KIM LAWTON: As the newly elected presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori will become the Episcopal Church's head pastor and representative around the world.
Bishop KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI (Presiding Bishop-Elect, Episcopal Church, to delegates): It is a great honor and privilege to be with you this afternoon.LAWTON: But her most challenging task will be managing the continuing crisis that threatens to split the Episcopal Church and the entire worldwide Anglican Communion. In an attempt to ease the crisis, the convention approved a nonbinding resolution calling on the church to "exercise restraint by not consecrating" future gay bishops. The measure disappointed liberals and conservatives alike. Jefferts Schori acknowledged the church is neither broken nor whole.
Bishop JEFFERTS SCHORI (to delegates): This creature, this body of Christ, is not wholly one and it's not wholly two.
LAWTON: Many Episcopal leaders hope the convention did lay the groundwork for healing and reconciliation.
Reverend IAN DOUGLAS (Episcopal Divinity School): The hard work to stay together and still have the integrity of who we are has been the work before us, and I think we're groaning towards that.
LAWTON: Conservatives were less optimistic.
Bishop ROBERT DUNCAN (Diocese of Pittsburgh and Anglican Communion Network): Holding these two views, these two principled religious understandings, together is just impossible. On moral issues, there's not a way to be somewhere in between. LAWTON: Clergy and lay representatives here spent nine days in protracted, often painful, debate about how the Episcopal Church should respond to worldwide concerns about issues of homosexuality.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion. Many Anglicans were outraged in 2003 when the last General Convention approved the consecration of Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop, and voted to permit the blessing of same-sex unions. An emergency Communion report called on the U.S. to impose a moratorium on gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions until some new consensus emerges.
Church leaders here were deadlocked over how to respond. On the last day of the General Convention, the outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, visibly frustrated, urged the adoption of a compromise resolution in order to maintain unity. His successor-elect supported that, even as she endorsed the full inclusion of gays in the church.
Bishop JEFFERTS SCHORI (to delegates): I don't find this an easy thing to say to you, but I think that is the best we're going to manage at this point in our church's history.
LAWTON: In the end, the convention approved the measure, which calls on the church not to consecrate any bishops "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider Church." It doesn't mention same-sex blessings.
Bishop FRANK GRISWOLD (Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church, at press conference): What I term the "diverse center" has finally found its voice. We are going to stand together in all our diversity as one church committed to one mission.LAWTON: Many gay and lesbian Episcopalians felt betrayed.
Reverend SUSAN RUSSELL (President, Integrity): And, I think Jesus is weeping at this moment, not only for the gay and lesbian people who've been told yet again that they're second-class Christians. No matter how you couch it, that's what got said in there.LAWTON: Bishop Robinson said he doesn't view this as an ultimate setback. He says he's trusting the incoming presiding bishop to keep dialogue moving.
Bishop GENE ROBINSON (Diocese of New Hampshire): She committed herself to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian folk and all folk in the church. And she said she thought this was what was needed at this moment to create space for this conversation. So I think we'll be holding everyone's feet to the fire to say, "Okay, let's have this conversation."
LAWTON: A group of about 20 other liberal bishops dissented from the resolution, some saying they intended to defy it.
Bishop JACK MCKELVEY (Diocese of Rochester, New York): We did not back away from the support of gay and lesbian people in committed relationships, and things in the Diocese of Rochester, and I suspect in many dioceses, will continue as best we can to be pastorally supportive.
LAWTON: Conservatives also criticized the resolution, saying it didn't go far enough.
LAWTON: Much of what happens now will depend on international reaction. The Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, issued a statement saying the wider Communion will need "to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided." On Thursday (June 22), a group of African archbishops said the General Convention's frequent affirmation of the full inclusion of gays and lesbians cannot be reconciled with their view of Scripture.
LAWTON: At Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Jefferts Schori and Barbara Harris, the first American female bishop, toured a timeline of milestones for women in the church. 
Bishop JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think life is meant to be challenging. If we're going to use the fullness of the gifts that we've been given, it means we have to continue to be stretched. And I look forward to that.
ABERNETHY: So Kim, what's the bottom line? What's next for the Episcopal Church? Is it going to split up or stay together?
LAWTON: Well, it was really interesting to watch sort of the mood of this convention. There was so much agonizing debate. I mean, people in tears on the floor as they gave testimony; a lot of open acrimony even about what was happening; just long agonizing debates over language, parsing every word, trying to find something that people could agree to. And they just couldn't. And I think that really highlighted the impasse that this denomination is part of and, indeed, the impasse that a lot of denominations are feeling. Mainline denominations across the spectrum have been watching what's going on here as, indeed, our whole country is debating some of these issues.
