We meet as a body triennially in General Convention to discern our future on exactly this kind of issue.
There are state conventions, and a general convention is held annually.
It is this Seventy-fourth General Convention that has left us, betrayed us, undone us.
Episcopalians open their general convention in Minneapolis on Wednesday faced with two momentous votes on homosexuality.
But any formal statement must probably await the next General Convention, in 2003.
Only the church's General Convention can do that, they said, and its next meeting is in 2009.
After years of debate, the Episcopalians ratified the agreement at their general convention in Denver in July.
The first general convention met at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849 and launched the American Christian Missionary Society as a "society of individuals" and not an ecclesiastical body.
According to Episcopal Church rules, newly elected bishops must be affirmed at the church's general convention by a majority of bishops, clergy and laypeople.
He mentioned that Bishop Robinson had been elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire in June and approved by the general convention of the Episcopal Church in August.
