Posted by David Virtue on VirtueOnline
2010/4/9 21:30:00
He is among four finalists to replace Irish
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14855408?source=rss
April 9, 2010
Michael Barlowe, a finalist for Utah's 11th Episcopal Bishop Credit: Diocese of Utah
Utah could become only the third Episcopal diocese with an openly gay bishop.
The Rev. Michael L. Barlowe -- who married his partner, the Rev. Paul Burrows, in San Francisco in 2008, just before the fractious Proposition 8 vote banning gay marriage -- is one of four finalists to replace retiring Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish.
Reflecting the Utah's diocese's diversity, the other three candidates are: the Rev. Juan A. Quevedo-Bosch, a Cuban-born rector in New York; the Rev. Mary C. Sulerud, who helps train new priests in Washington, D.C.; and the Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, who once pastored a church in Ogden, but now ministers in Chicago.
"What is unique about all four of these candidates is that they have worked within diocesan offices as well as in parish ministry," said Ric Tanner, president of the Utah church's Standing Committee, which advises the bishop. "It is a little unusual but marvelous."
Each of the candidates is "immediately engaging," Tanner said. "We felt that any one of them would help us draw together as a church family, given the challenges of the diocese's great geographic separation and cultural diversity, between downtown Salt Lake City and Native American parishes on Utah's southern border."
The selection of a gay bishop, however, would be the most controversial.
Barlowe would join the Rev. Eugene Robinson of New Hampshire and the Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, who is scheduled to be consecrated as an assistant
bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles on May 15, as the church's only openly gay bishops.
Elevating Barlowe, currently head of congregational ministries for the Diocese of California, also might exacerbate tensions over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Church of England's umbrella organization that includes the Episcopal Church. Several African dioceses, opposed to gay clergy, have split with the Communion and formed a new denomination, which has attracted a handful of Episcopal churches in the United States.
Picking a gay bishop also would not likely endear the diocese to Utah's dominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was among Prop 8's strongest supporters.
"There are a lot of theological issues that divide our churches and [homosexuality] is certainly one of them," Ric Tanner said. "Perhaps the best way to work toward understanding is to be engaged in conversation with views different than ours. That's true of both groups."
But Barlowe's sexuality may not matter to the 6,000 members of Utah's Episcopal Church, which is on record supporting the ordination of gay and lesbian priests in committed relationships, Tanner said. At the denomination's triennial meeting in Los Angeles last summer, the diocese sided with the majority in making the office of bishop open to all ordained persons, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.
And it is the people in the pew who will have the final say.
During the first week of May, the four finalists -- winnowed from a list of 48 applicants -- will go around the state, visiting parishes and talking with members in a tradition known as a "walkabout."
Then delegates from each parish will meet at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Salt Lake City on May 22 to elect the bishop. He or she will be consecrated Nov. 6. (Carolyn Tanner Irish, bishop since 1996, will continue to oversee the diocese until then.)
"All the candidates have been provided with background on the state's social [and religious] climate, and they know what they are getting into," Tanner said. "We hope that not just our delegates and our church community but the entire state of Utah will get to know these individuals and judge them for their ministries, background and knowledge."
It should be, Tanner said, "an interesting conversation."
END
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