The nation's mainline Protestant denominations have quarreled for years over the role of gay men and lesbians in church life, but those debates promise to grow even more intense and acrimonious this summer.
The conflicts, which come as California and other states wage legal fights over same-sex marriage, could well influence whether some of the religious denominations remain intact or splinter into smaller factions.
California's Supreme Court is expected to rule today on the constitutionality of the state's ban on same-sex marriage. For the faithful in a number of American churches, the hard-fought legal battle over civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples runs parallel to religious struggles that are strikingly similar and often just as heated.
One of the most visible denominational skirmishes will occur in July, when leaders of the 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church consider proposals at their national convention in Anaheim to sanction a religious rite for blessing same-sex unions and ease restrictions on the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops.
If approved, the steps could further alienate theological conservatives, giving them reason to join four Episcopal dioceses and hundreds of parishes that split last year to form a separate church.
The country's largest Lutheran denomination, meanwhile, is scheduled in August to consider a long-anticipated statement on human sexuality that, among various elements, says that Christian tradition recognizes marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman.
Even as they acknowledge deep divisions over homosexuality, members of the 4.7-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will decide at their meeting in Minneapolis whether they should enable local congregations to recognize same-sex unions and allow "practicing homosexuals" in committed relationships to serve in the ministry.
Other Protestant groups are embroiled in similar struggles, including the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church. Another, the American Baptist Churches USA, is scheduled to hold its biennial convention in Pasadena in June but is not expected to consider any action related to same-sex marriage, a spokeswoman said.
But scholars are watching the Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans especially closely, seeing them as a gauge for other denominations. The experts are waiting to see if the intensified debate and turmoil leading up to the national conventions produces any consensus on issues that have long divided U.S. Protestants.
