The Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese elected on Saturday an openly lesbian priest as assistant bishop, reigniting the divisive debate of gay clergy, the BBC reported on Sunday.
Rev Mary Glasspool, 55, from Baltimore became the second openly gay bishop in the global Anglican Church after Gene Robinson from New Hampshire whose election six years ago caused a massive rift in church unity, the BBC reported.
Glasspool still needs a majority of national Episcopal Church heads to back her consecration, the BBC said.
Episcopal Church leader, Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori, has said she will consecrate any bishop whose election follows the rules, the BBC reported.
Bishops of the U.S. Episcopal Church voted in July to overturn a three-year ban on the appointment of gay bishops, which was imposed after the election of the first openly gay bishop deeply strained church unity, the BBC said.
"Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights, the BBC quoted Glasspool as saying in a statement after her election.
Chris Landau, a BBC religious affairs correspondent, said that for an Anglican Communion already fracturing over the issue of homosexuality, this election was yet more evidence of the church's divisions.
LOS ANGELES, December 6 (RIA Novosti)
