The Episcopal Church: Gay Bishop Vote
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Episcopal Church is on the verge of making history today, a vote is planned that could give the church its first openly gay bishop. Conservatives fear approval would trigger a split within the church. CNN's Susan Candiotti has more for you.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The debate was both dignified and compelling. And tonight, Reverend Gene Robinson of New Hampshire won more than the simple majority he needed in the House of Deputies to bring him one step closer to his goal of becoming the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, part of the worldwide Anglican community. Today, he passed one of two votes that are required to ratify him as a bishop in the Episcopal Church after the House of Deputies debated the matter for more than 45 minutes. He is a priest who has been married for 13 years, with two grown children, then divorced and has been involved in a relationship with another man for the past 14 years. After the vote, Robinson, though he acknowledged that some people might be very unhappy with the results, said that he feels both peaceful and humbled.</s>GENE ROBINSON, REV., EPISCOPALIAN PRIEST: I think we have two wonderful opportunities. One is to say to the world this Episcopal Church is wide open. There is no one beyond God's love. And you are welcome here. We mean what it says in our signs, the Episcopal Church welcomes you. And we have the opportunity to show the world how brothers and sisters in the body of Christ can treat each other with respect and forbearance and dignity and far reaching love.</s>CANDIOTTI: Those in opposition say that a dramatic line has been crossed in the Episcopal Church. And say that if he is elected and consecrated as bishop that Robinson will be a symbol of pain, as they put it, for many people and predict there may even be a split within the church. The voting resumes tomorrow for the even more important vote in the House of Bishops, 100 people voting on that matter. If he prevails there, Robinson will be consecrated as a bishop, an historic vote. Susan Candiotti reporting in Minneapolis.</s>COSTELLO: And Susan filed that report for us overnight. The final vote is scheduled for later today, the debate over a gay bishop. When you get to the office, you can read the background on the issue on our Web site. You know the address, CNN.com. AOL keyword, CNN. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com