Unsettled Times For Episcopalians
By Jeff Wright
The Register-Guard
Friday, March 16, 2007

Worldwide Anglican leaders' views on human sexuality are of more than passing interest to an Episcopal church in south Eugene, where the priest is gay and the board president is a lesbian who hopes to be ordained.

At an Episcopal church in west Eugene, meanwhile, a priest likens the issue to "the elephant in the living room" - a subject that few are eager to discuss after a similar debate four years ago spurred an exodus of about 20 families.

As in other Protestant denominations, the country's 2.3 million Episcopalians have long wrestled with the topic of homosexuality - and have landed somewhere in the middle. The church welcomes gays and lesbians into the pew and pulpit, but has no formal liturgy allowing for the blessing of same-sex couples. the rest