MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Episcopal conservatives protested the election of the denomination’s first openly gay bishop by walking off the floor of their national legislative meeting last week as they called on Anglican leaders worldwide to intervene in what they called a “pastoral emergency.”

Some delegates turned in their convention credentials and left for home. Others refused to attend voting sessions. Another group dropped to their knees and prayed as one of their leaders denounced the confirmation of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson.

Robinson was confirmed Aug. 5 after he was cleared of last-minute misconduct allegations that threatened to delay the vote.

The number of protesters at the meeting was unclear. Donald Armstrong, who turned in his credentials, said about 100 people out of more than 800 clergy and laity in the House of Deputies planned to do the same, but far less than that number could be seen leaving the session.

Although conservatives and like-minded overseas bishops have said confirming Robinson would make them consider breaking away from the denomination, the protesters insisted they remained within the Episcopal Church and were simply protesting the General Convention vote.

Robinson said he hoped his critics would not leave the church, though he disagrees with their view that gay sex violates Scripture.

“I think they’re wrong about this,” he said. “I think they’ll come to know that they are wrong, in this life or the next one.”

But Robinson said he values diversity within Anglicanism and hoped his critics will, too.

Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, who voted for Robinson, cautioned against interpreting the protests as a sign that a split in the church is imminent.

“Patient waiting is essential without jumping to any conclusions about who will and who will not remain in the Episcopal Church,” Wolf said.

Bishop Stephen Jecko of Florida, a conservative who opposed Robinson, refused to participate in the House of Bishops session. He said one of his 77 parishes told him that they will withhold their donation to the diocese because part of the money goes to the national church.

“My main priority now is to keep my diocese together,” Jecko said.

After the Aug. 5 62-45 vote, more than a dozen conservative bishops walked to the podium of the House of Bishops, surrounding Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who read a statement saying he and the others felt “grief too deep for words.”

“This body willfully confirming the election of a person sexually active outside of holy matrimony has departed from the historic faith and order of the Church of Jesus Christ,” Duncan said. “This body has divided itself from millions of Anglican Christians around the world.”

The Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members, is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member global Anglican Communion. The American Anglican Council, which represents conservative Episcopalians, planned a meeting in Plano, Texas, in October to decide their next move.

Duncan called on the bishops of the Anglican Communion and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the communion, to intervene in “the pastoral emergency that has overtaken us.”

“May God have mercy on his church,” Duncan said. Eighteen other bishops signed his statement.

The leader of the Anglican Church of West Malaysia, Bishop Lim Cheng Ean, said Asia’s bishops might consider cutting their ties with the U.S. church because of Robinson’s appointment. But the head of Australia’s Anglican Church, Primate Peter Carnley, considered a liberal, said he didn’t think it would be “a communion-breaking issue.”

Williams issued a statement saying it was too soon to gauge the impact and appealing to opponents not to react rashly.

“It is my hope that the church in America and the rest of the Anglican Communion will have the opportunity to consider this development before significant and irrevocable decisions are made in response,” he said.

Gay rights advocates, meanwhile, claimed Robinson’s confirmation as a major victory. Robinson said he attended a gathering of gay Episcopalians recently where some were in tears, saying their gay children had called to tell them they would now return to the church.

“I was blown away for what this meant to those who were gathered there,” Robinson said.

The church has been debating the role of gays for decades. In 1998, a worldwide meeting of Anglican leaders approved a resolution calling gay sex “incompatible with Scripture,” but the denomination has no official rules — either for or against — ordaining gays.

If conservatives do decide to break away, it was unclear what that would mean for the Episcopal Church. Some parishes could split from their dioceses and refuse to recognize clergy who support homosexuality, but stop short of a complete separation.

A full schism would trigger, among other things, bitter fights over parish assets and undercut the global influence of the U.S. church.

Bishops from Africa, Asia and Latin America, representing more than a third of Anglican Communion members worldwide, severed relations this year with a diocese that authorizes same-sex blessings — the Diocese of New Westminster, based in Vancouver, British Columbia.