Connect with us

Local

Md. lesbian Episcopal priest elected bishop in L.A. 

Published

on

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the British-based spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, says the election earlier this month of a lesbian Episcopal priest from Annapolis, Md., as assistant bishop in Los Angeles could be reversed to avert a further split in the church over homosexuality.

Archbishop Rowan Williams told Reuters News Service in London that the election of Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles as the church’s first lesbian bishop “raises very serious questions” for the Episcopal Church, which serves as the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“The process of selection is only part complete,” Williams said. “The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.”

The confirmation process of bishops elected by Episcopal dioceses has long been considered a formality. Bishops from all U.S. Episcopal dioceses, who vote by mail to confirm such elections, almost always uphold the elections. A refusal to confirm Glasspool’s election would be viewed as a clear rebuke due to fears that her sexual orientation would worsen the church rift over the ordination of gays, according to church observers.

Glasspool, 55, spoke to the Baltimore Sun and other media outlets the day after her Dec. 5 election to the post of assistant bishop in the Los Angeles Episcopal diocese. But this week, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Maryland, to which Glasspool is currently assigned, told DC Agenda she was no longer granting interviews until at least Jan. 4 due to “family commitments.”

Her election comes at a time when Episcopal congregations continue to struggle over the issue of whether to ordain gay clergy following the election in 2003 of gay Episcopal priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Robinson’s election prompted dozens of conservative Episcopal congregations to sever ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church, with some creating new ties with ultra-conservative Anglican dioceses in Africa and South America.

At the urging of the Archbishop of Canterbury, most U.S. Episcopal dioceses agreed to a moratorium on electing gay bishops shortly after Robinson’s election. But earlier this year, U.S. Episcopal Church leaders voted at their national convention in Anaheim, Calif., to remove all barriers to the selection of gay men and lesbians to top church positions, including the post of bishop.

A statement on the Dioceses of Los Angeles web site says Glasspool was approached by diocesan officials in L.A. to apply for one of two vacant posts for assistant bishop, which are referred to in the church as “Bishop Suffragan” positions.

The statement says she was elected on the seventh ballot cast by about 800 clergy and lay delegates to the annual meeting of the L.A. Diocesan Convention in Riverside, Calif. It also notes that she is the second woman to be elected a bishop since the diocese was founded 114 years ago.

Biographical information released by the diocese says Glasspool is a resident of Annapolis, Md., and lives with her domestic partner of 19 years, Becki Sanders. Glasspool, a native of New York City, was ordained a priest in 1982 in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. She holds a master of divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

If confirmed by U.S. Episcopal bishops in the consent process, Glasspool is scheduled to be ordained as a bishop in May 2010 in Los Angeles.

“I am very excited about the future of the whole Episcopal Church, and I see the Diocese of Los Angeles leading the way into that future,” Glasspool said in a statement released the day following her election to the L.A. Diocese.

“But just for this moment, let me say again, thank you, and thanks be to our loving, surprising God,” she said. “I look forward, in the coming months, to getting to know you all better, as together we build up the Body of Christ for the world.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Local

HME Consulting and Advocacy stands on frontline of LGBTQ policy

Heidi Ellis is a consultant who doesn’t take clients ‘not aligned with my mission’

Published

on

‘Even though I am a private consultant … my work is very much mission driven,’ says Heidi Ellis. (Photo courtesy of Ellis)

September is here, which means Congress and the D.C. Council return from their August recess and life for consultant Heidi Ellis quickly gets busy. 

Her days are filled with negotiating with Council members, phone calls with clients, and policy planning for advocacy groups. The organizations she represents are looking to her to help them push policy and she hopes to guide them to victory. 

Ellis’s company, HME Consulting and Advocacy, came after years of working in the public and private sectors as a consultant. In 2019, Ellis decided to shift her focus to work that stood at the center of the intersections in which she lives. She sought to figure out how she could better serve her community as a Black queer Latino woman. Ellis recognized that there was a niche for mission-driven consulting in the District. 

“I was sought out and recruited by a lot of organizations that wanted me and I took a beat, because I was like ‘Do I want to go back into a machine where even if I do effect change, I have to answer to someone?’”she said, in reference to consulting agencies that were in pursuit of her talent. Ultimately, she decided against continuing her work under another company. “By doing what I do, I have much more flexibility for one to say ‘Yes’ but also to say ‘No’.”

Although Ellis has considered going back to working in the corporate space, she still loves the flexibility of being able to be nimble as a private consultant. 

Although Ellis doesn’t work entirely in the advocacy space, her consulting clients still align with her personal values. She joked that she differs strongly from the stereotypical money-driven D.C. consultant who sports Brooks Brothers suits on K Street. 

“Even though I am a private consultant … my work is very much mission driven,” she said. “I don’t take any clients that are not aligned with my mission.”

