The vote comes at a critical time in the Episcopal Church's history. Three months ago, at the denomination's triennial conference in Columbus, Ohio, clergy and lay leaders revisited the issues of same-sex unions and the ordination of openly gay clergy, and many conservatives left the convention feeling neither issue had been addressed adequately.

Two years earlier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, convened a commission that issued the Windsor Report. That report implored the Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion, to address issues of sexuality that it had begun grappling with after elevating its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, in 2003. Church progressives and conservatives remained split on the matter until the convention's very end and ultimately passed ambiguous resolutions that subsequently received criticisms from the archbishop.

Another result of the convention was the announcement that several dioceses within the Episcopal Church USA would seek oversight from another Anglican province. The South Carolina diocese was one of those, as were Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and San Joaquin, Calif.

Liberals are a minority in the South Carolina diocese, and they worry how alternate oversight and a new bishop might affect their spiritual lives.

This coming Saturday, they and the rest of the diocese will have a chance for a sneak preview when the candidates address clergy and laypeople at St. Philip's Church downtown. Some local parishioners are holding out little hope for the future.

Bryan Thompson is an openly gay member of St. Stephen's, a liberal downtown parish. He said Salmon marginalized homosexuals and liberals, and hopes the next bishop will create an atmosphere more welcoming to those groups.

"He has allowed the diocese to be hijacked by a more fundamentalist element," Thompson said. "The bishop is trying to put a muzzle on voices of dissension."

Supporters of Salmon argue that the bishop has been the catalyst for enormous growth in the diocese at a time when the rest of the denomination is shrinking. Sanderson described Salmon's 17-year tenure as bishop in glowing terms.

"The Diocese of South Carolina leads the nation in practically every category of growth," he said. "It is a growth that has more than kept up with the population growth."

"I don't really have any vision of what the diocese should do when I leave," he said. "I would have only one piece of advice for anyone, and that is don't be reactive. If you're reactive, other people set your agenda."

He serves on the council of the conservative Anglican Communion Network, a group of 10 Episcopal dioceses committed to remaining in communion with the other Anglican provinces.

Brust served in a number of Texas parishes before taking on a prominent role at the American Anglican Council, which is another conservative group devoted to maintaining ties with the Anglican Communion. His wife is a South Carolina native.

Lawrence is a California native who served as a parish rector in McKeesport, just outside Pittsburgh, during the '80s. He came into a depressed Rust Belt area, and during his time there, he helped his parish grow by more than 50 percent.

"You can have 80 percent of the people behind your position, but one doesn't rule with an overwhelming mandate, one is not dictatorial," he said. "The challenge is to be clear without alienating people ... needlessly, that is."

Lawrence said that decisions within the Episcopal denomination do not occur in a vacuum, that leaders in other provinces were extremely upset with the decision to elevate a gay bishop and that he believes the Episcopal Church should take steps toward remaining in communion with the more conservative provinces, particularly those in the global south. He did not go so far as to say whether he thought it wise for the South Carolina diocese to split with the Episcopal Church USA.

"We don't want to walk apart from the Anglican Communion," he said. "Many Episcopalians are comfortable living with ambiguity because they think culturally, not theologically. ... I look at the leadership of the Episcopal Church, and they are stuck with their heads in the sand."

The Rev. David Williams is rector at St. Stephen's downtown and already has begun to prepare for the three candidates' visit. He and members of his progressive congregation are in the process of crafting questions for them.

"Scriptural accuracy stands on one side of the issue. On the other side of the issue is justice," he said. "Somehow getting these two to mix is one of the areas of challenge in the diocese."

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