Protestant leaders tackle gay ordination

Episcopal church leaders on Tuesday rejected a temporary ban against gay bishops, while Presbyterians agreed to let local and regional governing bodies decide whether to ordain gay or lesbian ministers.

The actions by the churches' governing assemblies could cause further rifts in denominations already coping with theological divisions over homosexuality, as well as declining membership.

The Episcopal House of Deputies, composed of more than 800 lay leaders and clergy, has been meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members in the U.S., is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Leading Anglican officials had asked the U.S. church to approve a temporary ban on gay bishops after V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, was elected bishop of New Hampshire three years ago. His election outraged conservatives, who constitute a minority in the U.S. church but who dominate some congregations overseas.

In an emotional speech Tuesday, Robinson said he had been awake since 4 a.m., praying about how to resolve the conflict between his deep commitment to both unity and to full inclusion for gays and lesbians.

"I desperately want to preserve this communion," Robinson said. "But I can't do so at the expense of my own integrity and that of my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ."

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."

Meanwhile, the nation's largest Presbyterian group, meeting in Birmingham, Ala., approved the new policy that enables local and regional church bodies to approve the ordination of gays and lesbians on a case-by-case basis.

While leaving intact a church law that requires ministers and lay leaders to practice "fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness," representatives of Presbyterian Church USA voted 298-221 to adopt the measure.

In effect, the policy creates a loophole that would allow gays and lesbians to serve as ministers, even though the policy does not endorse gay clergy.

"It's a compromise that allows the church to live together in peace," said the Rev. Jon Walton, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City.

But the Rev. Donald Baird, a pastor from Sacramento, Calif., said he was concerned that the new policy would undermine church unity. "We used to act as one church," Baird said. "Now we'll have 11,000 churches."