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Episcopalians reject plea for temporary ban on gay bishops

Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA, a national Episcopal gay rights advocacy organization, listens to the debate Tuesday during the Episcopal General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Rachel Zoll Associated Press
Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA, a national Episcopal gay rights advocacy organization, listens to the debate Tuesday during the Episcopal General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Episcopal delegates Tuesday snubbed Anglican leaders’ request to temporarily stop electing openly gay bishops, a vote that prompted the church’s leader to call a special session in hopes of reaching a compromise to preserve fragile Anglican unity.

The vote by the Episcopal House of Deputies came just hours before Presbyterians, at a separate meeting, approved a plan to let congregations install gay ministers if they wish.

In Columbus, wrenching debate over the moratorium on gay bishops stretched over two days in the House of Deputies, a legislative body of more than 800 clergy and lay leaders.

Top Anglican officials had asked the Episcopalians for a temporary ban to calm the outrage among conservatives over the election three years ago of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who lives with his longtime male partner.

In a complex balloting system, a majority of deputies voted against a measure that would have urged dioceses to refrain from electing gay bishops. Conservatives complained that the proposal stopped short of a moratorium, but supporters argued it would have set a moral standard for the church and signaled that the American denomination understood the concerns of Anglican leaders.

Outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, the head of the denomination, said he would use his authority to call a special session this morning to address the issue again.

Canon Martyn Minns, a conservative leader and rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., said the deputies’ vote showed the impossibility of reconciling Anglicans with different views about the Bible and homosexuality.

“It’s too hard. It’s a gap too wide,” he said. “Unhappily, this decision seems to show that the Episcopal Church has chosen to walk apart from the rest of the Anglican Communion.”

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. arm of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the fellowship of churches with roots that trace back to the Church of England. While conservatives are a minority within the American denomination, the majority of overseas Anglican leaders oppose actively gay clergy.

The critical vote in the Episcopal Church happened on a day when another American Protestant denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), decided at a session in Birmingham, Ala., to allow gay clergy, lay elders and deacons to work with local congregations.

A measure approved 298-221 by a national assembly keeps in place a Presbyterian church law that says clergy and lay elders and deacons must limit sexual relations to man-woman marriage. But the new legislation says local congregations and regional presbyteries can exercise some flexibility when choosing clergy and lay officers of local congregations if sexual orientation or other issues arise.