Gay candidates trail in Episcopal bishop election

By Duncan Martell

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Three openly gay candidates for
Episcopal Bishop of California trailed in early voting on
Saturday, signaling that members may avoid widening a rift over
homosexuality in the global Communion.

Clergy and laypeople packed Grace Cathedral in San
Francisco’s tony Nob Hill neighborhood to elect a successor to
longtime Bishop William Swing, who is retiring.

After two rounds of voting were announced, the Right Rev.
Mark Andrus of Alabama, who is white, was leading among the
clergy, and the Rev. Canon Eugene Sutton of Washington, D.C.,
who is black, was leading among the laity. Both are
heterosexual.

No gay or lesbian cleric has been elected bishop since the
consecration of Eugene Robinson in 2003 as bishop of New
Hampshire threw the U.S. church and the worldwide family of 77
million Anglicans into turmoil.

The roots of the U.S. Episcopal Church are as old as the
country and eight of the first 14 presidents were Episcopalian.
The church has long prided itself for including liberal and
conservative ideologies.

“It’s important to get someone who can lead and not
alienate our very diverse group,” said Dennis Greenwood, a lay
person from St. Paul’s Church in the San Francisco suburb of
Walnut Creek.

Asked about the gay candidates, he said: “I don’t think
that is the issue at all. I think who is most qualified will
get the job.”

The two openly gay men and one lesbian among the seven
candidates are in long-term relationships.

Robinson is the first bishop known to be in an openly gay
relationship in more than 450 years of Anglican history.

The issue of homosexuality within Anglicanism has been
simmering since at least 1979, when the Episcopal Church’s
General Convention resolved that the ordination of gays was
inappropriate.

Robinson’s eventual consecration prompted some U.S.
churches to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate themselves
with a network of churches in Africa, where homosexuality is
largely taboo.

Last month, the Special Commission of the Episcopal Church,
composed of clergy and laypeople and formed to address
divisions caused by Robinson’s consecration, recommended that
the church be cautious about installing another gay bishop.

The group’s report said its members were divided over
whether to go further and instruct the 2.3 million-member U.S.
church to “refrain” from putting gays into the episcopate, but
settled on telling members to use “very considerable caution”
before doing so.

The bishop-elect must still be consecrated by the General
Convention, the legislative body of the Episcopal Church, which
convenes every three years. It will be held next month in
Columbus, Ohio.