He was named rector of St. Athanasius' Parish in 1986, and there collaborated with Bishop Borsch in construction of the Cathedral Center on the parish's lakefront site in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles. As pastor of this congregation, Bruno continued his advocacy for youth and families, for gang diversion, and for immigration equity, and worked in the wider sphere of human rights. He was an advocate for the ordination to the priesthood of his curate, Philip Lance, who was the first male homosexual in the Episcopal Church to be acknowledged as openly gay prior to his ordination in January 1988.