total of four episcopal elections in the USA today.
As any results are likely to be published late today, or even from an English viewpoint early tomorrow, I list here the places where the outcomes are most likely to be found.
Eastern Michigan
Background information
Results Election Completed: Ousley elected on 5th ballot.
Tennessee
Background information
Results Election Adjourned after 36 ballots.
Northern California
Background Information
Results Election completed: Beisner elected on 4th ballot.
California
Background Information
Press coverage prior to the election
Results Election completed: Andrus elected on 3rd ballot.
Initial press coverage afterwards:
BBC Bishop vote avoids gay clergy row
Reuters Heterosexual elected Episcopal Bishop of Calif
Corrected Version of Reuters report
AP via Washington Post Calif. Episcopalians Elect New Bishop
And Elizabeth Day in the Sunday Telegraph gets it spectacularly wrong with Anglicans on brink of crisis as California aims for first lesbian bishop
Having delayed elections of bishops all around, in many different locations, a number of dioceses are now in the process of choosing new bishops, including of course the most media-magneted California. For all electors, in California, Northern California, Tennessee, and Eastern Michigan, and for others also in discernment of new bishops, let us pray: O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God,… Read more »
Wow, Mark Andrus. I hadn’t heard his name at all in the run-up to the election. Is there a reader from the diocese who can share stories of how he came to take the lead?
Apparently the Diocese of California has NOT chosen a “gay bishop”. The Rt. Rev. Mark Andrus, suffragan of Alabama, has been elected by a landslide.
Has the Anglican Armageddon been postponed until the Convention, then?
I think California elected a person, not an issue. I don’t think New Hampshire elected +Robinson as an issue either but it’s sure turned into one. Hopefully California can continue to welcome diversity as it has done in the past. Bishop Andrus has some very big shoes to fill following Bishop Swing.
Here’s a reader from the Diocese… I probably won’t speak to the people who were at the convention until tomorrow, but I knew that Andrus had a following. I would have ranked him my personal favorite at the beginning, but as the process went on I warmed to Canon Sutton. All the candidates were quite impressive, however. The only “knock” I heard against Andrus from the laity was that he tends to use a lot of “seminary words” that can make his writing impenetrable for some. Obviously, the clergy didn’t mind his high-tone, and responded to his stature and experience.… Read more »
Bravo California and Thanks Be To God for selecting, then electing, another emotionally healthy and spiritually sound heterosexual for California!
Heterosexuals most often are wonderful and loving people, they just take a little getting used to.
Felicidades todos!
Oy vey: the Reuters headline is just plain silly (while the Tell-a-Lie gives us a smear). Is it too much to ask for the press to . . . just, well, GROW UP already???
Anna, I’m not in this diocese . . . but I had heard that +Andrus was very impressive in the “walk-abouts”: I’m not at all surprised he was elected.
[And speaking of growing up: can we please not have any more sensationalistic “moral equivalence” commentaries, suggesting “the Episcopal Left will bolt if a heterosexual is elected”? Good googly-moogly! :-0]
God bless all the new bishops-elect…
David Anderson puts on his tinfoil biretta and sees a vast left-wing conspiracy behind the California election:
http://aacblog.classicalanglican.net/archives/001816.html
Could they pack one more bit of tired neocon jargon and coded phrasing into a single press release?
There were other elections besides California — Eastern Michigan elected Todd Ousley, Northern California elected Barry Beisner & Tennessee accepted the fact that they were deadlocked & are starting over with a new Search Committee, & all the rest.
Actually, Elizabeth Day gets it spectacularly wrong in many ways in that article. The name of the church is not “The Episcopalian Church in America”. I don’t think one can state categorically that the election of a gay or lesbian bishop “would be in direct contravention to Church doctrine, which states that the ordination of actively gay clergy is incompatible with scripture”. Isn’t part of the problem that no universal “Church doctrine” states this that clearly? And the prissy tone! “Miss Perry.” “Her girlfriend.” The only discussion of her ministry mentions of pets, champagne and body piercings. Faugh. In other… Read more »
“Heterosexual elected Episcopal Bishop of Calif…”
I voted in today’s election in California as a lay delegate. The fact that no one outside our diocese saw this coming is testimony to the blindness the media had about this election. If any reporter had spoken to the people doing the voting in our diocese in the last two weeks, they would have known that Mark Andrus, Jane Gould, and Eugene Sutton were the front-runners. Andrus impressed for three reasons: he is already a suffragan bishop and has shown real gifts in his office; he has shown a commitment to the concerns of this diocese in matters of… Read more »
As lay professional in the diocese for 12 years, I was a non-votor present at one of the walkabouts and at the election, in which I rejoice. It’s true: Andrus didn’t draw attention a la James Watt: he was neither gay, nor non-white, nor a woman. I knew the two local candidates well, and one of the others tangentially. Of the locals, I was very excited about one, and completely dismissive of the other; by the end of the walkabout evening, I had almost completely reversed my position on those two. I wanted very much to be drawn to Sutton… Read more »
I hope that +Andrus will be able to find ways to fully “include” New Testament faith and moral teachings…
Mark Andrus is an excellent man. He was a student of mine on the Oxford University Summer Course some years back. Dead right: they elected the person not the issue. And an impressive person too.
Simon, a little correction IIRC the Tennessee election went to 36 ballots today rather than 25.
Jon
Yes, my mistake. Fixed on the blog. Thanks, Jon.
IN THE MEANTIME… It turns out that the man elected Bishop for northern California has been married and divorced twice and is onto his third wife…
Even though the exegesis of divorce is open to [a small amount of] debate, I presume this will cause more loss of communion. Yet I doubt that means anything to the folk in ECUSA – unless the Communion starts setting more standards for those who it will recognise as Bishops — Hhmmm !