Episcopalians plan Salt Lake session to take on same-sex furor

Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish, leader of Utah's Episcopal Diocese, has been vocal in her support for both Robinson's ordination and the church's blessing of same-sex unions. In fact, she commissioned the creation of formal blessing rites for same-sex couples within the diocese last year.

Though she declined additional comment on the issues before the meetings begin next week, the Rev. Dan Webster, director of communications for the diocese, said he believes the meeting is "another defining moment in the history of the Anglican expression of Christianity."

Writing in the current issue of the local diocesan newspaper, Diocesan Dialogue, the Rev. Webster said any decisions made by the House of Bishops "will likely change the Anglican Communion as we know it," but he predicted the group won't come to any definitive decision on their response to the Windsor Report's recommendations until at least 2006.

The Rev. Webster said the meetings will be closed to both the media and the public, noting the sensitive nature of the topics at hand.

While most of those who voted to ordain Bishop Robinson are likely to attend, a few conservative bishops who opposed the ordination have boycotted the most recent meetings of the group.

But at least two of those — Bishop Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Bishop Jack L. Iker of the Diocese of Fort Worth — are coming to Salt Lake City next week, their communication directors told the Deseret Morning News.

Suzanne Gill, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Fort Worth, said Bishop Iker and a handful of U.S. bishops left the group after the vote to ordain Bishop Robinson was taken, and appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury — head of the Anglican Communion — for a response to what they view as an illegal departure from church law.

"Now that their response has been received in the Windsor Report, they're returning this time to the bishops' meeting in the hope that they'll take up the questions of the directives given" in the document, she said.

When asked whether Bishop Iker is hopeful the Windsor Report's directives will be followed, she said she doesn't know what he thinks will happen in Salt Lake City. "I know he's prayed about it and is going to be God's servant. He has good will about wanting to take on those questions addressed to the church."

Bishop Duncan will also attend the meeting, according to Pittsburgh Diocesan spokesman Peter Frank, who said he anticipated the bishop would likely make a statement from the conservative Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. That group, led by Bishop Duncan, was formed in late 2003 by conservative U.S. bishops and their followers at the suggestion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in direct response to Bishop Robinson's ordination.