Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth urged the Episcopal Church not to "put a gun to my head" and force him to approve of female priests yesterday during a hearing before today's opening of the Episcopal General Convention in Philadelphia.

His statement was the highlight of five hours of volatile testimony on a proposed canon to be voted on next week. The law, if approved, would force Iker and all bishops across the country to accept female clergy.

The proposed canon is one of several matters delegates will consider during the 10-day triennial general convention, which opens today with worship services and runs through July 24. Delegates will also elect a presiding bishop to replace outgoing Bishop Edmond Browning.

The church allows female clergy, but a "conscience clause" approved in 1976 allows a minority of bishops, including Iker, to continue to prohibit women as clergy. Out of 113 U.S. dioceses only four, including Fort Worth, prohibit female clergy.

The proposed canon, called the "coercive canon," would explicitly state that all bishops must accept female priests.

Iker told the committee yesterday: "I think it's a sin to try to force people to violate their consciences. Please do not put a gun to my head and say, `Now do you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you?' "

Iker warned, "If there is a coercive canon, it will be met by active resistance."

The Rev. Ed Bacon of Pasadena, Calif., responded directly to Iker, declaring: "We're not holding a gun to someone's head. We are holding a cross up to someone's heart."

Iker urged the church not to adopt the coercive canon and offered a compromise that he said would allow women to serve as priests in the Fort Worth Diocese.

Under the plan, Iker -- although he still opposes female clergy -- would allow female priests to serve in the 23-county Fort Worth Diocese under the oversight of Dallas Bishop James Stanton, who favors female priests. Stanton, who testified in favor of the compromise, would also oversee training and ordain women seeking the priesthood from the Fort Worth Diocese.

Fifty-two witnesses testified on the canon.

Katie Sherrod of Fort Worth, a board member of the national Episcopal Women's Caucus, told the committee it is time to get rid of the "conscience clause."

The "conscience clause," she said, protects only those who oppose female clergy. She said women in the Fort Worth Diocese are suffering because of it. The compromise, she said, would put female priests serving in Fort Worth in a second-class position.

During his testimony, Iker said the Fort Worth-Dallas compromise is in the church's tradition of providing room for all points of view.

"We want to continue as one church which is not of one mind," he said. "The Episcopal Church needs the witness of a diocese like Fort Worth; it provides balance."

His comments drew a sharp reply from George Hayman of Newark, N.J., whose wife is a priest.

"If these four dioceses want to get out, let them," he said.

A subcommittee of the Missions Committee, including Judy Mayo, a delegate from St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, will study allowing compromises similar to the agreement between the Fort Worth and Dallas bishops.

Also, delegates will vote on closer ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and perhaps consider a marriage ritual for blessing unions of same-sex couples.

The convention, operating much like the U.S. government, has a House of Bishops and a House of Delegates that must approve matters affecting the 2.1-million- member denomination.

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