If you ask me they’ve got the wrong Harmon down.  Or are there some things we would not wish on Kendall, no matter how great the honor?

It is absolutely remarkable to me how little notice this has attracted.  One would have thought that the -nomination of what would be the first married lesbian bishop in the Episcopal Church would have attracted cheers far and wide from the left… but there has been nary a word from Elizabeth Kaeton, Susan Russell, Mark Harris, Jim Naughton, Integrity, Claiming the Blessing, or any of the other voices of the Episcopal left wing. 

Why?  With Gene Robinson’s upcoming retirement, TEC will be down to only one homosexual bishop.  Is this ‘barrier,’ once broken, simply no longer newsworthy?  Or do they have some strategic reason not to make an issue of her sexuality and relationship status at this time?

By contrast, the 2007 nomination of the same lesbian candidate to be Bishop of Chicago, Tracey Lind, caused a flurry of press attention—principally because it was expected that the broader Anglican Communion would react with outrage. 

Maybe I just answered my own question—if the AC didn’t care enough to react, maybe (yet another) lesbian bishop isn’t a big deal.  But it would still seem to be a big story, simply in sociological terms.

Wow, that is indeed a…uh…quality slate o’ candidates. I think Statmann is going to have a field day with this one.

Interestingly, you have to dig into their CV to find out where they went to school.

Bishop Whalon seems, to this laymen anyway, to be the best of the bunch.

To be fair: there has been silence on both sides.  It’s not as though conservative voices within the church or the broader Anglican Communion have been rushing to urge caution or to denounce the inclusion of another lesbian on the final slate of candidates. 

What happened when Mary Glasspool was nominated in LA?  Was there not a flurry of responses from those representing both ‘sides’ of the issue?

Eaton’s+ materials look like a full-court press.  But, it looks to me like he says he turned the Cathedral around from a deficit budget, but yet Statmann over on SF states that other sources show a loss of members there and no growth in money…if there’s “no growth in money”, how does one turn around a deficit budget?  Or is this the phenom known as “padded resume”?

Eaton+ sure picked a lousy year (2002) to arrive at St John Cathedral.  In 2005 Members declined from 4,000 to 2,500. Ouch! ASA is down a bit by 2009.  Plate & Pledge is up a bit by 2009 but in real (inflation adjusted) dollars is down by about 15 percent.  Harmon+ has a lackluster record as well. And George+ did well at St Anne in Lincoln but St Mary appears to be a dying parish. Why go from St Anne to St Mary?  Lind+ has stable Members and ASA and a robust growth in Plate & Pledge.  Can’t comment on +Whalon. Might be a horse race between Lind+ and +Whalon.  Statmann

Dean Lind is a remarkably hard and conscientious worker.  She has extraordinarily high expectations of her staff.  She is unusual in that she combines excellent leadership with theological progressiveness.  She keeps moving.

Unlike others, I don’t believe she is motivated by the public eye.  She has a sense of what church and God can do for people, and is one of the rare priests who can implement grand plans.

I don’t know if she is the best candidate for the Diocese of New York, which requires, in my view, a soft touch, subtlety, and an ability to remain connected with both extraordinarily prosperous persons, an imposing RC presence, and strong interfaith sensibilities.  That said, I’ve always thought she was remarkable.