PASADENA, Calif. -- A meeting of activists has criticized the concept of "inclusion," usually advocated by liberal Episcopalians, as inadequate and patronizing of homosexuals.

The conference met under the theme "Beyond Inclusion" on April 10-13 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

Conference organizer Ed Bacon Jr., rector of All Saints, said the Episcopal Church must "stop this foolishness of one segment of God's family presumptuously 'including' gays and lesbians in the family."

The conference attracted about 250 participants, who heard addresses by the Rev. Marilyn McCord Adams of Yale Divinity School; the Rev. Michael Jesse Battle of the School of Theology, University of the South; the Rev. William Countryman of Church Divinity School of the Pacific; Patricia Beattie Jung of Loyola University; and the Rev. Juan Oliver, canon missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.

Andrew Sullivan, a senior editor of The New Republic magazine and editor of the newly published book Same-Sex Marriage: Pro and Con, spoke at the conference banquet.

The conference also featured the world premiere of a play by D. Paul Thomas, The Presentment, which was inspired by the dismissed doctrinal charges against retired bishop Walter Righter. Bacon said he hopes to stage the play in Philadelphia during General Convention. Righter attended the conference and preached at the opening Eucharist.