By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Episcopal Church officials in Chicago said Aug. 28 that an openly lesbian priest is one of the final five candidates to become bishop of the Chicago diocese, drawing praise from advocates of full inclusion in the denomination.

“The big news today is that discernment has trumped discrimination in the Diocese of Chicago,” said the Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, a GLBT Episcopal group.

The openly lesbian candidate, the Rev. Tracey Lind, lives with her partner and is dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland. If she wins the Chicago diocese’s election Nov. 10, she would be the second openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The first, New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, has encountered opposition stemming from anti-gay bigotry among conservative bishops and priests in the church, especially in some of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s churches in Africa.

The Anglican Communion is based in England, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but its national churches are self-governing and bound to the Communion only by tradition and choice. Conservatives in the worldwide church have threatened to force the Episcopal Church out of the Communion over the gay-inclusive policies of many dioceses in the United States.

Several dioceses in Africa have declared that their churches are no longer in communion with the U.S. Episcopal Church so long as Robinson remains a bishop, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has urged the U.S. church to exercise restraint in ordaining gays and lesbians and sanctioning same-sex wedding ceremonies. That plea has been rejected by many U.S. church leaders, who argue that the church’s mission should include all Episcopalians, including GLBTs.

“There is no turning back on the full inclusion of the baptized into the body of Christ—only moving forward into God’s future as an Episcopal Church committed to mission and ministry, to unity in diversity,” Russell said Aug. 28 in response to Lind’s selection as a candidate in Chicago.

Williams is scheduled to visit the United States later this month to meet with Episcopal Church officials.

In response to a request by the church, Lind said she would not grant interviews, issuing only a brief statement.

“I believe that accepting this nomination is what God is asking of me, and I will strive to respond to that call faithfully and with grace,” she said.

Other candidates to succeed Chicago Bishop William Persell, who is retiring, are the Rev. Jane Gould, rector of St. Stephen’s Memorial Episcopal Church in Lynn, Mass.; the Rev. Jeffrey Lee, rector of St. Thomas Church in Medina, Wash.; the Rev. Margaret Rose, director of national Episcopal women’s ministries; and the Rev. Timothy Safford, rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia.

Some anti-gay church leaders in Africa, led by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, have brought the church close to schism in recent months by coming to the United States to ordain conservative, anti-gay priests and by encouraging U.S. churches to leave the Episcopal Church and become part of their African churches. Williams has also asked those bishops to refrain from those moves, to no avail, and Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi ordained two more anti-gay U.S. priests Aug. 30.

A Nigerian gay leader who recently spoke in Chicago said last week that the anti-gay African bishops are being encouraged and supported by wealthy right-wing groups in the U.S.

Davis Mac-Iyalla said African archbishops “are being used by Western conservatives because they want to control the church.”

“My scripture has not condemned me,” Mac-Iyalla said. “Jesus came and died for everybody.”