Gay priest among finalists for Utah Episcopal bishop

Four finalists, including a gay priest, are in the running to be the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah.

California resident, the Rev. Michael Barlowe, who married his partner, the Rev. Paul Burrows, in San Francisco before the passage of Proposition 8, is among the four finalists who will replace Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish.

Utah church’s Standing Committee, which advises the bishop, said a gay bishop might push the conversation of gays in churches forward.

“There are a lot of theological issues that divide our churches and [homosexuality] is certainly one of them,” the Standing Committee president Ric Tanner told the Salt Lake tribune. “Perhaps the best way to work toward understanding is to be engaged in conversation with views different than ours.”

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Barlowe would join the Rev. Gene Robinson and the Rev. Mary D. Glasspool, set to be consecrated as an assistant bishop on May 15, as the church’s only openly gay bishops.

The other finalists are the Rev. Juan Quevedo-Bosch, of New York, the Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, of Chicago, and the Rev. Mary C. Sulerud, of Washington, D.C.