Is anyone any the wiser about where the Episcopalians stand on the Gay Issue? Take this one passage from the Ekklesia website:

The Episcopal Church’s decision has produced very different interpretations in the media. The Guardian’s Stephen Bates has “US bishops offer lifeline in effort to keep world Anglican church intact”. Telegraph reporter Jonathan Petre says “For now, US Anglicans give in to Archbishop”.

The Times’s Ruth Gledhill writes “Bishops reject same-sex blessings”. But the New York Times’s Neela Bannerjee declares “Episcopal Bishops Reject Anglican Church’s Orders”, Associated Press’s Rachel Zoll says “Episcopal Leaders Try to Avoid Schism and earlier Bishops Pledge Restraint on Gay Bishops”, and Chicago Tribune correspondent Manya A. Brachear announces “Episcopals give ground on gay bishops” – while New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Bruce Nolan announces “Episcopal bishops decline to roll back inclusion of gays”.

No wonder the UK’s Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has expressed “disappointment” at the compromise on the Anglican gay row agreed by the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States – saying it will not halt division or stop the ministry of LGBT people.

The gay who made the difference was Gene Robinson, now a bishop, whose election and subsequent ratification a few years ago let to an unholy row in the States and here in the UK, with almost daily threats of schism issuing from the hallowed portals of bishops’ palaces, from pulpits and from conferences ever since.

The temptation is to say, “Well no religious gay person worth his Psalter should have any truck with an organisation that hates him” – although all it admits to, of course, is hating the “sin”. But the fact is that there are thousands of gay people working in and otherwise connected with the Anglican Communion (the Church would probably fall apart without them), and whatever happens within the organisation has a profound effect on them. Many of them are fighting for a greater understanding among church people. If they succeed, fewer church people will be taking up cudgels.

Next year’s Lambeth Conference should provide interesting times for Anglicans.