MILWAUKEE (AP) — The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said he was “mindful” that the Episcopal Church confirmed its first openly gay bishop recently, but his denomination would not quickly follow suit.

Separately, a leading Roman Catholic clergymember said the Episcopal vote had “serious implications in the search for Christian unity.”

The Episcopal General Convention ratified the election of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, as New Hampshire’s bishop and affirmed same-sex blessings as “an acceptable practice in the church.”

The Rev. Mark Hanson, the Evangelical Lutherans’ presiding bishop, said his denomination, gathered for its weeklong national meeting, planned to continue consulting Scripture, church members, and gays and lesbians — but it will ultimately decide alone whether to ordain sexually active gays and lesbians.

The ELCA was scheduled to present an interim report on homosexuality commissioned at its last assembly in 2001, but the body won’t make recommendations until 2005 on whether to bless same-gender relationships or allow people in such relationships to be pastors.

Hanson affirmed the church’s current position of allowing gays and lesbians in the clergy if they remain celibate.

“We’re certainly mindful a week after the Episcopalians made their decision,” Hanson said. “But we are at different places in our decision making.”

“Ultimately, what we do in terms of human sexuality will be decisions of this church,” he said.

In a separate statement, Catholic Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said the Episcopal votes had “serious implications in the search for Christian unity and for the work of our bilateral Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States.”

“These decisions reflect a departure from the common understanding of the meaning and purpose of human sexuality,” Blaire said.