The other candidates are: The Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, rector, St. Clement's by-the-Sea Church in San Clemente, California is married (to a man); The Rev. Zelda M. Kennedy, senior associate for pastoral care and spiritual growth, All Saints Church in Pasadena, California, was born in 1947 and is a widow with one daughter. The Rev. Silvestre E. Romero, rector, St Philip's Church in San Jose, California (Diocese of El Camino Real); is married to Thelma; and The Rev. Irineo Martir Vasquez, vicar, St. George's Church is married to Elena.

According to a press release from the Diocese of Los Angeles, fifty-one priests were nominated during the six-week nomination period ending on May 15. Twenty submitted applications consisting of answers to written questions and sample sermons.

The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, held one-on-one meetings with the nominees whom the committee selected and then notified the committee that he would consider it a blessing to work with any of the six.

"I affirm each and every one of these candidates, and I am pleased with the wide diversity they offer this Diocese," Bishop Bruno said in a statement.

At the Diocesan Convention in Riverside on December 4-5, two bishops suffragan will be elected from among the six nominees.

The newly elected bishops will succeed Bishop Suffragan Chester L. Talton and Bishop Assistant Sergio Carranza, who will retire in 2010 after 19 and seven years, respectively, of service to the Diocese.

Bishop Talton was elected bishop suffragan by the Diocese in 1990 and began ministry in 1991. Bishop Carranza, the retired Bishop of the Diocese of Mexico, was appointed bishop assistant by Bishop Bruno and began ministry in Los Angeles in 2003.

A resolution, D025, was recently passed at the church's 76th triennial General Convention which affirmed that God has called gays and lesbians to "any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church."

In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called the ordination resolution "more descriptive than prescriptive," and said it didn't repudiate a 2006 call by the U.S. church for bishops to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to wider strains on communion."

She made similar assurances about the resolution on same-sex blessings.

But a recent announcement that The Rev. Bonnie Perry, a lesbian in a 'partnered' relationship, is one of three nominees to be the next Bishop of Minnesota replacing the retiring Bishop James Jelinek, throws a monkey wrench into Dr. Williams calls for restraint by TEC.

The latest pronouncements from the Diocese of Los Angeles that two candidates for Bishop Suffragan - a homosexual and a lesbian - will further inflame the Anglican Communion's orthodox believers. It confirms in their minds that The Episcopal Church intends to show no restraint whatever, raising the middle finger to the communion's titular head indicating that it has no intention of being obedient to the demands of the Windsor Report or to any proposed Covenant.

Fissures in the Anglican Communion will only deepen further if either diocese elects a non-celibate gay or lesbian to the episcopacy.

In a meditation titled "A Biblical Love Triangle" Kirkley tries to make the case that David and Jonathan had a homoerotic relationship.
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