The Episcopal Church will install a second openly gay bishop in Los Angeles Saturday.

The ordination of Mary D. Glasspool to become suffragan (assistant) bishop of the Los Angeles diocese will take place at the Long Beach Arena.

Glasspool's nomination was approved by the majority of the church's bishops and standing committees in March.

New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in the church in 2003.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion – of which the Episcopal Church is its more liberal American branch – called Glasspool's election “regrettable” and suggested the Episcopal Church's moves threaten the bonds between the two churches.

Williams appealed to Episcopalians to reject Glasspool's nomination in December, saying that the “decision will have very important implications.”

Glasspool is the first openly gay bishop to be installed since the church lifted its self-imposed moratorium on gay clergy last July.

A gay priest is one of four finalists vying to replace retiring Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish of the Utah Diocese in a special election to be held May 22. The Rev. Michael L. Barlowe married his husband in San Francisco during the narrow May-to-November window in 2008 when gay marriage was legal in California. If elected, Barlowe would become the third openly gay bishop in the church.

Glasspool, 56, and her partner, Becki Sander, have been together over 22 years.

Conservatives in the church opposed to openly gay clergy have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America.