California May Elect Gay Bishop

The Anglican Church may be facing another controversy as the diocese of California yesterday included a gay man and a lesbian women as two of the five possible candidates to become California's next bishop.

The two are the Very Rev Robert Taylor, the dean of St Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, and the Rev Bonnie Taylor, the rector of All Saints church, Chicago.

If either of the two is elected, he or she would become the second homosexual bishop in the US, after Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire.

Finalists will meet with members of the diocese April 24 to 29, with the election May 6. The election would have to be confirmed by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in June.

The Diocese of California has about 27,000 members in the Bay Area.