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NEW YORK: Lesbian Priest Nominee on List to be Next Bishop of New York
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
August 29, 2011
Tracey Lind, an avowed lesbian who serves as Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, is on the short list as a nominee to be the next Bishop of New York, replacing retiring Bishop Mark Sisk.
She was previously rector of St. Paul's, Paterson, New Jersey; the Associate Rector at Christ Church, Ridgewood, New Jersey; and the Director of Community Ministry, Bronx Youth Ministry, in the Diocese of New York. She is 57 years old and married to Emily Ingalls.
If nominated, she will be the third openly pansexual priest to become a bishop in The Episcopal Church. The other two are V. Gene Robinson, 64, Bishop of New Hampshire, and Mary Glasspool, 56, Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles.
The Committee to Elect a Bishop of the Diocese of New York announced the names of the five individuals it will formally nominate at the Convention to Elect a Bishop to be held at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City on Oct 29.
The Committee selected the five proposed nominees from nearly 60 candidates who were recommended for the position. The proposed nominees are:
1) Peter Eaton, serves as the Dean of St. John's Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. He is 53 years old and is married to Kate Eaton.
2) Cathy Hagstrom George, who serves as Priest-in-Charge at St. Mary's in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She has been ordained for 25 years and previously served for 12 years as Rector at St. Anne's in-the-Fields in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She is 55 years old, married to Michael George, and has two children, Evangelyn and Samuel.
3) John T. W. Harmon, is Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., He is an immigrant to the United States from Liberia. He has served two parishes in the Diocese of Virginia. He is 47 years old, married to Keeva Harmon. They have three children, Joshua, Jarena, and Justin.
4) Pierre Whalon, serves as Bishop-in-Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, Paris, France. Prior to becoming bishop, he had 16 years of parish experience as Rector of All Souls, North Versailles, Pennsylvania; Rector of St. Paul's, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; and Rector of St. Andrew's Church and School, Fort Pierce, Florida. He is 58 years old, married to Melinda Whalon. They have one child, Marie-Noelle.
This is not the first time Lind has run for bishop. She made an attempt to be the next Bishop of Chicago in 2007, but was rebuffed when the Rev Jeffrey Lee, a Midwest native, was overwhelmingly elected. Lind placed fourth with a mere 16 votes. She was not even close.
She is a disciple of her former bishop of 17 years, John Shelby Spong, Bishop of Newark.
At a New York Gay parade in 1993, she appeared in a "white chariot" that was empty at the time marked "Bishop John S. Spong and Christine Spong". Some persons insisted that The Rev. Tracey Lind be Bishop Spong and that Luti (Louie Crew) of the Alabama Belles be 'Christine Spong.'
Since the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003, the Episcopal Church has been on a downward spiral in church attendance. The Episcopal Church has sunk below the 7,000 mark in parishes and below the 700,000 mark in Average Sunday Attendance.
The consecration of Robinson has been described as the biggest single calamity to rock the Episcopal Church and the single biggest cause of its decline.
As a result, the Anglican Church in North America was born. Today it unites more than 100,000 members in nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States and Canada. The Anglican Church is a Province-in-formation in the global Anglican Communion. The Most Rev. Robert Duncan is the archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America and bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. Many of these dioceses are affiliated with African and Latin American dioceses that include Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Argentina.
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