The Episcopal Church in the US has announced that one of the nominees for being the new bishop in Chicago is lesbian minister Rev Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, who lives together with her female partner.

This nomination comes on a moment when the Anglican communion is worldwide facing turbulent times concerning exactly this issue.

Source: Christian Today - 29/08/07 --> Read the article

Note from Yunus:
To fully understand the weight of the matter it is good to keep in mind that the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, is a world-wide affiliation of Anglican Churches in which no single "Anglican Church" has universal juridical authority, but all have full autonomy. The (Anglican) Church of England is on the other hand somewhat of a "mother church" with which the churches of the Anglican Communion are in "full communion". That is also why the Bishop of Canterbury, which is the spiritual head of the Church of England, has a lot of 'moral' but no real juridical authority ascribed to him within the Anglican Communion.

As symbolic head of the Anglican Communion he has faced some difficulties concerning the issue of gay ministers in the last few months.

A group of 19 bishops for example made a statement before in which they warned that there might be a a possible schism between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion because of the consecration of Gene Robinson who in 2003 has been consecrated bishop of New Hampshire although an openly gay non-celibate.

Although other prominent voices in the Anglican Church, like retired South African Archbishop and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said they did not see what "all the fuss" was about, the more conservative authorities - mainly coming from Africa - have held their stance.

Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury did the same and stood by his bishop. In an article with Time Magazine he did say that the Anglican church at the moment does feel “vulnerable and fragile” and that it might be facing one of the biggest possibilities of a schism in its history of the last 450 years, but he does not think it is inevitable.