Episcopalians in San Francisco say it's no big deal. They have had openly gay clergy for more than 30 years. So when they elect a new bishop today, they say, the winner's sexuality will not be the main issue — even if it could cause a schism in relations between U.S. Episcopalians and a majority of their co-religionists around the world.

"This election is not going to be decided around issues of human sexuality," said the Rev. John Kirkley, rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco and president of Oasis/California, a ministry to gay Episcopalians. "Here in the diocese, we don't carry the same angst about this that other parts of the church do. ... It's not a big, scary issue for us."

The election of a new bishop in the Bay Area, however, is a scary matter in many parts of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the worldwide family of churches to which to the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church USA belongs. Since 2003, when the New Hampshire diocese chose Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history, conservative Anglicans have urged the U.S. church to apologize, repent and — above all — not do it again.

Three of the seven candidates for the Bay Area's bishop live openly with same-sex partners. Two are gay men, the Rev. Michael Barlowe of San Francisco and the Rev. Robert Taylor of Seattle. One is a lesbian, the Rev. Bonnie Perry of Chicago.

Today, about 400 clergy members and 300 lay delegates from Bay Area congregations will gather at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral to elect a successor to the retiring Bishop William Swing. The winner will be subject to confirmation by the Episcopal Church's general convention in June.

While remaining officially neutral, Episcopal Church leaders acknowledge the importance of the election. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold told a British newspaper that the California diocese "needs to respect the sensibilities of the larger communion."

Conservatives' warnings have been less restrained. The reaction to another "non-celibate homosexual" bishop would be "outrage, absolute outrage internationally," said the Rev. David Anderson, head of the American Anglican Council, an association of about 300 traditionalist parishes.

He noted that the primates of 22 of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces have declared "broken" or "impaired" relations with the Episcopal Church since Robinson's election. If a second gay bishop is elected and approved, he predicted, either the U.S. church will be "disinvited" from the communion's meetings or a majority of the communion's other provinces will refuse to attend, producing a full-blown schism.

National gay rights groups are staying out of the fray. "We're saying it's up to them. It's California's call," said the Rev. Michael Hopkins of Rochester, N.Y., a past president of Integrity, a group that promotes equal treatment of gays in the church.

Bay Area parishioners, meanwhile, have shown relatively little interest in the candidates' sexuality. The subject barely came up at a series of question-and-answer forums with the candidates last month, according to Kirkley, who moderated two of the sessions.

One reason, he said, is that "all the candidates are essentially on the same page on these issues. They all support the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people."

The burning issues for the local church are multicultural ministry and the health of congregations. "People have been threatening schisms in our church since we started ordaining women" in 1976, he said. "This is not a new threat."