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Yesterday at the National Cathedral, Washington Bishop John B. Chane told reporters that the decision to confirm Mr. Robinson's election had been "centered in prayer" and that before voting, bishops had been "anointed" with holy oil as an aid for decision making. "I've never prayed this much in my life," he said. The anointing "was an unbelievably powerful experience." However, many of the world's Anglican prelates have denounced the actions of U.S. Episcopalians, and Rowan Williams, who as the archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, has scheduled a mid-October meeting of the archbishops of the world's 38 Anglican provinces, of which the United States is one. One possibility is a split within the 70-million-member Communion. "I was delighted Rowan called the [archbishops] together," Bishop Chane said. "I don't see this as an action to punish the church in the United States." Asked whether the election of Mr. Robinson — who divorced his wife in 1987 and left his family to live with his lover, Mark Andrew — means that now a heterosexual priest or bishop could have a live-in female lover, he did not answer directly. "Gene Robinson has been in a committed relationship for years," he said. "It was a relationship that was blessed at some point."

it would be most DISCRIMINATORY not to permit heterosexual priests not to have female live-in lovers, dont' you think?