Episcopalians Won’t Endorse Gay Marriages Proposal Loses By One Vote; Supporters Say They’ll Try Again

In a decision underscoring sharp differences over homosexual relationships, the Episcopal Church on Saturday turned back by a single vote a call for blessing same-sex unions.

The razor-thin vote in the church’s highest legislative body - the General Convention - was seen as an unmistakable signal that tensions over issues of human sexuality that have dogged the Episcopal Church as well as other denominations are not likely to dissipate any time soon.

Saturday’s vote came a day after the head of the church reminded clergy and laymen of his request a dozen years ago that they make everyone welcome.

“It was Jesus, not me, who said there would be no outcasts,” Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning told more than 1,100 church leaders and nearly 10,000 visitors attending the 10-day convention.

Had the resolution been approved, the church’s liturgical commission would have been urged to develop “a rite or rites for the blessing of committed relationships between persons of the same sex.”

But the House of Deputies made up of priests and lay members of the church fell short of the necessary two-thirds vote required to send the measure to the convention’s House of Bishops. The vote among lay delegates was 56-41. Among priests, the vote was 56-37 against. To be approved, the measured needed 57 votes in each group.

“This issue is dead for this General Convention,” church spokesman James Solheim said.

But supporters of the measure said they would come back at the next convention, to be held in the year 2000, and try again.

“To us this vote is an affirmation. We’re pleased with this vote. It means it’s coming back,” said the Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, a member of Integrity, the Episcopal gay and lesbian organization.

In the meantime, Hopkins predicted that some priests would continue to bless same-sex unions. “They’ve been going on for years and they will continue to go on,” Hopkins said.

On a related issue, however, the convention authorized individual dioceses to offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of clergy and church employees, including those involved in same-sex relationships. The Anglican Church of Canada approved a similar resolution last year.

Later, in an address to the convention, Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey urged Episcopalians not to allow differences to divide the church.

“My plea to you all is to keep your eyes focused on the God whose hands are tied by his love for you,” said Carey, who is the head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the 70-million member worldwide Anglican Communion which includes the Episcopal Church.

“Remember that no matter how much you think you are dealing with issues, you are not; you are always dealing with people - people who wound, who hurt, who feel - and remember as you look on them that they are in the image of God.”

The vote rejecting ceremonies for blessing same-sex unions followed sometimes emotional floor debate, with supporters wanting to expand what is meant by holy matrimony and opponents warning that such services would make the Episcopal Church an outcast within Christianity.

Meanwhile, in other business, the House of Bishops approved a measure requiring four dissenting bishops who refuse to ordain women to develop plans for doing so by 1999 or face the possibility of a church trial for not upholding church law.