Episcopal Church Names Second Openly Gay Bishop

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles yesterday elected the Rev. Mary Glasspool as its second openly gay bishop, underscoring Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans. "Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights," Glasspool said after the vote, thanking the diocese for choosing her.

Glasspool, 55 and of Baltimore, still needs approval from a majority of dioceses before she can be consecrated. She wrote in an essay that she had an "intense struggle" in college with her sexuality and the call to become a priest. "Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual), or did God love me?" she wrote. "Did I hate (or love) myself?" She has been with her partner, Becki Sander, since 1988.