MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 3 — A group of Episcopal leaders approved the selection of the denomination's first openly gay bishop tonight, but those opposed to the choice said it would fracture the church and swiftly called on bishops to block approval when they make the final decision on Monday.
After tonight's vote of lay and clergy leaders, the bishop-elect, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, said he felt peaceful, as well as humbled.

"I feel like God is doing a new thing in the world," said Bishop-elect Robinson, who was chosen as bishop for the Diocese of New Hampshire by church members there in June. Bishop-elect Robinson said he viewed today's outcome as a sign that the Episcopal Church was opening its doors to everyone. "I believe something is happening in the church," he said.
Still, Bishop-elect Robinson said he knew his selection would be deeply troubling for many Episcopalians, and called on those who opposed him not to give up on the church, but to stay on and try to sort through difficult issues, like sexuality.

"We should not hold any one issue higher than our commitment to Jesus Christ," he said. "If we can just hold on to one another while we fight this out."
The House of Deputies, which includes more than 800 lay and clergy leaders from every diocese, approved Bishop-elect Robinson in a complicated count of the vote that has, in past elections, made the most controversial issues more difficult to win approval. He won majorities among the lay leaders, and among the clergy leaders. The House of Bishops, which includes more than 100 leaders in each diocese, is expected to take up the matter on Monday.
"They have a big decision to make," said Bruce E. Mason, a spokesman for the American Anglican Council, a group of conservative clergy members that have opposed Bishop-elect's Robinson's ratification. "We pray that they will choose to uphold the traditional historic Christian faith. The unity of the Anglican Communion hangs in the balance, at the hands of the bishops."
Mr. Mason and others say the selection of Bishop-elect Robinson threatens to divide the United States church, which includes 2.3 million people, as well as the larger Anglican Communion, an association of 70 million people in churches in 164 countries. The debate has been especially troubling to some Anglicans in Africa and Asia, where the religion is growing rapidly and where conservative views are more prevalent.

"We just hope and pray that the Episcopal Church doesn't choose to step outside of the family," Mr. Mason said. "We're very confident that we will remain part of the Anglican family. The question is what will this church do."

In addition to Bishop-elect Robinson's selection, Episcopalians here are deciding whether to create a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions.

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, said approval of either provision would amount to a "fatal bullet" for the conservatives.

Conservative leaders have said they would appeal any such decision to the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the senior bishop and titular leader of the Anglican Communion.

But supporters of Bishop-elect Robinson, who has been with his partner for 13 years, say they doubt so many warnings of division. They say there have been gay bishops before but none who made their sexual orientation known before being elected. And they point to earlier controversies — the ordination of women in 1976, the ratifying of a woman bishop, Barbara Harris, in 1989 — as events that were also supposed to have split the denomination. Today, dozens of ordained women rose in the hearing hall in a moment of recognition for them.

"I'm thinking that all the talk of schism is way overestimated," said the Rev. Michael W. Hopkins, the president of Integrity, an alliance of gay Episcopalians. "When the dust settles, and people discover that the world is not going to come to an end, I think we're going to basically be fine."

For years, Episcopalians have debated questions of homosexuality. Some argue that the denomination must welcome people of all orientations and experiences, particularly those people in long-term, monogamous relationships. Others say any appearance of endorsing homosexual behavior clashes with the Bible's teachings. In 1998, during a once-a-decade meeting of top Anglican leaders from around the world, a majority supported a resolution that said homosexuality was "incompatible" with scripture, but the resolution was not binding.

Recent events within the Anglican Communion have added to the controversy. In June, a clergyman in England who was named a bishop stepped down after acknowledging that he was gay. The Canadian Diocese of New Westminster decided this spring to allow the blessing of same-sex unions.

Here, what several days of hearings at this meeting have revealed is a painfully divided church on questions of sexuality. One church leader described it as tennis players on either side of a net but on entirely different courts.

In the House of Deputies today, scores of lay and clergy leaders lined up behind two microphones, one for those in favor of Bishop-elect Robinson's ratification, one against it. The lines snaked to the back of the room.

The bishop-elect watched from the table of the New Hampshire delegation. The debate was civil and followed by a silent prayer, but speakers grew emotional at times.

"I love this church," said Judy Mayo, a lifelong Episcopalian from the Diocese of Fort Worth. Mrs. Mayo's voice quavered slightly as she told room of deputies that she feared for the future of the church she grew up in.

"My church is drifting away," she said. "I'm afraid I'm going to lose it forever."

"If you vote to confirm Gene Robinson," Mrs. Mayo said, "I cannot go there with you."

Even his opponents said they liked Bishop-elect Robinson, who is a longtime church leader and is popular here. Still, they argued, the church should not sway its deepest values for a man they admire, they said. By doing so, they said, they would be separating themselves from the larger Anglican Communion.

And the Rev. James Flowers of Western Louisiana said he did not know what he would tell the people at his church. How, he asked, would he explain that, on one Sunday in August, the church had chosen to move "out of communion with the vast majority of brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ."

"My parishioners are no homophobes," he said. "They are not bigots. They are good people."
"I don't have a clue about what I will tell them about what we might have done on this day," the Rev. Flowers added.

Bonnie Anderson, from Michigan, told her colleagues not to fear criticism in the pews when they return home, and not to fear some broad schism.

"You may be afraid," Ms. Anderson said, "afraid of schism and afraid it will hurt your church budget. Don't be afraid." [New York Times, National - August 3, 2003 ]