c. 2006 Religion News Service

COLUMBUS, Ohio _ In a move that threatens to throw the Episcopal Church into further discord with fellow Anglicans, Episcopalians on Tuesday (June 20) refused to accept a proposed ban on the ordination of openly gay bishops.

Both liberals and conservatives united to defeat the ban in a deeply divided House of Deputies, which is comprised of lay people and ordained clergy from the church’s 111 dioceses.

The rejected resolution urged “very considerable caution” before any diocese elected a bishop “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains” in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The resolution did not directly mention gay or lesbian bishops, but nearly everyone across the church viewed it as an attempt to contain the controversy that erupted three years ago when an openly gay bishop was elected in New Hampshire.

The Rev. Johnnie Ross, a delegate from the Diocese of Kentucky, suggested that conservatives joined together to reject the resolution as part of a plot to make it appear that the U.S. church is indifferent to concerns in the rest of the Anglican Communion.

“The conservatives conspired to kill this,” Ross said after the vote.

Delegates later tried to resurrect the measure for reconsideration but failed to gain the necessary two-thirds support.

Episcopal bishops may yet approve a ban before the denomination’s triennial General Convention ends Wednesday, but the House of Deputies must concur with their action, and time is running out.

Under church rules, an all-out ban on gay bishops would require an amendment to the church’s constitution, which could not be approved until the next General Convention in 2009.

Liberals voted against the resolution as a matter of inclusion and justice, while conservatives rejected it because they believe it does not go far enough, said Nancy Davidge, who is in Columbus monitoring the convention for the Episcopal Divinity School, a church seminary.

“In this case the left wing and right wing both came together to further their own agendas,” Davidge said.

Kendall Harmon, an influential conservative theologian from South Carolina, said the resolution lacked sufficient clarity. “There is a huge chasm under the surface of the church and the bureaucratic word-smithing process was unable to bridge it,” Harmon said.

Earlier Tuesday, conservatives put forth their own resolution that would have banned any candidate for bishop “who is living in a same-gender union” until “some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.”

That measure was defeated.

Episcopalians meet only once every three years to devise policy. Without a plan in place to deal with homosexual candidates for bishop, the Episcopal Church’s place within the Anglican Communion is very much in danger.

The 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church has been trying to forge a communal response to the so-called Windsor Report, which was issued by Anglican leaders after the consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003.

That report asks the American church to stop ordaining gay bishops for a time and to cease blessing same-sex unions.

Church bishops met in a closed session Tuesday morning to discuss how they will respond to those demands.

“Most of the bishops do not believe we did anything wrong” in approving Robinson’s election as bishop, said Bishop James Jelinek of Minnesota. Still, the bishops recognize a need to soothe tensions that Robinson’s election caused in sister churches within the Anglican Communion, Jelinek said.

The question is: “How do we live together when we are of one heart but not one mind?” Jelinek said.

Issues of sexuality threaten the internal unity of the Episcopal Church as well. A conservative network of 10 diocese and some 900 parishes has warned that they will leave the church if it does not enact bans on gay and lesbian bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.

While the majority of Episcopalians embrace a more progressive approach to human sexuality and inclusion, more conservative provinces in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion say the U.S. church has drifted away from tradition and Scripture.

A top Anglican official came to Columbus last week (June 17) and told Episcopalians that the archbishop of Canterbury, the de facto head of the world’s Anglicans, will convene a committee to weigh the American church’s actions here.

KRE/PH END BURKE