Election could set off 'firestorm' in Episcopal Church
JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

Surprising because Seattle is one of America's least "churched" cities, one of our highest-profile clergypeople could become part of a major division and possible reshaping of his church.

The Very Rev. Robert Taylor, dean of St. Mark's Cathedral, is one of five finalists to become Episcopal bishop of California. The San Francisco-based diocese will hold its election May 6, just five weeks before what is expected to be a contentious General Convention of the national Episcopal Church.

Taylor has had success at the "Holy Box" on Capitol Hill. The congregation numbers 2,400: Pledging families are up from 450 to 680 since Taylor arrived in 1999.

The South African-born dean, a protégé of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is a director of the Hutchinson Center, and spent two years as chairman of the Commission to End Homelessness in King County.

He is also gay, with a partner of long standing. So is another finalist in California, the Rev. Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago. The rest

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