Both the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church voted on Tuesday in favor of a role for gays and lesbians in their faith communities. At its triennial general convention in Columbus, Ohio, the Episcopal House of Deputies decided not to follow the wish of worldwide Anglican leaders and enact a moratorium on electing openly gay bishops, while the Presbyterian national assembly voted in Birmingham, Alabama, to allow individual congregations and regional presbyteries to make their own decisions regarding gay bishops and others, the Associated Press reports. "The vote says we're not willing to make sacrificial lambs of our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers and that has to leave me feeling pretty grateful and very proud," the Reverend Susan Russell of Integrity, the Episcopal LGBT caucus, told the AP of her church's vote. The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the 77-million-member international Anglican Communion, which has been in turmoil since the election of openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.