Catholic Church: Take Note

Uh oh. Utah could see an openly gay man rise to power in the church. Oh, silly, not the Mormon Church. Aother church; one which understands that god is love, not Prop H8.

The Episcopal Church,

It seems likely that the Reverend Michael Barlowe could make Utah the third Episcopal diocese with an openly gay bishop.

Barlowe--who married his partner, the Reverend Paul Burrows, in San Francisco in 2008--is one of four finalists to replace retiring Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish. The other candidates are the Reverend Juan A. Quevedo-Bosch, a Cuban-born rector in New York; the Reverend Mary Sulerud, from Washington, D.C.; and the Reverend Scott Hayashi, of Chicago.

The selection of another gay bishop, however, would be the most controversial.

Barlowe would join the Reverend Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, and the Reverend Mary Glasspool, who is scheduled to be consecrated as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles next month, as the church's only openly gay bishops.

Of course, by elevating Barlowe it might also exacerbate tensions over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Church of England's umbrella organization that includes the Episcopal Church. Several African dioceses, opposed to gay clergy, have split with the Communion and formed a new denomination, which has attracted a handful of Episcopal churches in the United States.

And picking a gay bishop would not endear the diocese to Utah's dominant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which funded Prop H8 in California.

But, for me, it's kind of nice to know that, while the Catholic Church works over time spinning their pedophile scandal into a homosexual issue, one church recognizes that all people deserve love, whether gay or straight, and that having a gay man or woman as a leader in your church isn't a bad thing, it's the right thing.

Good luck Reverend Barlowe.