Episcopal Church group defers on gay bishops

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A proposal for the U.S. Episcopal
Church to impose an unofficial moratorium on the ordination of
more openly gay bishops was rejected in a key vote at the
church’s convention on Tuesday, a move that could further roil
relations with fellow Anglicans worldwide.

The issue is not completely dead since the triennial
convention of the 2.3-million-member U.S. church will not close
until Wednesday evening and the matter could be revived.

But with time running out, the rejection by one of two
legislative policy-making houses meeting in Columbus, Ohio,
makes it less likely the church will impose a moratorium or
some other hold on future gay bishops as the Anglican church’s
spiritual leadership had suggested.

The measure that was defeated by the House of Deputies —
composed of lay and clergy diocesan representatives — asked
local church communities who elect bishops to “refrain” from
doing so if the person involved lived in a way that “presents a
challenge to the wider church” and would strain Anglican
relations.

The 77-million-member Anglican Communion, as the global
church is known, has been in turmoil for three years since the
last such convention of the U.S. church approved the
consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first
bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than
450 years of Anglican history.

The church has spent much of its week-long convention
trying to find a way to respond to the Windsor Report, a paper
issued at the behest of the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan
Williams. It advised the Episcopal church to apologize for the
Robinson elevation, impose a moratorium on any more like it and
make it plain it opposes the blessing of same-sex unions.

VOTE NOT CLOSE

The exact vote by the more than 800 deputies was not
announced but witnesses said it was not close. A second vote to
reconsider the measure was also rejected.

For the measure to come up again, it would have to be
approved by the 230-member House of Bishops. It would then come
back to the House of Deputies, and needs approval there to
become official. It was not clear whether the measure would be
rewritten in an attempt to improve its chances of passing.

The Rev. Susan Russell, head of Integrity, the group
representing gay and lesbian Episcopalians, said the vote is “a
sign of encouragement that we will find a way to make clear our
commitment to the (Anglican) communion and to the gay and
lesbians baptized in it.”

On Sunday the convention sent a shock through Anglican
circles by choosing Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori the first
woman to lead the U.S. church, a move unprecedented in the
faith.

On another front, the largest U.S. Presbyterian Church body
approved a measure on Tuesday that would open the way for the
ordination of gays and lesbians in that church under certain
circumstances.

The new policy was approved on a vote of 57-43 percent of
church representatives of the 2.5-million-member Presbyterian
Church U.S.A. meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. It gives local
church organizations more leeway in deciding if gays can be
ordained as lay deacons and elders as well as clergy, provided
they are faithful to the church’s core values.