The rector of St. Luke’s/SanLucas Episcopal Church in Long Beach was elected the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
The Rev. Dr. Antonio Gallardo, 58, was elected on the eighth ballot by 134 clergy votes and 187 votes from the lay order during a Diocesan Convention meeting in Riverside. The election required a two-thirds majority from both orders on the same ballot.
Gallardo will succeed Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor, who will retire in 2026 after nine years in office. He will be ordained and consecrated as bishop diocesan on July 11, 2026 in rites at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.
Gallardo has been rector at St. Luke’s in Long Beach since 2022. He was the vicar at St. Luke’s of the Mountains in La Crescenta from 2019 to 2022 and pastor for Latino Ministries at All Saints Church in Pasadena from 2015 to 2019.
He was born and raised in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the youngest of seven children, according to his biography.
He received a bachelor’s degree in Informatic Engineering at Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado and obtained an M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and a Ph.D. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University before obtaining his Master of Divinity at Claremont School of Theology in 2018 and a diploma in Theology from Bloy House in 2019.
Gallardo is single with two rescue dogs and says he enjoys traveling. “My spirit rejoices in seeing the beauty of God’s creation in people, architecture, nature, food, music, culture, and art, among other things.”
The Diocese of Los Angeles states that it encompasses some 40,000 Episcopalians in 133 neighborhood congregations and mission centers, 29 schools and five other specialized service institutions in six California counties. The church says L.A. is one of the five most populous and culturally diverse of the its 106 dioceses.