Episcopal Diocese’s Next Bishop Is Elected

In a dramatic demonstration of grass-roots power, delegates to a special convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday elected a longtime priest and social activist who was once a Burbank policeman and professional football player as their next bishop.

The Very Rev. J. Jon Bruno, 52, currently provost of the diocese’s Cathedral Center of St. Paul, was elected on the eighth ballot after being nominated from the floor during a daylong convention.

As bishop coadjutor-elect, Bruno will succeed the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch when he retires. Borsch, 64, has not said when he will retire, and Bruno said Saturday that he hopes Borsch remains for a considerable period.

Under canons of the national Episcopal Church, Bruno’s election must be approved by the standing committees of 112 other dioceses across the United States. Local choices are usually ratified.

Bruno is not expected to counter positions taken by Borsch. But his leadership style is expected to differ. Borsch, who has been bishop since 1988, is a former seminary dean, author and New Testament scholar. Bruno, who played a year for the Denver Broncos and served six years in the Burbank police department, is seen as an extrovert. But like Borsch, he is deeply spiritual.

As bishop, Bruno will lead 85,000 Episcopalians in the Los Angeles diocese, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Reflecting Los Angeles’ demographics, it is the most ethnically diverse diocese in the worldwide 70-million-member Anglican Communion. Like other churches, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion continue to struggle with issues of human sexuality, particularly whether the church should bless same-gender unions and ordain gay men and lesbians in committed, monogamous relationships.

All six candidates who stood for election Saturday criticized a controversial resolution adopted overwhelmingly a year ago by the world’s Anglican bishops which declared that homosexual relations are contrary to Biblical morality. The bishops refused to sanction the blessing of same-gender unions or the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

In electing Bruno, clergy and lay delegates turned down four candidates nominated by the diocese’s official search committee. From the first ballot, all four trailed Bruno. The strength of the grass-roots effort was evident when another priest, also nominated from the floor, placed second. She is the Rev. Kathleen Cullinane, 44, rector of St. Mary’s Church in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles.

“The strength of the folks nominated from the floor is a very serious challenge to the search committee,” the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon, rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, said midway through the balloting. “I think it’s unfair to the search committee, which is one of the most diverse, intelligent and faithful in all my experience. . . . This is a profound shock to the system. Several of us are going to be asking the question, what does it mean, for several months.”

Many in the diocese were surprised that the search committee did not include a woman among its final nominees, a point made by the Rev. Hartshorn Murphy of St. Augustine by-the-Sea Church in Santa Monica in nominating Cullinane. Both Bruno and Cullinane were among the committee’s 10 finalists, but were dropped from the list when it was pared down to four.

Murphy said he was nominating Cullinane in part “to redeem a process that after a generation and two [bishops’] elections here in a decade should have produced the names of women candidates.”

Even though Bruno had an early lead among lay delegates and gained strength among both lay and clergy with each succeeding vote, he seemed taken aback when his election was announced.

“I don’t know what you’re going to get out of me,” a visibly moved Bruno told reporters as he stood in the pews with his wife, Mary, at St. Vincent Roman Catholic Church near downtown Los Angeles, where the convention was held.

“We need to work together in the diocese to be reconciled one to another. We need to love each other in the name of Christ, to be the people of God that we’re called to be. . . . We need to reach out to those who are less fortunate and disenfranchised and bring them to fullness of life in Christ.”

Clergy and lay delegates voted separately. On the eighth ballot, with 125 clergy votes and 187 lay votes needed to win, Bruno polled 133 clergy votes and 230 lay votes. Cullinane garnered 77 clergy votes and 105 lay votes.

Finishing third was the Rev. Gary Hall, senior associate rector at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. Earlier, two other candidates dropped out of the race, the Rev. Kirk S. Smith, rector of St. James Church in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, and the Rev. Ralph T. Blackman, rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Tacoma, Wash. The fourth candidate nominated by the search committee was the Rev. Bert Draesel, rector of Trinity Church in Manhattan.

Borsch said he welcomed Bruno’s election as his successor. “He is a dedicated pastor with a strong record of commitment to social justice,” Borsch said.