An agonized vote to try to unify a church
Episcopalians' decision this week to limit gays' role may not be enough to prevent a split.
By Jane Lampman
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The question recurs throughout Christianity's history: How essential is Christian unity, and when, if ever, should denominations or congregations split over differing interpretations of scripture?

Several Protestant denominations are currently grappling with that question, none more fervently than Anglicans and their US arm, the Episcopal Church, which this week held anguished debates over the role of gays in the church. In the end, delegates at the Episcopal general convention in Columbus, Ohio, cast a vote for unity with their Anglican cousins.

But the resolution the Episcopalians endorsed may not be enough to avoid a split internally and with the worldwide church.

In a resolution Wednesday, the delegates called on church leaders to "exercise restraint by not consenting" to the consecration of gay bishops. (They had rejected a similar resolution a day earlier.) The vote was a difficult one for those who want full inclusion of gays in the church, but it still fell short of an Anglican request for a moratorium on gay bishops and on rites for blessing same-sex unions. After the vote, a number of bishops called the action discriminatory.

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