Jim Mone/Associated Press
	Bishop-elect Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire listens to debate on blessing same sex unions after he was seated in the House of Bishops Wednesday in Minneapolis. Robinson, whose election was confirmed Tuesday, becomes the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church's triennial convention in Minneapolis may have ended Friday, but the ripples from its confirmation of an openly gay bishop already are roiling waters in Pittsburgh and throughout the Anglican world.

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson will be consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire in November. By then, it's possible that the Pittsburgh Diocese will look much different than it does now and it's likely that the Episcopal Church USA will be irrevocably altered.

Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr., who has helped transform the diocese into a conservative bastion, has said more than once that he would not take the unprecedented action of removing the diocese from the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church.

Duncan said he met for about 75 minutes yesterday with about 70 active and retired clergy to talk about what happened at the convention, to tell the priests how they might comfort parishioners displeased with the church's "ungodly innovation" and to discuss what happens next.

He said parishioners should know the diocese, regardless of what happens elsewhere, will not depart from orthodoxy. That means no blessing of same-sex unions and no ordination of anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

Interviewed after the meeting, which took place at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Monroeville, Duncan said parishioners should take comfort knowing the presiding bishops, or primates, of the worldwide Anglican Communion will address the American church's decision at a meeting in October.

Meanwhile, Duncan said he hopes to meet this week with his "standing committee" of advisers to discuss the diocese's next moves. He declined to elaborate.

While Duncan said neither he nor clergy who stand with him want to lead people out of the Episcopal Church, he noted "a house divided against itself cannot stand." As a last resort, he said, he would make provision for clergy or congregations who want to follow the church's new policies.

"If they want to go," he said, "I'll let them go."

At the convention, it was Duncan who led 19 active and retired bishops to the front of the House of Bishops to plead for intervention by the Anglican Communion in "the pastoral emergency that has overtaken us."

In the immediate aftermath of the convention, churches in Pittsburgh are undergoing wrenching self-appraisals.

The Rev. Philip Wainwright of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Brentwood put a message on the sign outside his church reading "Still faithful to Scripture -- One Bible beats 100 Bishops" in reference to the vote to confirm Robinson.

"We are at risk of losing people. There's a great deal of anguish about this among some," Wainwright said in an e-mail response to a question. "For the first time, I'm finding it hard to live by the New Testament's teaching on unity in the church."

The Rev. Harold T. Lewis of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, who described himself and his church as "the loyal opposition" to Duncan, said, "The diocese is more divided than it has been and this will draw the line in the sand even further."

But the leader of at least one church -- the Rev. Geoff Chapman of St. Stephen's in Sewickley -- said that the Robinson confirmation "moves us across a fundamental line in the life and ministry of the Episcopal Church," and said he and his congregation are looking at several possible courses of action.

"Only in the most extreme unfortunate circumstances," Chapman said, would he take his congregation out of the Episcopal Church. But he added that the church was making the decision for him.

"The American Episcopal Church is in the process of leaving the Anglican Communion and Gospel ministry," Chapman said, "and there are many of us that will not go with it."

Chapman said St. Stephen's, which has a Sunday attendance of about 1,200 people, would not leave the Pittsburgh Diocese. Rather, it would ally itself with "an emerging network of congregations, dioceses and overseas partners to continue the Gospel ministry and bring discipline to the church."

Chapman has some options. He could declare St. Stephen's as having an impaired or broken communion with the Episcopal Church, in which the church refuses to participate in or receive Holy Eucharist. Or his church could withdraw from the diocese and join the Anglican Mission in America, a federation of some 50 former Episcopal Church congregations under the aegis of the worldwide Anglican Communion through the primates of Rwanda and South East Asia.

A third choice would be joining a parallel province of like-minded churches recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury as distinct from the Episcopal Church.

"We're not looking at [the gay bishop confirmation] as some kind of wonderful recruitment tool," said the Rev. Jay Greener, a spokesman for the Anglican Mission in America. But "this direction has been the trend of the Episcopal Church leadership for some time."

For the Pittsburgh Diocese, there is a desire among all the parishes to move away from the topic of sex and back into ministry.

But the debate still has a long way to go.

"When Bishop Duncan appointed me to this position of priest associate, he knew perfectly well that he and I did not agree on this very big and major issue," said the Rev. Lynn Edwards, associate priest of Trinity Cathedral and the only openly gay priest in the Pittsburgh Diocese.

"But we are also trying to set an example. Can two ordained persons, a bishop and a priest, work together despite this huge elephant in the living room? If we can, we can model something of Christ's love to a fragmented Church."