SAN FRANCISCO, May 8 (UPI) -- Episcopalians from both sides of the rift over the role of gays in the church are relieved by the choice of a straight married man as bishop of California.
Mark Handley Andrus, currently serving as suffragan bishop of Alabama, was selected on the third ballot to head the diocese of California, which includes San Francisco and its metropolitan area. The field of seven candidates included two gay males, two women, one of them a lesbian, and an African-American priest.
The Rev. Ian Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., said that Anglicans need to be welcoming to formerly marginalized groups but also cautious.
"What we need to be careful about is not playing one marginalized community off the other," he told the Washington Post. "The reality of differences is not going to go away because of one election."
The New Hampshire diocese's choice of a gay bishop in 2003 set off a firestorm in the church. Opposition was most intense from Africa, where Anglican churches are growing rapidly.
Andrus, in his first statement after his election, spoke of "inclusion." He was also welcomed by Integrity, an Episcopalian group that advocates gay rights.
