Turmoil Continues In Episcopal Church Over Gay Issues

(New York City) Deep cracks within the Episcopal church over gay clergy and same-sex couples show few signs of healing, evidenced by decisions this weekend in Texas and Connecticut.

The diocese of Dallas on Saturday narrowly voted against a motion to split from the US branch of Anglicanism but agreed to look at the issue in a year's time.

The diocese, meeting in convention, has "only delayed the inevitable" said one clergyman who supported an immediate split. A survey s commissioned by Bishop James Stanton of priests and lay leaders in the diocese released shortly before the vote showed more than half believe the Church is moving in the wrong direction, 42 percent wanted their parishes out of the denomination, and almost a third wanted to remove the word "Episcopal" from the church signs, letterheads and literature.

Supporters of a split say they will spend the next year working on gaining support.

Meanwhile, the head of the Episcopal diocese in Connecticut has given the go-ahead for priests to conduct blessing services for same-sex couples.

The decision, by Bishop Andrew Smith, ignores a non-binding resolution passed in June at the Episcopal Church National General Convention that called for a moratorium on such services and for the bishops to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration'' of openly gay clergy.

"At the heart of the matter is whether we as a Church will welcome and embrace, serve with and care for and bless persons who are homosexual and partnered as cherished and fully accepted members of the body of Christ," Smith said during Saturd ay speech at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford at the diocese's annual convention.

"I believe it is right to change our current policy, which prohibits our clergy from blessing same-sex relationships," he said.

Smith's decision does not permit priests to officiate at civil union ceremonies in Connecticut. The state enacted civil union legislation last year.

Conservatives in the diocese denounced the blessing services. 

The Rev. Christopher Leighton, rector of St. Paul's Church in Darien told the Hartford Courant that Smith's decision was "defiant of Scripture and worldwide Christianity."

Leighton and four other Connecticut priests who have been in a theological battle with Smith since his 2003 vote in support of the consecration Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire.

A meeting of Anglican leaders from the Southern Hemisphere called for the creation of a separate Anglican entity in the United States for Episcopal conservatives