"Your vote today remains a vote for inclusion and communion -- of gay and lesbian people in their full lives as single or partnered people, of women, of all ethnic minorities, and all people," Andrus said by telephone over the cathedral's public address system to members after being told of his election. "My commitment to Jesus Christ's own mission of inclusion is resolute."

There you have it. The new heterosexual, 49-year old Bishop of California, a Yoga practitioner, was apparently a shoe-in, by all accounts; the three (two gays and a lesbian) priests never got a look in. None of the gay candidates received more than a handful of votes. Andrus won on the third ballot. He was elected with 72 percent of the clergy vote and 55 percent of the lay vote. He replaces the ultra-liberal retiring Rt. Rev. William Swing a leader in the pan-everything religious movement known as the United Religions Initiative.

Within minutes of his win, Integrity, the Episcopal Church's leading pansexual organization for full inclusion put out a press release saying it saluted the election of Andrus, with Integrity President Susan Russell saying, "Bishop Andrus is a long-time Integrity ally and will bring his support for the full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the church to his ministry in California."

Brad LaMonte, Integrity's Southeastern Regional Vice President and a parishioner in the Diocese of Alabama, added: "Bishop Andrus' election is a great loss for my diocese, but a great gain for the Diocese of California. Bishop Andrus is a person of vision who has led our diocese in confronting poverty and racism. He has given a voice to the voiceless. He is great champion for human rights-including equality for LGBT people. This past March he led a wonderful retreat for Integrity/Alabama."

The Rev. Michael Hopkins, immediate past president of Integrity, also commended the Diocese of California on its search process and Andrus's election.

No surprise there. Whoever won in California was a win/win for the church's pansexualists. All this says is that the only difference between a gay bishop and a pro-gay bishop is whom you sleep with. Andrus is married with two teenage kids, but he will follow the lead of his predecessor and the majority of bishops in the ECUSA HOB on sexuality and so called social justice issues. His win was no victory for orthodoxy in The Episcopal Church. He will not be applying for membership in the Anglican Communion Network.

Andrus is no stranger to controversy. He and his immediate boss, the Bishop of Alabama, Henry Parsley issued a statement before the 2005 Nottingham meeting of the ACC saying that the presentation would not represent the official views of the Episcopal Church or the House of Bishops. "It is the work of the ad hoc committee composed primarily of theologians appointed by the Presiding Bishop and his Canon Theologian, who are charged with presenting one viewpoint as requested."

A translator who is tuned to episcobabble translated what this bishopspeak meant saying, "We, the bishops of this diocese which has recently lost a tremendous number of the orthodox, are very nervous about what the ECUSA representatives are going to say. We can't stand another lost parish or parish split because it means too much lost revenue to the diocese and to our pet projects. So, we want you the clergy to make it sound as if there is some distinction between the voice of ECUSA representatives at the Nottingham meeting and the real voice of ECUSA. So, please, please try and tell everyone that this is not the official view of the church." Now that should confuse the good people of Alabama. It did.

But in the California election, Andrus was as clear as a bottle of Gallo chardonnay - he would be a bishop of inclusion, not a bishop of transformation. He would not announce the Good News of God's redeeming love from sin through the cross, but would seek to widen the boundaries of Episcopal acceptance by dropping the single most important ingredient of faith - salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

What happened today might have brought a sigh of relief in Lambeth Palace and the Episcopal Church's national headquarters in New York where Frank Griswold, ECUSA's Presiding Bishop had privately and somewhat publicly hoped the diocese would not elect a gay or lesbian.

But the election of Andrus brings only temporary relief from the coming ecclesiastical storm. The Episcopal Church is in the midst of a major realignment and Andrus's election will not stop that process. If anything it may hasten it. His election signals no change of direction for the Episcopal Church. Any thoughts of unity or healing are dead on arrival.

The vast majority of the worldwide Anglican Communion's almost 80 million membership are entirely opposed to the pansexual stance of the American Episcopal Church, a church that is still reeling from the election of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop - V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Full-blown schism is still a reality and exclusion by the Archbishop of Canterbury of ECUSA's radical bishops from the next meeting of the world's bishops in 2008 is still possible.

As one orthodox Episcopal theologian noted, "the politicking of the present moment is all relatively irrelevant in the light of the fact that the Episcopal Church has become an openly heretical and apostate church. The strategic battle for the Episcopal Church has been lost, some time ago. There remain tactical battles, some of which require us to act as if the battle for the soul of ECUSA is still going on. But we are fooling ourselves if we think there can or will be any return to a single ecclesiastical entity, even of the mildly liberal sort we knew for most of the 20th century. In my humble opinion clergy and laity should be preparing the lifeboats, not agonizing over saving compartments in the underbelly of this particular ship. The Episcopal Church as we have known it or imagined it is gone and will not return."

END

Andrus elected in California

BISHOP MARK ANDRUS'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Sheila and I are gladdened, and humbled, by the trust you have placed in me, in us.Publicly, I want to say that my heart is with the other nominees and their partners. They are uniformly splendid people, and I was honored to be in their number.

Also, to all of you who have been so prayerfully working to bring this moment for your diocese, the election of a new bishop, you must know that you have exhibited every trait of a Christian community. You are a witness to the vitality of the Church in your very way of being.

We must all understand, and here I address the diocese of California and those listening from elsewhere, that your vote today remains a vote for inclusion and communion - of gay and lesbian people in their full lives as single or partnered people, of women, of all ethnic minorities, and all people. My commitment to Jesus Christ's own mission of inclusion is resolute.

And I share with you your strongly expressed commitment to youth, to those who do not yet know Christ, our calling as evangelists, and to God's waiting, expectant creation.

I take this election to be an expression of our common desire to be part of the whole, the Communion and the world, in what may be a new way. We will work together in the listening process, lending the unique voice of the Bay Area Episcopalians to this great conversation and working to end global human suffering.

Finally, let me say that being nourished as a bishop by the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, fed by the historic and living witness of so many heroes of the struggle for human rights, whose words and deeds of compassion and justice have inspired and sustained me, I say to you the words of a west coast hero - "In the cause of peace, we cannot be sprinters, we must be long distance runners."

Please join me in prayer. God Be With You. "Oh God of unchangeable power and eternal light: look favorably on your whole church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things are made, you Son Jesus Christ and Lord" Amen.

+MARK ANDRUS