LA Picks Lesbian Bishop

Los Angeles's Episcopal diocese selected a lesbian as an assistant bishop on Saturday.

If approved by a group of national church leaders, the Reverend Mary Glasspool of Baltimore will become the second openly gay bishop for the church, following the Reverend V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. She is currently a Canon, or adviser, to the bishop in the Baltimore diocese.

Glasspool, 55, was ordained in 1982, after graduating from Dickinson College and the Episcopal Divinity School. She has led parishes in Annapolis, Md.; Boston; and Philadelphia. In 2006 she was a Merrill Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School.

Glasspool has been with her partner, Becki Sander, since 1988. According to a statement issued by the diocese, she decided to become a candidate for the Los Angeles assistant bishop position because she believed it was time "for our wonderful church to move on and be the inclusive church we say we are."

She said that her sexual orientation and her passion for religion has shaped her focus in her career, which she started to hone while in college.

"It was during my college years (1972-1976) that I began to discern a vocation to ordained ministry and concomitantly to discover my sexuality," she wrote. "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? Was it really possible, not to mention appropriate, for women to be priests? My father's answer to this last question was a resounding NO, and true to his own colors he never publicly supported women's ordination, although I became something of an exception to the rule."