"To hear some people talk, you would think that living in a church with widely different points of view meant that we were failing somehow to be adequately the church," said the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Ihloff, Bishop of Maryland, in his address to Maryland's diocesan convention May 15-17 in Solomons.

"Whenever I hear that kind of allegation, I am aware that the people who make it have a shallow understanding of what it means to be an Anglican.

"We have for more than 450 years lived in just that kind of church, in which there were sharp divisions on a variety of subjects and we have survived, sometimes even with grace," he added. "The difference is not that our divisions are more serious, but that human nature in the present is less tolerant of division and disagreement. Because we have adopted so much of our secular culture, we expect to have immediate resolution - instant gratification - of all the pressing problems. We need patience and discipline to remain in communion with those with whom it would be easier to part company.

Sixteen resolutions were considered by the convention, including one which urged General Convention to adopt a canon re-emphasizing that clergy are obligated to "abstain from sexual relations outside holy matrimony." That resolution was defeated. So was a resolution calling for the censure of Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning for his support of President Clinton's 1996 veto of legislation concerning partial birth abortions.

The convention also paid tribute to the Rt. Rev. Charles L. Longest, suffragan bishop, who will retire in November, and listened to a dialogue on the Concordat of Agreement presented by Bishop Ihloff and Bishop George P. Mocko of the Delaware/Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.