SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Two openly gay priests are among five candidates to become bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, and the election of either could worsen the rift over homosexuality in the bitterly divided U.S. branch of the Anglican church.

The Rev. Bonnie Perry of Chicago and the Very Rev. Robert Taylor of Seattle – both of whom have longtime same-sex partners – are among the five candidates. In 2004, an emergency panel of the global Anglican Communion, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church, asked for a moratorium on installing bishops in same-sex relationships.

The request came after the Rev. Gene Robinson, who has a longtime male partner, was consecrated bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

“There’s nothing really the Anglican Communion can do to us. But they can say they’re no longer in communion with us,” said Sean McConnell, spokesman for the Diocese of California.

The Anglican Communion, which lacks a governing body like the Vatican for Roman Catholics, encompasses 77 million people in 38 provinces in 164 countries. Each province is self-governing.

The American Anglican Council, which advocates on behalf of traditionalists who have formed a separate network of dissenting churches, posted a strongly worded letter on its Web site opposing the two gay nominees. Conservatives believe the Bible bans gay relationships.

“If the Episcopal Church had any intention of repentance, candidates would clearly adhere to the authority of Scripture, affirm the apostolic faith, and commit to the immediate cessation of ordination/consecration of noncelibate homosexuals as well as the blessings of same-sex unions,” the letter said.

Leaders of the Episcopal Church have apologized for the divisions caused by Robinson’s elevation to bishop, but they have not expressed regret over his election.

Canon David Anderson, the group’s president and chief executive, said American church leaders who tolerate and accept same-sex relationships “need to repent. Stop. Think about it. Come to a different conclusion and be sorry for what they did.”

The Rev. Paul Zahl, the dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., said if Perry or Taylor is chosen as the new bishop, it’s a “definitive thumbing of the nose at the worldwide church.”

He said hundreds of the 2.3 million Episcopalians already left the church after Robinson was consecrated and “for those who are still hanging in there, this election would be the final straw. That’s no judgment on the individuals, but on the principle.”

But others say the church has been rife with conflict since its very beginning and the question of who to accept into the church is nothing new. “There’s always been a plurality of voices,” said the Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

Taylor simply wants to be considered because of his qualifications, not his sexual preference.

“People will be asking who the Holy Spirit is leading them to elect and who has the capacity to be the next bishop,” he said from his Seattle church. “They’re not going to elect someone on simply one facet of them as a human being.”

The other three candidates for the job are the Rt. Rev. Mark Handley Andrus, bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Alabama; the Rev. Jane Gould, rector of St. Stephen’s Church, Lynn, Mass.; the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton, canon pastor of Washington National Cathedral.

The election to replace the Rev. William Swing, the country’s longest-serving bishop who’s retiring in October, is scheduled for May 6 in San Francisco.

AP-ES-02-22-06 1953EST