In the three years since the Episcopal Church USA ordained an openly gay bishop at its last General Convention, the concerted efforts of the denomination and the worldwide Anglican Communion seemed to focus on a single topic: sex.

Now, with the church's nine-day convention opening Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, those three years' worth of arguments, strategies and position papers about gay ordination and same-sex blessings have been winnowed to a handful of resolutions that will determine the American church's future relationship to its more than 70 million fellow Anglicans around the world.

And it all could hinge on the wording of a few phrases.

The triennial convention comes at a critical juncture in the Episcopal Church's 221-year history and at a time when the church is riven by an increasingly rancorous internal debate over interpretation of Scripture and inclusion of homosexual clergy.

"There's certainly never been a moment when the Episcopal Church has been in a more precarious position," said Dr. Les Fairfield, a recently retired professor of church history at the conservative Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge. "What's at issue at the General Convention is a choice between two different religions. The issues have never been deeper."

While clergy and lay deputies at the convention will vote on several key matters, the election of a new presiding bishop for the denomination, for example, it is the slate of resolutions formulated this spring by a special commission in a report called "One Baptism, One Hope in God's Call" that will be the center of attention.

That report was issued in response to challenges posed by 2004's so-called Windsor Report, compiled by a commission in the volatile aftermath of the 2003 General Convention's confirmation of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who was living with a male partner, as bishop of New Hampshire. The Windsor Report's goal was to find ways to maintain "the highest degree of communion possible" among its national churches scattered among 164 countries.

But it also criticized the 2.3-million-member American church, and called for a moratorium on the blessings of same-sex unions and elections of gay bishops. The fallout has been considerable. Since 2003, at least nine of the 38 Anglican provinces have declared themselves to be in "impaired" or "broken communion" with the Episcopal Church over Bishop Robinson's confirmation and ordination.

The General Convention is the governing body of the Episcopal Church, and its bicameral house will debate and decide the special commission's resolutions. The convention comprises the 800-plus member House of Deputies and the roughly 300-member House of Bishops. Legislation must pass both houses to be enacted.

In its current form, Resolution A161 states that the Episcopal Church will "exercise very considerable caution in the nomination, election, consent to and consecration of bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

Resolution A162 advises bishops who have authorized same-sex blessings "to express regret" that the communion's bonds were breached by such actions.

The key is whether the final versions passed by the convention will satisfy the Anglican community at large.

"What is going on is seeing where the bar is going to be set," said the Rev. George Werner, retired dean of Pittsburgh's Trinity Cathedral and outgoing president of the General Convention's House of Deputies. "The bar is acknowledging the pain brought to the Anglican community by the U.S. church.

"Every convention and every council of the church has always been about the question of authority: What is the authority of Scripture and how do you discern the authority of Scripture? I'm reminding people that, for 2,000 years, orthodoxy has been questioned and it will continue to be questioned."

The Rev. Werner, whose reputation as a consensus builder was burnished as a deputy to every General Convention since 1970, had hoped to run for re-election as president of the House of Deputies, the second most powerful position in the church. But the vice president must be a deputy, and he lost the November election in the Pittsburgh diocese.

His spot was taken by the Rev. David D. Wilson, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Kittanning. In a posting last month on a popular conservative Anglican Web site, the Rev. Wilson wrote that he considered himself in "a state of broken communion" with the bishops who confirmed Bishop Robinson and therefore would not participate in the General Convention's daily Eucharists and Bible discussion groups. He called on like-minded lay and clergy deputies attending the convention to join his protest.

The Rev. Wilson and the rest of the Pittsburgh delegation will be led by Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. It was Bishop Duncan who led a procession three years ago of 19 bishops to the front of the House of Bishops after the confirmation of Bishop Robinson, calling on intervention from the Anglican Communion in "the pastoral emergency that has overtaken us."

Since then, Bishop Duncan has helped form the Anglican Communion Network, of which he is the moderator. It claims 200,000 members in more than 800 parishes around the country.

He said that the special commission's "One Baptism, One Hope in God's Call" report that will be voted on at the convention "attempted to move in the right direction."

"It just didn't move far enough," he said.

He believes the current debate is part of an ongoing "reformation in all of western Christianity."

"If we're going to remain as Christian churches, putting forward the reliable word of God and speaking reliably of what Christians have believed, we've got to become countercultural," the Rev. Duncan said. "If we fail to, we'll just become sects."

On the other end of the discussion, Bishop Vincent Warner, of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Wash., has urged the church to maintain its identity and voice as a denomination that has embraced change throughout its existence.

"We are a church that was born in revolution and we shouldn't back down now," he was quoted as saying in his diocesan newspaper. "I believe that all members of the church can be in all orders of the church. And everyone should have both the rights and the rites of the church.

"God shows no partiality. I hope that the church will not only have that dream but will live it."