A bishop's battle: Jon Bruno has been fighting for gays and lesbians in his church for many years. Now he's fighting to hold the church together.

Overwhelmingly opposed to the pro-gay stance of Los Angeles Episcopal bishop J. Jon Bruno, leaders of three Southern California churches in August voted to remove themselves from his diocese and from the Episcopal Church. Clergy and congregants at parishes in Long Beach, Newport Beach, and North Hollywood were angered when Bruno supported last year's consecration of art openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire, and outranged when Bruno subsequently performed a union ceremony for a gay couple. Now they've asked the bishop of a conservative Anglican diocese in Uganda to govern them, and he has agreed.

But Bruno, a 57-year-old former police officer, says that's against church law, and his diocese has filed lawsuits against the rogue churches' staking claims to their physical assets, which he says belong to the Los Angeles diocese. His battle is emblematic of a widening schism that threatens the entire Anglican Communion, the international church body to which Episcopalians belong. Across the United States a small number of antigay Episcopal churches have decided to defect, and a large number have formed their own protest association.

The Advocate talked to Bruno about his situation and what it means to the church.

In light of the schism in your diocese, do you regret your decision to support Robinson?

I would be a fool to regret that decision. Gene Robinson is one of the finest priests that I've ever known and one of the finest bishops I've ever known.

There's no way, shape, or form that I could not have voted for Gene Robinson.

Why has it been so important for you to support gays and lesbians?

The fact of life is that all of us are created as the children of God and that God stands with us in solidarity and expects us to love one another. I would expect people to stand up for me because I'm a multiethnic man, a multiracial man. I would expect people to stand up for me because I am a person who is big and tall and a little heavier than I should be. So why wouldn't I stand up for gay humanity? It's part of their created being.

What sparked the defections in Los Angeles?

At first they said that it was about the acceptance by our church of gay and lesbian people. But now they've said that it is doctrinal, about the fact that we even believe that homosexual people are fully within the love of God.

How did yon feel when you heard they were trying to break away?

I was saddened and surprised. I'd been working with them, trying to find a way in which their needs could be met. I even offered them external pastoral oversight by another bishop. They said that they didn't need that, that they were going to remain in the diocese. Then I got the letter that explained that they were going to affiliate with the diocese of Uganda.

Why Uganda?

Because it's a very conservative diocese that believes that gay humanity is not created equal and that [homosexuality is] a chosen lifestyle.

Have you appointed new priests to those parishes?

Yes. Two of my assisting bishops are in charge of those congregations now and are meeting with the remnant of people who don't want to leave. I'm going to continue to minister to those people. St. James in Newport Beach has 1,200 members on its roll, and only 280 voted to leave.

What are the defecting priests doing?

They're still conducting services at the churches, in violation of my orders [to stop]. They've even brought another bishop in who says he's representing the Episcopal authority of the bishop of Uganda, but in reality he's a retired Episcopal bishop from Texas.

Is there any chance that this could all come to a peaceful resolution?

I'm praying every day. I want peaceful resolution at all costs. That begins with some commitment from [dissident priests] that the future would not hold other behavior like this. Repentance is an important thing. But I think that forgiveness is even more important.