News came out today that Mary Glasspool has received the necessary consents from Diocesan standing committees and from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction. The news and reactions from various corners of the Anglican world are here.

She will be ordained and consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles on May 15. The reason for the wide interest in her election is that she is the first openly-gay candidate elected bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire. In the aftermath of his election, and the actions of General Convention 2003 in consenting to the election (there are different procedures in place for regular elections, and those that occur in the months before the triennial meeting of General Convention), there has been ongoing turmoil among worldwide Anglicans.

The news from the diocese of Los Angeles came at the same time as the sexual abuse scandal has resurfaced in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI himself has been implicated directly in the cover-up of abuse and the protection of abusive priests. The German press has been particularly keen on following this story but there are also extensive reports in the American press and blogosphere.

And today, the Archbishop of Dublin, who is also under fire for his actions thirty years ago as a canon lawyer, addressed the issue directly in his sermon for St. Patrick’s Day (it doesn’t get any more high-profile than that in Ireland). The Episcopal Cafe’s post on Cardinal Brady’s sermon immediately precedes the report on the consents to Glasspool’s election.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition. A woman who has lived in a committed relationship for twenty years becomes a bishop and is the target of vitriol from conservative Anglicans, some of whom are considering the invitation from the pope to become Roman Catholic.

Lent reminds us that we are broken vessels living in a broken world, that the institutions we hold dear–even the church, the Bride of Christ–have deep flaws. We live in a culture and a religion deeply divided and conflicted over sexuality. Sometimes that boils over into culture wars like those the Episcopal Church and the Anglican world have suffered, sometimes it results in deep internal division, conflict, and brokenness that manifests itself in clergy sexual abuse.