The State - News from Jan. 15, 1988

Episcopal Bishop-elect Frederick Borsch said he would consider the application of Joanna Clark, who underwent a sex change operation 13 years ago, if she formally applies to establish her own religious community in Orange County. Her status as a transsexual would not disqualify her from forming a new order or from becoming an Episcopal nun, he said. But he would take the operation into account, along with other traits, in his decision, he said. Last week, Clark, 49, took vows of poverty, obedience and chastity and the name of “Sister Mary Elizabeth” in a ceremony performed by the rector of a San Clemente Episcopal Church. In the ceremony, the rector “affirmed” Clark’s intention to establish her own order to perform social work, but Episcopal officials denied that an order had been created or that Clark had been accepted as a nun in the order.