2006 bishop election controversy

In October 2004, Swing announced his retirement at the diocesan convention. By early 2006, after a search process, a slate of seven finalists were presented to the diocese as candidates to succeed him.^[1] Among the seven finalists were a lesbian and two gay men in long-term relationships with their partners. None of the seven candidates on the ballot had made an affirmation to the Church that their relationship was celibate. Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, a consultative body of the wider Anglican Communion without jurisdictional authority for any national Church, had declared abstinence to be "right" for those not called to heterosexual marriage.

This election became widely watched by many in the Anglican Communion. Some feared that the elevation of a second gay bishop would cause a schism between the ECUSA and the rest of the Anglican Communion.^[2][3]

Marc Andrus, Suffragan Bishop of Alabama, was elected on the third ballot^[4] with the openly homosexual candidates receiving only a few votes.^[5] His election was confirmed at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in June 2006. He was installed as the eighth Bishop of California on July 22, 2006, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.