Leaders of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican province in the United States, insisted they were still committed to membership in the Anglican Communion. Some Anglican leaders, however, predicted the vote would break their fellowship.

The Episcopal General Convention, meeting in Anaheim, Calif., gave final approval to the measure during their once-every-three-years legislative assembly, which runs through Friday.

“God has called and may call” gays in committed relationships to “any ordained ministry” in the church, the resolution says.

Lay people voted 78-21 and clergy voted 77-19 to approve the measure. The House of Bishops had earlier voted 99-45 to adopt the statement. In the debates, delegates said they worried about the reaction of other Anglicans, but felt a duty to vote yes.

“I personally believe we had to do this,” said John Cheek, a delegate from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, based in Springfield. “It’s the way we see the Gospel.”

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.

Williams attended the convention in its opening days last week, telling delegates, “I hope and pray that there won’t be decisions in the coming days that could push us further apart.”

To ease tensions with overseas Anglicans, the Episcopal General Convention three years ago passed a resolution that urged restraint by dioceses considering gay candidates for bishop.

The latest statement is widely viewed by advocates for gay clergy, theological conservatives and others in the Anglican world as repealing that pledge.

The Episcopal gay advocacy group Integrity said in a statement that the declaration “effectively ends” the temporary prohibition on gay bishops. Robinson, in a post on his diocesan blog, acknowledged the risk the bishops’ took in adopting the measure.

“No doubt, they will pay a price for opening their hearts, much as gay and lesbian people in this church have paid a price for their exclusion,” Robinson wrote. “I applaud them for their courage and will stand with them in the consequences of their vote.”

The few traditional Episcopalians who attended the convention said they were there to express the conservative view, but had largely resigned themselves to the liberal direction of the denomination, which has about 2.3 million members.

“If you think you’re going to convince the Episcopal Church, you’re smoking something funny,” said Bishop Peter Beckwith, a theological conservative from the Diocese of Springfield, Ill. “That’s unrealistic, but we’re still called to be faithful.”

Episcopalians and Anglicans have been debating for decades how to interpret the Bible on issues from salvation to homosexuality. Traditionalists believe Scripture bans same-gender relationships, while liberals emphasize the Bible’s social justice teachings on tolerance.

Church of England Bishop N.T. Wright, a prominent Anglican scholar, wrote in an op-ed in The Times of London, that this week’s vote “marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion” and formalizes the Anglican schism.

When Williams learned that the latest statement was heading toward approval, he told British reporters that he “regrets” the move.

The Vatican earlier this month announced that Pope Benedict XVI had tapped the Rev. Gerhard Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria. It made no mention of the reported remarks about Hurricane Katrina.

But Wagner’s extreme views drew fire from liberals within the Austrian Catholic Church.

“Ever since I was nominated, I sensed opposition that often was carried out in a merciless and unkind way,” Wagner told Austrian public radio after handing in his withdrawal.

Wagner has served since 1988 as pastor of a church in the Austrian town of Windischgarsten and received a doctorate in theology from the prestigious Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, the Vatican said.

In 2005, Wagner was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying that he was convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier that year was “divine retribution” for New Orleans’ tolerance of homosexuals and laid-back sexual attitudes.

“The conditions of immorality in this city are indescribable,” Wagner was quoted as saying.

A group of senior Austrian priests released the 2005 statements to the media calling Wagner’s nomination “unacceptable.” A lay organization called for believers to withhold their church tax, while an above-average number of Catholics reportedly have left the Church in recent weeks.

An Anglican advisory panel also raised deep concerns about a North American province sought by theological conservatives to rival the Episcopal Church.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, will arrange professional mediation for all leaders involved in the North American conflict, leaders said.

“If a way forward is to be found and mutual trust to be re-established, it is imperative that further aggravation and acts which cause offense, misunderstanding or hostility cease,” the Anglican leaders said Thursday.

The statements were released as the Anglican archbishops, or primates, ended a five-day private meeting in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion has been splintering since 2003, when the Episcopal Church – the Anglican body in the U.S. – consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Robinson’s election intensified a long-running debate over what Anglicans should believe about salvation, sexuality and other issues.

Anglican leaders requested the moratoria in 2004, in a document known as the Windsor Report, and have been meeting regularly ever since to avoid a permanent break. Williams formed a six-member committee to advise him on how the communion can move forward. The group presented their recommendations at the Alexandria gathering.

The report painted a largely grim picture of the state of the fellowship, saying “positions and arguments are becoming more extreme” and rivals are engaging in “fear-mongering, deliberate distortion and demonizing.”

Four conservative U.S. dioceses and dozens of individual Episcopal parishes have voted to leave the national denomination since 2003. Many have affiliated with like-minded overseas Anglican leaders. The Anglican Church of Nigeria started a Convocation of Anglicans in North America, including breakaway Episcopal churches in Virginia.

The Anglican advisory panel said such overseas interventions in U.S. territory should stop and they urged an end to lawsuits over who gets to keep Episcopal property.

Of the North American province, the panel said it “foresees formidable problems in the way ahead,” saying it could become a “haven for discontented groups” and formalize a schism.

The top governing body of the Episcopal Church, the General Convention, will take up the moratoria at its July meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Several Episcopal dioceses have been developing prayers to bless same-sex couples despite the requested ban.

