Canon Mary D. Glasspool of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland was elected bishop on Saturday in a close race against a Los Angeles-area Hispanic cleric, making her the Episcopal Church’s first openly lesbian bishop. It was not until the seventh ballot that Ms. Glasspool, 55, an Annapolis resident, captured the election for the second of... Continue Reading

A years-long, multimillion-dollar land battle between the Episcopal Church in Virginia and conservatives who broke away from the denomination is headed back into court. The Virginia Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would hear an appeal by the Episcopal diocese of Virginia and the national church, which lost in Fairfax Circuit Court last year. Read... Continue Reading

By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Episcopal Church (USA) lawyers who sue congregations for their property can call on a special counsel. He is Saint Ives, named by the denomination as the patron saint of lawyers. In his honor, ECUSA has allocated a $3 million line item in its budget to pay legal fees.

In a decision with implications far beyond Georgetown County, S.C., and the Episcopal Church (ECUSA), the Supreme Court of South Carolina overturned the hierarchal ownership of local church property. The All Saints Parish of Pawley’s Island, S.C. withdrew from the ECUSA in 2005 but later in the year the ‘majority vestry’ was barred from use... Continue Reading

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be visiting Diocese of Central Pennsylvania in early September 2009. In advance of her visit, she responded to questions from the York (PA) Daily Record, in which she made her first public response to recent criticisms made by the Archbishop of Canterbury,... Continue Reading

The Presbyterian Lay Committee on July 27, 2009 filed a friend of the court brief with the U. S. Supreme Court on behalf of St James Parish in Newport Beach, Calif., following a California Supreme Court ruling that awarded the congregation’s property to its former denomination, The Episcopal Church. The PLC brief argues that the... Continue Reading

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two Episcopal priests in same-gender relationships are among the nominees for assistant bishop of Los Angeles, officials said Sunday, August 2, 2009. The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy... Continue Reading

Anaheim, Calif./Christian Newswire/ – In a lopsided vote, deputies to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church on July 14, 2009 have effectively repealed a moratorium on the consecration of further gay bishops. Following initial votes in the church’s House of Deputies on Sunday and House of Bishops on July 13, 2009, the House of... Continue Reading

WHEATON, ILL (ANS) – Bishops, clergy and lay leaders from the United States and Canada unveiled a provisional constitution and the first set of canons for the new Anglican Church in North America at a news conference and worship service December 3, 2008 at Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in suburban Chicago. A news release reported... Continue Reading

The theologically conservative Diocese of Fort Worth voted Nov. 15, 2008 to split from the liberal-leaning Episcopal Church, the fourth traditional diocese to do so in a long-running debate over the Bible, homosexual relationships and other issues. About 80 percent of clergy and parishioners in the Texas diocese supported the break in a series of... Continue Reading