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It's hard to say, and probably only time will tell, but the US Episcopal Church today passed this key resolution:

Resolved, that the 75th General Convention receive and embrace the Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further

Resolved, that this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

Here's the background to the General Convention's final day in Columbus, Ohio. The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold called an extraordinary joint session of the General Convention's House of Bishops and House of Deputies in what seemed like a last-ditch effort to persuade the Convention to make a clear statement that comes close to satisfying the demands of the Windsor Report.

On Tuesday, a proposed moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops was defeated, which gave the appearance of a rebuff to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Windsor process. Bishop Griswold , 'Unless there is a clear perception on the part of our Anglican brothers and sisters that they have been taken seriously in their concerns it will be impossible to have any genuine conversation. Therefore there will be no conversion and the bonds of affection which undergird communion will be further strained.'

Bishop Griswold's resolution was passed, with the assistance of an intervention from the Presiding Bishop-elect, Kathering Jefferts Schori, who voted in support of Bishop Gene Robinson's consecration three years ago. She told the House of Deputies, 'I am fully committed to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in this church . . . I certainly don't understand adopting this resolution as slamming the door.'

We now wait to see if it will be enough for traditionalists and conservatives who were outraged when the 2003 General Convention endorsed the election of a gay bishop.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was extremely careful in his response today. After thanking the Convention for its hard work and careful deliberation, he said:

It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor Report. The wider Communion will therefore need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.

So, he's not sure either. The full statement is , and is a reminder of the communiqué from the last Primates' Meeting which considered the Windsor Report. The Archbishop goes on:

I am grateful that the JSC of the Primates and ACC has already appointed a small working group to assist this process of reflection and to advise me on these matters in the months leading up to the next Primates’ Meeting. I intend to offer fuller comments on the situation in the next few days. The members of Convention and the whole of the Episcopal Church remain very much in our prayers.

Few can envy Rowan Williams at the moment, but the ball is now firmly in his court, whether he wants it or not. Some question's he'll be considering in the next few days:

1. Will he agree to provide alternative primatial oversight for dioceses of the US Episcopal Church unwilling to accept the authority of the new Presiding Bishop (because they object to the election of a female presiding bishop)?
2. Will the new Presiding Bishop be invited to join the Primates' meeting after he institution in November?
3. Will Gene Robinson be invited to the next Lambeth Conference of bishops in 2008 (since attendance is at the invitation of Canterbury)?
4. Does the language of today's resolution come close enough to a direction, from the Convention, effecting 'a moratorium on the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same-gender union' (Windsor, paragraph 134)? Is a 'call' to 'exercise restraint' tantamount to a 'prohibition for a period of time'?
5. Does any resolution emerging from the 2006 General Convention adequately respond to the invitation in the Windsor Report for the Episcopal Church 'to express its regret' for the pain its actions caused other members of the Communion?

(The picture shows ECUSA's Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, Arcbishop Rowan Williams and the Irish Primate Archbishop Robin Eames, chairman of the Lambeth Commission which produced the Windsor Report.)