A nominating committee announced that the Rev. Michael Barlowe, the congregational development officer in the Diocese of California, who lives with his male partner of 24 years, is among the four candidates to be on the diocese's Sept. 23 ballot.
Barlowe's partner, the Rev. Paul Burrows, is an Episcopal church rector in San Francisco. Last month, Barlowe was a candidate for bishop in San Francisco, but he and two other gay candidates lost to Bishop Mark Andrus, who is not gay.
The presence of a gay priest on the ballot is bound to draw national, and perhaps international, attention to the September vote to lead the 30,000-member diocese that covers most of northern New Jersey.
Last week (June 22), at its General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, Episcopal Church leaders voted to "urge restraint" when considering whether to approve gay bishops.
The stated goal of that measure was unity within the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, many of whose leaders abroad consider homosexuality sinful. Other Anglican churches have threatened a split with the American branch of Anglicanism, the 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church, ever since the 2003 election of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, who is openly gay.
Robinson was a candidate for the Newark post in 1998, but finished third behind current Bishop John Croneberger.
On Tuesday, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who is the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, proposed that member churches of the communion sign a covenant outlining shared beliefs that could lead to a lesser role for the Episcopal Church in the worldwide body.
The slate of candidates in Newark is the first by any Episcopal diocese since the Ohio convention, said Jan Nunley, a national church spokeswoman.
Whoever wins the Newark race will need to gain "consent" from a majority of U.S. bishops and elected lay leaders in each diocese.
Other candidates are the Rev. Mark Beckwith, 54, rector of All Saints Church in Worcester, Mass.; the Very Rev. Canon Petero Sabune, 53, chaplain at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and associate pastor at Trinity Church in Ossining, N.Y.; and the Rev. William "Chip" Stokes, 49, rector of St. Paul's Church in Delray Beach, Fla. Barlowe is 51.
The conservative American Anglican Council said Barlowe's "manner of life is contrary to Scripture" and said his nomination shows the American church is willing to "sacrifice membership" in the Anglican Communion.
"We are shocked that ... one day following release of the archbishop of Canterbury's statement on the communion's future, the Diocese of Newark has sent a clear and defiant message nationally and internationally that there will be no turning back," the group said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the lesbian dean of the Episcopal cathedral in Cleveland, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dropped out of the race in Newark after she decided she wanted to stay in her native Ohio.
Newark's is among the most liberal Episcopal dioceses in the country.
Croneberger, the current bishop, is retiring after eight years. He supported Robinson's election and another measure authorizing blessings of same-sex unions. He replaced liberal icon Bishop John Shelby Spong.
Even if Newark's nominating committee had not included a gay candidate, diocesan rules allow for a small group of people -- five clergy and five lay people -- to petition to add a candidate to the ballot.
