The 114th annual convention of the Diocese of Los Angeles made history for the second time in as many days on December 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.

Mary 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.

Mary 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," Mary 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.

Dr Williams responds

In a statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said the election "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.
"The process of selection however is only part complete." he pointed out. "The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.
"The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold."