The Rev. V. Gene Robinson read from the Bible after the vote.

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 5 — The Episcopal Church approved the election of its first openly gay bishop tonight, reaching the historic and divisive decision after rejecting accusations of sexual misconduct against him that had suddenly halted the vote on Monday.

After being called back this afternoon, 62 of 107 diocesan bishops voted to approve the bishop-elect, V. Gene Robinson. Moments later, more than 12 conservative bishops, their faces grim, marched slowly to the front of the House of Bishops to denounce the decision as an affront to church teaching that would split the denomination in two.

"The bishops who stand before you are filled with sorrow," Bishop Robert W. Duncan of the Pittsburgh Diocese said. "This body has divided itself for millions of Anglican Christians around the world, brothers and sisters who have pleaded with us to maintain the church's traditional teaching on marriage and sexuality. With grief too deep for words, the bishops who stand before you must reject this action."
Bishop Duncan, one of a group of church leaders who had fought Bishop-elect Robinson's approval for weeks, said he and his colleagues would call on the top leaders of the Anglican Communion, the 38 primates around the world, to intervene in the "pastoral emergency that has overtaken" the church.

"May God have mercy on this church," Bishop Duncan said.

Others rejoiced, praising the popular bishop-elect for his works and saying the decision was another barrier overtaken by church leaders, another widening of church doors.

"It's a great day for the church," the Rev. Sandye Wilson of the Minnesota Diocese said. "This is a church which has finally understood that men and women created in the vision of God can be the guardians of the faith — and be gay or lesbian."
People who had pressed for the choice over weeks of lobbying and days of intense pressure at this convention of hundreds of Episcopalians said they were thrilled by the outcome but also saddened by talk of a split within the church and the calls for the primates' help.

"I am also mindful of the fact that our brothers and sisters are broken-hearted," Ms. Wilson said. "And I feel for them in their pain."
Supporters say the decision will bring new people, especially young people, into the church, which has 2.3 million members in the United States. Opponents say just the reverse will occur; that people will stay away from their churches this weekend, stop giving donations and wonder what the church has come to stand for.

Bishop-elect Robinson, 56, told reporters that his approval was a "tiny sign" of a broader movement in the church and across this country in the acceptance of gays and lesbians. As a culture, he said, "I think we're seeing the moving into a mature adulthood" about the treatment of gay people.
As his longtime partner, Mark Andrew, and his grown daughter, Ella, looked on, the bishop-elect said he doubted that the approval would make much difference in Episcopalians' daily lives. While sexuality is an important issue to people, it is by no means the only one, he said.
"When they go to church on Sunday," he added, "it's going to look pretty much like last Sunday."

Still, he acknowledged the church members who left the convention in tears tonight. He said he hoped that he would be able to help heal some of the division and pain.

The presiding bishop here, Bishop Frank T. Griswold, said the decision did not "resolve the issues about homosexuality" for the church.

"What it does do," he said, "is place squarely before us the question of how a community can live in the tension of disagreement."
After the vote, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the titular leader of the Anglican Communion, said the church faced difficult times.

"The General Convention's decision to approve the appointment of Gene Robinson," the archbishop said, "will inevitably have a significant impact on the Anglican Communion throughout the world, and it is too early to say what the result of that will be. It will be vital to ensure that the concerns and needs of those across the Communion who are gravely concerned at this development can be heard, understood and taken into account."
As recently as noon today, church leaders said they were uncertain whether Bishop-elect Robinson could be considered today or even by the end of the convention on Friday. The bishops had planned to vote on Monday, but delayed that indefinitely when two accusations were made against him late Sunday. The bishops began investigating.

A day later, to the surprise of many here, the investigation was over. This afternoon, Bishop Gordon P. Scruton, who was assigned to investigate the accusations, told his fellow bishops that he had found "no necessity to pursue" either complaint further.

Bishop Scruton, of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, said he had interviewed David A. Lewis, a church member in Manchester, Vt., who sent an e-mail message to bishops on Sunday night that accused Bishop-elect Robinson of harassment in November 1999 at a church conference in Holyoke, Mass.

When Bishop Scruton called Mr. Lewis on Monday, Mr. Lewis said he "regretted having used the word `harassment' in his e-mail," Bishop Scruton said. Mr. Lewis described two conversations with Bishop-elect Robinson at the conference, Bishop Scruton said. Mr. Lewis said the bishop-elect had touched him on the arm and upper back during the talks, which were in front of other people.

Mr. Lewis said that the gestures struck him as too familiar and that they "made him feel uncomfortable," said Bishop Scruton. But he acknowledged that other people might view the exchange as normal and natural and told Bishop Scruton two times that he did not want to pursue the matter further, Bishop Scruton said.

Mr. Lewis said he sent his message on Sunday night after hearing that Bishop-elect Robinson had been approved by the House of Deputies, one of two decision-making bodies in the Episcopal Church, along with the House of Bishops. Mr. Lewis said that he "found himself late Sunday night needing to tell someone of his experience," Bishop Scruton said.

Bishop Scruton also cleared Bishop-elect Robinson of a second accusation, made late Sunday night by his opponents in the House of Bishops. Bishop Scruton said he had found that the bishop-elect had no involvement in a Web site for young gay people that also had links to a Web site that included pornography.

Bishop-elect Robinson helped found that the organization with the site, Concord Outright, meant to help gay and lesbian teenagers. Bishop Scruton said the bishop-elect had no involvement with it since 1998. The organization created its Web site last year.

Bishop-elect Robinson, who had stayed away from the convention and out of public view on the day of the investigation, reappeared this afternoon. He said he had spent his time praying and reading psalms.

"I prayed a lot yesterday and felt God was very nearby," he said.

He said that the church regularly conducted investigations in such cases and that he had even helped create some of the processes for investigation in his diocese in New Hampshire.
Although some of his supporters had called the vote a last-minute political maneuver, Bishop-elect Robinson seemed satisfied with what had occurred.

"I am proud to be in a church which works to be a safe place for all of God's children," the bishop-elect said.

He said he did not recall meeting Mr. Lewis, but acknowledged that he often touched or hugged congregants. "I am a demonstrative person," he said.

In Vermont, people who know Mr. Lewis described him as a husband, a father, a religious scholar, a lay reader at his Episcopal churchand a man who told the truth when he spoke. Many neighbors said they had no reason to doubt him. Others said they could only surmise that he must have felt moved to express a private thought, even in the last possible moments of a complicated process.

Lou Midura, senior warden at Zion Episcopal and the sole person to speak officially about Mr. Lewis here today, said his friend and fellow parishioner wanted everyone to know one thing, that his message about the bishop-elect was meant to be privately conveyed to the Minneapolis meeting and not debated in the news media.

"I'm comfortable saying I know David extremely well, and his character is beyond reproach," Mr. Midura, a house builder by trade, said in the 1782 church as television news trucks lined up in the parking lot.

The investigation, which seemed so crucial on Monday, seemed to be forgotten by the time the bishops began debating before voting. The discussion was quiet and civil, and it was preceded and followed by prayer. Bishops rose from their seats around round tables to address the audience.

"He's been tried, he's been weighed, he's been measured," Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the Los Angeles Diocese said. "On the extreme, he has been found morally capable."
But as they rose to speak, Bishop-elect Robinson's opponents said he would bring to the broader church schism, pain and confusion.

"I am absolutely committed to Jesus Christ, absolutely committed to this church, absolutely committed to this House, absolutely committed to you," Bishop Edward S. Little II of the Northern Indiana Diocese said. "If we confirm Gene Robinson as a bishop of the church, the unity of this house will be shattered forever."
Other people called the warnings overblown. Look, they said, at other controversies that were also predicted to split the church like the ordination of women in 1976 and the ratifying of a woman, Barbara Harris as bishop, in 1989. This evening, Ms. Harris, who retired from the Massachusetts Diocese, said the church had survived and would once more.

"I remember well the dire predictions made at the time of my election consent process," she said. "The communion, such as it is, a loose federation of autonomous provinces, has held."
Others, though, were left pained by so much talk of sexuality and not enough, they said, about the other weightier issues being wrestled with every day in the church — hunger, fighting the AIDS crisis in Africa and reaching out to people searching for faith.

"To my mind, this has been too much of a distraction," said Ed Cahill, 72, an alternate from the East Tennessee Diocese. In the turmoil, he said, he had a dream about a house burning down.
The church has been struggling with the issue of its stand on homosexuality for decades, he said, and its efforts to sort it out at this meeting by no means ends the debate. As an alternate in the House of Deputies, Mr. Cahill did not vote on the bishop-elect. That was fortunate, he said, because he has still not made up his mind. [New York Times August 6, 2003]