OC Woman Named First Episcopal Bishop in Diocese; First Lesbian Follows
By Denise Penn
The Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce, Rector of St. Clement’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente was elected the first female bishop in the 114-year history of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Right on the heels of her election, Rev. Mary D. Glasspool of Baltimore was elected as assistant bishop and will become the first openly gay bishop the diocese has ever had. She will become the second woman for the Diocese.
This took place at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention at the 114th Diocese Convention. The Episcopal General Convention lifted the temporary ban on electing gay bishops that had been requested by Anglican leaders.
The Rev. Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce was born in June 1956, in Pequannock, N.J. She received a B.A. In Linguistics from UC Berkeley in 1979; and a Master’s of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology in 1997. Also, she is currently a doctoral student at the Seabury Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. She joined the Episcopal Church in 1986, and was a former Roman Catholic. She was ordained to the priesthood in January, 1998. Prior to her ordination, she was employed by Wells Fargo Bank serving as a vice president for compensation management and analysis and assistant vice president in commercial banking credit services and operations. She is married and has two adult children. She speaks Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese and developed a strong Spanish-speaking congregation during her time at St. Clements’s.
The Los Angeles diocese covers six counties in Southern California. Bruce will stay in her home in Orange County, hopefully, and serve Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The Los Angeles diocese, formed in 1895, is one of 110 dioceses in the Episcopal Church in the United States.
According to the rules of the Episcopal Church, after all elections, the bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to Bruce’s ordination within 120 days. The ordination and consecration is scheduled for May 15, 2010.