Strong differences have emerged over how to interpret a resolution of the Episcopal Church General Convention regarding partnered gay people being bishops.

Some activists on both sides of the gay ordination issue consider it a repeal of a 2006 moratorium on the consecration of partnered gay bishops, while key leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh say it merely describes the fact that the Episcopal Church already has openly gay priests and one partnered gay bishop.

The moratorium "is still there. We did not repeal it," said Bishop Robert Johnson, assisting bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, which has been rebuilding since October, when the original diocese split after voting to secede from the Episcopal Church.

"I don't see that there would be any threat to the moratorium unless we get presented with another partnered lesbian or gay bishop. That would be the test. But [this resolution] was a clarification, reminding us of where we are in the Episcopal Church. That is the way the bishops saw it," he said.

The General Convention, which governs the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church, declared Tuesday that gay and lesbian people in lifelong committed relationships "may be called to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church." It continued: "... Christians of good conscience disagree about these matters."

The Episcopal Church has had local option on the ordination of gay priests since 1996. A crisis ensued after the 2003 General Convention approved the consecration of a partnered gay bishop. The original Diocese of Pittsburgh was among four that subsequently voted to secede from the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. province of the 80 million-member global Anglican communion. Many Anglican provinces in the global South have declared broken or impaired communion with the Episcopal Church over the issue. Some want the communion to recognize the conservatives who broke with the Episcopal Church as an Anglican province in their own right. The 2006 moratorium calling for "restraint" in the consecration of partnered gay bishops was an attempt by the Episcopal Church to address those concerns.

Tuesday's resolution was part of a declaration of "commitment and witness" to the Anglican Communion. It was passed 78-21 by the laity, 77-19 by the clergy and 99-45 by the bishops.

Pittsburgh's delegation of eight clergy and laity split, the clergy voting 2-2 on the resolution, and the laity voting 3-1 in support of it. The Rev. James Simons, president of the diocesan standing committee, voted against it. He was concerned that Pittsburghers who are still deciding whether to remain in the Episcopal Church would interpret it as a repeal of the moratorium.

"This is a description of where the Episcopal Church is, and a statement of fact about the desire to remain in full communion with Anglicanism," he said.

But gay clergy advocates believe the new resolution negates the moratorium. The Rev. Lynn Edwards, the openly gay rector of St. Matthew's in Homestead who did not attend the Anaheim, Calif., convention, said he sees this as a return to traditional Anglican governance.