Her mission is simple, Ellis is “committed to elevating issues that sit at the nexus of education, mental health, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color.”

“The more marginalized you are, the more you suffer from the failures of policy and the gaps of service,” she said. 

As a consultant in the advocacy space, Ellis does the behind-the-scenes work for organizations to help correct these policy failures and close the gaps. Whether she is facilitating training for companies to better understand how to serve their LGBTQ communities, or she is on the frontline of education policy changes –– Ellis aims to only do work that she is passionate about.

She said that the balance of her combined passion and level-headedness help her to build trusting relationships with her clients and in the end, “Get stuff  done.”

Since starting her organization, some of her proudest work has been done with the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition. The coalition is made up of more than 30 organizations that aim to advocate for investments and policy changes that affect LGBTQ lives. As a leader of this coalition, her services include policy support, facilitation, training, initiative development and organizational redesign. Since she began leading the coalition, they have raised more than $5 million of investments in LGBTQ programs.

Later this fall, she will work with the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition along with the ANC Rainbow Caucus to convene the first LGBTQ+ Housing Summit from Nov. 29-30.

“The one thing we all recognize is that housing is the common denominator of every other social affliction facing LGBTQ communities,” she said.  

At the summit they will focus on the barriers within the current housing system and explore revitalized approaches to dealing with the current housing market. To pre-register for the event, visit the LGBTQ+ Housing Summit website.

Continue Reading

Local

Comings & Goings

Former D.C. resident opens art gallery in San Francisco

Published

on

Jonathan Carver Moore

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: [email protected].

The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.

Congratulations to Jonathan Carver Moore on opening his contemporary art gallery in San Francisco. The gallery specializes in working with emerging and established artists who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women. As the only openly gay Black male-owned gallery in San Francisco, Moore is committed to amplifying the voices of the often-underrepresented artists through a Black queer lens. He said, “I want the gallery to be a place where the LGBTQ+ community and people of color walk inside and see themselves knowing that they belong. I want us to be able to collect work from and support underrepresented artists who are often overlooked, but add some much value to our culture.”

Moore is also the founder of ARTUCATED, a digital journal that helps share, spotlight, and educate people about marginalized artists. Previously he was director of Donor Relations, Partnerships & Programming Director with the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco. He was Communications Manager, Rosenberg Foundation; and Associate Director of Public Relations, Out & Equal, San Francisco Bay Area. 

Moore earned his bachelor’s in Sociology, Women’s Studies, from George Washington University in D.C.; and his master’s in Public Relations, Advertising and Applied Communications, also from George Washington University.

Congratulations also to Jim Bobick on having his paintings included in a permanent collection by Saks Fifth Avenue. He said, “I am thrilled Saks Fifth Avenue chose my art for its permanent collection. I have long been a customer of the store and an admirer of the fashion designers represented there. I am especially pleased to know my work is on public view in the Chevy Chase, Maryland store. Not only did I grow up in the area, for part of my education I attended art school nearby, where I had the good fortune of studying under the notable painter Allen Dester Carter of Washington, D.C., whose work is in the Smithsonian collection. My ties to the Washington area art scene and my love of Saks makes this professional moment especially important to me. I am grateful and honored the store chose my paintings for their collection.” 

He has had numerous exhibitions of his work, including: Gallery 101 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (solo); Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, Fla. (group); Studio B “Delicacies” Washington, D.C. (group); Columbia Art Center “Abstract Paintings” (solo); and Gallery 50 “Freestyle” (solo) Rehoboth Beach, Del. He has been written about in several publications including Michael Mills, Jim Bobick Creates Landscapes of the Mind at Gallery 101, New Times; Arterpillar South Florida Arts Blog; Stefan Braham, Eclectic Expressions, Coastal Style Magazine; Artist Looks Beyond the Temporal Beauty, Coast Press.

He earned his bachelor’s in Visual Arts, University of Maryland, College Park, Fine Art; and attended the Maryland College of Art and Design. 

Jim Bobick
Continue Reading

Arts & Entertainment

2023 Best of LGBTQ DC Readers’ Choice Award Finalist Voting

Vote for your favorite finalists through October 2nd!

Published

on

It is time to celebrate the best of LGBTQ+ DC! You nominated and now we have our finalists. Vote for your favorites in our 2023 Best of LGBTQ DC categories through October 2nd. Our 2023 Best of LGBTQ DC will be announced at the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards Party on October 19th and our special issue will come out on Friday, October 20th.

Thank you to our sponsors: ABSOLUT, Heineken, PEPCO, Shakers, Infinite Legacy.

VOTE BELOW OR BY CLICKING HERE!

ARE YOU A BEST OF FINALIST? DOWNLOAD ASSETS HERE!

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular