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LA Bishop Search Includes Gay, Lesbian Candidates

Posted on: August 3, 2009

On Sunday the Diocese of Los Angeles tripled the number of openly gay or lesbian nominees to the Episcopal Church’s episcopate when it announced its six-person slate.

A day earlier, the Diocese of Minnesota announced that the Rev. Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints’ Church, Chicago, and a partnered lesbian, will be on its slate for an Oct. 31 election of its ninth bishop.

Now Los Angeles has announced the nominees to succeed the Rt. Rev. Chester L. Talton, bishop suffragan since 1991, and the Rt. Rev. Sergio Carranza, bishop assisting since 2003. The diocese will elect two new bishops suffragan during a convention on Dec. 14 and 15.

The nominees include the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, canon to the bishops in the Diocese of Maryland since 2001; and the Rev. John L. Kirkley, rector of St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco.

Canon Glasspool, 55, referred to her sexuality early in her profile: “It was during my college years (1972-1976) that I began to discern a vocation to ordained ministry and concomitantly to discover my sexuality. Both these areas were sources of intense struggle for me, as I wrestled with such questions as Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual)? or did God love me? Did I hate (or love) myself?”

Canon Glasspool also wrote of her sense about this election's timeliness.

“It's time for our wonderful church to move on and be the inclusive church we say we are,” she said. “I believe that the Diocese of Los Angeles is in alignment with the kairos -- ready to move boldly into the future, with a strategic plan centered in the love of God and purposed with bringing God’s reign of justice and love further into being, modeling for the whole church an episcopal team. And maybe, just maybe, God is calling me to be a part of that exciting future.”

Fr. Kirkley, 42, wrote about his coming out as a gay man in the early 1990s and of becoming an adoptive parent.

“The gift in this is that I had to come to grips with both my own relative social privilege as a white, well-educated, male, and the marginalization I experienced as a gay man,” he wrote. “In whatever contexts I have worked subsequently, a commitment to the work of personal integration and social reconciliation has remained with me. This commitment took on a greater sense of personal urgency when my husband, Andrew, and I became parents. When we began the journey of adoption ten years ago, we didn’t anticipate that we would fall in love with a beautiful, African-American baby boy named Nehemiah. It was with some fear and trembling that we two white, gay men embarked upon raising our son.”

Fr. Kirkley also wrote evocative paragraphs about his work at the inner-city congregation of St. John the Evangelist, where on any day he may encounter gang graffiti, syringes on the sidewalk, and people lying unconscious in the street.

Other nominees are, in alphabetical order:

The Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, rector of St. Clement's by-the-Sea Church, San Clemente, Calif. Canon Bruce, 53, grew up Roman Catholic. She wrote of responding to her dream of becoming a priest after hearing a female Episcopal priest preach. “The face of the woman who had just celebrated the Eucharist was in front of me,” she wrote. “And then her face became my face. A booming voice in the car asked me, ‘When are you going to stop running and say yes to me?’”

Canon Bruce has been trained in reconciliation skills by the Rev. Brian Cox, and is pursuing a doctor of ministry degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. The working title of her thesis is “U2 and Pirates and Prayers, Oh My: The use of alternative liturgies and their effect on church growth.”

The Rev. Zelda M. Kennedy, senior associate for pastoral care and spiritual growth at All Saints Church, Pasadena, Calif. Ms. Kennedy, 62, was born in the Bahamas and her family moved to the United States when she was a child.

“As I move along my life's journey I am changed by the work we do as a church,” she wrote. “I am changed through our efforts to be a compassionate, reconciling church that lives in the house of love rather than the house of fear. It is through working with all my colleagues that I am changed to strive not ‘to get to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth.’ It is through bishops who are willing to speak openly against such issues as Proposition 8 that I am changed to stand up for justice.”

The Rev. Silvestre E. Romero, rector of St. Philip's Church, San Jose, Calif. Fr. Romero, 41, was born in Guatemala. In describing his work in a multicultural setting, Fr. Romero wrote of helping preserve a sweat lodge as a sacred space.

“The congregation where I serve is the only Episcopal Congregation in our diocese that has a Native American Ministry that is active,” he wrote. “This ministry is led by my associate who is a Lakota priest.” When the sweat lodge met resistance from tenants and neighbors, he said he worked on a compromise “without undermining the significance of this sacred and important place for the Native American community.”

The Rev. Irineo Martir Vasquez, vicar of St. George's Church, Hawthorne, Calif. Fr. Vasquez, 45, a native of Guatemala, stressed his missionary experience.

“I find joy in serving people and helping them find and share the love of God in their lives,” he wrote. “I like being where people need me. I think this is why I have been successful as a missionary priest. I have come into situations of an empty church where I needed to go out into the community and find people to serve. And the people are always there, even if they are not always coming to church.”