The House of Bishops voted 88-35, with four abstentions, to remove Duncan on a charge of “abandonment of the communion of this church.”

Duncan, who led the Pittsburgh diocese for 11 years, is a leader in a national network of theological conservatives who are breaking away from the liberal denomination in a dispute over Scripture. The long-simmering debate erupted in 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Pittsburgh diocese said in a statement it will move ahead with the Oct. 4 secession vote despite Duncan’s removal. If the diocese decides to split off, it will align with the like-minded Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America, which has already taken in Duncan as a bishop. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member fellowship of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England.

The Rev. David Wilson, president of the committee that oversees the Pittsburgh diocese, called Duncan’s ouster “a very painful moment.”

“The leadership of The Episcopal Church has inserted itself in a most violent manner into the affairs and governance of our diocese,” Wilson said. “We will stand firm against any further attempts by those outside our boundaries to intimidate us.”

But Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, which represents parishioners fighting to stay with the national denomination, said Duncan “has rejected numerous opportunities and warnings to reconsider and change course.”

While the 2.2 million Episcopalians vary on their views of the Bible and gay relationships, the overwhelming majority did not consider Robinson’s consecration cause to leave the church.

Still, national Episcopal leaders are facing lengthy and expensive legal battles with conservatives who want to leave and take their property with them.

The first Episcopal diocese to split off was San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., in a 2006 vote that also aligned the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Soon after, a bishop loyal to the U.S. church was elected to head the diocese, while the national church entered a legal fight for control of the diocese and its multimillion-dollar assets.

A third conservative diocese, in Fort Worth, Texas, is set to vote in November on whether it should secede.

“As Episcopal Bishops of California, we are moved to urge voters to vote “No” on Proposition 8t,” the statement said.

“[F]aithful gays and lesbians have entered into marriage as the principal way in which they show their love, devotion and life-long commitment to each other. Furthermore, marriage provides these couples the same legal rights and protections that heterosexual couples take for granted. Proposition 8 would reverse the court’s decision and withdraw a right given. Proponents of Proposition 8 have suggested that this amendment to the Constitution would protect marriage.”

The bishops went on to say in the statement “We do not believe that marriage of heterosexuals is threatened by same-sex marriage. Rather, the Christian values of monogamy, commitment, love, mutual respect and witness of monogamy are enhanced for all by providing this right to gay and straight alike. Society is strengthened when two people who love each other choose to enter into marriage, engaged in a lifetime of disciplined relationship building that serves as a witness to the importance of love and commitment.”

The statement noted there are differences among the state’s bishops over the role of the church in same-sex marriages, but “we are adamant that justice demands that same-sex civil marriage continue in our state and advocate voting “No” on Proposition 8.”

In May, the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage and conservative groups began a ballot measure to amend the state constitution to bar same-sex unions.

The battle over same-sex marriage began in 2004 when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Thousands of gay and lesbian couples were married before the California Supreme Court declared Newsom had acted illegally and nullified the marriages that resulted.

The debate over same-sex marriage in the state then moved to the courts, finally ending with the high court ruling.

Recent public opinion polls suggest that the amendment is in trouble.

The Public Policy Institute of California released a survey in August showing 54 percent oppose ending gay marriage, compared with 40 percent who support it. The result was similar to the findings of a Field Poll in July, which found that 51 percent of likely California voters opposed ending gay marriage, while 42 percent said they supported it.

The statement was signed by The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California; The Rt. Rev. Barry L. Beisner, Bishop of Northern California; The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles; The Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, Bishop of El Camino Real; The Rt. Rev. Jerry A. Lamb, Provisional Bishop of San Joaquin; and The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes, Bishop of San Diego.

Dr. Jeffrey John is said to be on a short list to become Bishop of Bangor in North Wales.

The Church of England and the Church of Wales are separate entities, although both are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

John, who currently is Dean of St. Albans in England, was on a short list five years ago to be elevated to the Church of England, Bishop of Reading. The decision came shortly after the U.S. branch of Anglicanism made the openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson the bishop of New Hampshire.

The furor by conservatives within the worldwide denomination over Robinson led to John withdrawing his name from consideration for the bishopric of Reading.

Divisions between worldwide church conservatives and liberals over the role of gays in the faith has persisted.

Last month, at the once-a-decade meeting of bishops from around the globe, more than 200 theologically conservative bishops staged a boycott. Nevertheless, the Lambeth Conference ended with a call by the titular leader of Anglicans not to consecrate any other gay bishops for the time being.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican Communion needs “space for study and free discussion without pressure” about whether to accept changes in the traditional biblical understanding of openly gay clergy and same-sex relationships.

News that John under consideration to be a bishop in Wales has once again fueled deep divisions within the Anglican Church.

Like Bishop Robinson, John is in a committed relationship.  Two years ago, he entered a civil union with his longtime lover, Grant Holmes, also an Anglican priest. Both men maintain they are celibate.

John is reportedly among several candidates under consideration to be Bishop of Bangor. Despite Archbishop of Canterbury Williams’ opposition to gay bishops, he has no direct authority over the Church in Wales.

The head of the Welsh branch of Anglicanism is the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan.

Morgan is a liberal and has in the past said he would be willing to consecrate an openly gay bishop.