The vote by an overwhelming majority of the church's delegates on 17 July at the national church assembly in Melbourne formalizes the acceptance of gay and lesbian clergy living in committed same-sex relationships. The church has informally accepted them for some time.

The issue has been at the forefront of debate since 1997, when the Rev. Dorothy McRae McMahon resigned from her position as the church's national director for mission after informing the assembly that she was a lesbian.

Following her move, the 1997 assembly voted that it was possible for people within the church to hold opposing views on sexuality. The new president of the Uniting Church in Australia, the Rev. Dean Drayton, described last week's vote as "clarifying" the earlier decision.

Acceptance of homosexual clergy will not be forced on congregations across Australia. Rather, individual parishes will be able to make choices on a case-by-case basis.

After the vote, McMahon said it was inevitable that the church would eventually move to the blessing of same-sex relationships. "When the church appears to be less inclusive, less compassionate, than the community, then I believe that we must at least stop and reflect on that," she said. "We often discuss homosexuality as though it is primarily about sex. I want to say it is primarily about love. It is about a God whose imagination and variety may well extend far beyond our understanding," she said.

However, conservative evangelicals have threatened to split from the church and form their own church.

The assembly's decision may also threaten continuing discussions about a merger between the Uniting Church and the Anglican Church. The Sydney Anglican diocese, which has been particularly outspoken in opposing the ordination of Anglican gay priests, has issued a statement expressing "grave concern" about the Uniting Church move.

Mary Hawkes, a spokeswoman for the Uniting Church's conservative lobby group, said a full-blown church division was likely. She claimed she knew up to 3,000 people in one state alone who would split from the church over the issue.

The Uniting Church was formed in 1977 as a union of the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches and is the country's third-largest Christian denomination, with 300,000 members and a total of 1.3 million Australians professing an association.