DENVER, Colo. (AP) — The Right Rev. Robert O’Neill has taken over as the leader of Colorado’s 35,000 Episcopalians.

O’Neill, who succeeds the retiring Bishop Jerry Winterrowd, has inherited the job of trying to mend a rift over decisions by the Episcopal Church USA to recognize same-sex unions and endorse the church’s first openly gay bishop.

Even before taking the reins, O’Neill, 48, established a task force to study same-sex unions in Colorado.

“I do not expect the task force to solve all the issues before us or make a definitive statement about human sexuality,” O’Neill said. Rather, the goal “becomes one of trying to define the common ground on which we stand.”

O’Neill, who is married with three children, supported the blessing of New Hampshire’s gay bishop, Gene Robinson. Conservatives fear he may steer the Colorado church further to the left.

His most vocal critic, the Rev. Don Armstrong of Colorado Springs, called O’Neill a “neo-pagan” after his election last summer but has since had several meetings with him. Armstrong said he was encouraged when O’Neill told clergy he would not develop a new statewide rite for same-sex blessings, which some believe was allowed by the national church’s resolution last summer.

“He’s a decent man, we’re in the same denomination, and we struggle toward the same faith,” Armstrong said.

Rev. Larry Donoghue, a retired gay Episcopal priest from Denver, said the gay community feels hopeful about O’Neill.

Donoghue met with O’Neill in December and he said they talked about the possibility of one day ordaining clergy living in openly gay relationships.

“All he said is, ‘There’s nothing in our canons or the Book of Common Prayer that prevents that,’” Donoghue said. “He did not say what he would do, but I did get the feeling he was open to it.”