December 5, 2009
By Pat McCaughan

The 114th annual convention of the Diocese of Los Angeles made history for the second time in as many days on Dec. 5, electing an openly gay candidate, the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, as suffragan bishop.

A day earlier, some 680 delegates attending "Faith and Our Future" at the Riverside Convention Center, elected the Rev. Canon Diane Jardine Bruce, 53, rector of St. Clements by-the-Sea Church in San Clemente, California, in the Los Angeles diocese, as their first woman bishop.

Glasspool, 55, canon to the bishops in the Baltimore-based Diocese of Maryland for the past eight years, was elected on the seventh ballot. She defeated the Rev. Irineo Martir Vasquez, a Los Angeles area priest, who received 87 votes in the clergy order and 177 lay votes.

Glasspool received 153 clergy votes and 203 votes from the laity. The ballot required 123 votes in the clergy order and 193 in the lay order. The results of all the ballots are available here. The Rev. Silvestre Romero, rector of St. Philip's Church in San Jose, California, withdrew after the fourth ballot.

"I'm very excited about the future of the whole Episcopal Church, and I see the Diocese of Los Angeles leading the way into that future," Glasspool said after the election. "But just for this moment, let me say again, thank you, and thanks be to our loving, surprising God.

"I look forward, in the coming months, to getting to know you all better, as together we build up the Body of Christ for the world," added Glasspool, who received a standing ovation by convention.

Episcopal News Service