TEC's L.A. diocese meets to choose new bishops; Two candidates are gay

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

The continuing controversy over the role of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church moves to Riverside on Friday, when delegates to the Los Angeles diocese's annual convention will decide whether to appoint openly gay priests as assistant bishops.

Two of the six candidates to replace two retiring assistant bishops are openly gay. If one or both of them is elected, he or she would become the first bishop in a same-sex relationship elected since V. Gene Robinson was chosen to head the New Hampshire diocese in 2003. That action led dozens of conservative parishes and four dioceses to vote to leave the Episcopal Church. No openly gay bishop has been consecrated since then.

The selection of another gay bishop could upset church conservatives, both in the United States and in the worldwide Anglican Communion of which the 2.1-million-member Episcopal Church is a part. the rest

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