Font ResizeUtah's Episcopal representatives joined the majority at this week's Episcopal General Convention in backing a measure to allow individual dioceses the option of choosing a gay or lesbian bishop.
"We want everything in our church to be open to all people," Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish said in a phone interview from Anaheim, Calif., where she was attending the church's once-every-three-years legislative assembly. "Our diocese has always been progressive on social issues, mainly because the state is so conservative."
The resolution, which was passed overwhelmingly by lay people, clergy and the House of Bishops, says "God has called and may call" gays in committed relationships to "any ordained ministry" in the church.
Delegates also are considering a resolution to create an open process and invite churchwide participation in collecting and developing theological resources and liturgies for committed same-sex couples.
"Some of the states where we have dioceses now have legalized same-sex marriage," Irish said. "We wanted to provide a generous pastoral response."
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican province in the United States and includes parts of Central America. Many of the "no" votes came from those dioceses south of the U.S. border, Irish said, where members tend to be more conservative.
Some bishops cannot bring themselves to vote for a gay bishop, which is why the resolution allows "a local option," she said.
Episcopalians caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Since then, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, has struggled to prevent a permanent Anglican split.
Last month, breakaway Episcopal conservatives and other like-minded traditionalists formed a rival national province to the Episcopal Church called the Anglican Church in North America.
The new body includes four seceding Episcopal dioceses and is supported by several overseas Anglican leaders who have broken ties with the Episcopal Church.
The 77 million-member communion is the third-largest grouping of churches worldwide, behind Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches.
Though sexual issues dominated headlines, delegates discussed many other urgent issues, Irish said, including the church's budget shortfall amid a failing economy, environmental concerns, global poverty, elevating the status of women, and interfaith relations.
Steve Hutchinson, chancellor of Utah's diocese, was the principal author of a document revising the canon for disciplining clergy.
"Steve based it on a theology of reconciliation," Irish said. "He got a standing ovation."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
