An openly gay minister in Scotland has withstood a challenge by religious conservatives in the Church of Scotland to his appointment – the latest high-profile gay controversy to rock the Anglican Communion, reports The Guardian.

Reverend Scott Rennie, 37, a divorcee told his former congregation that he was gay and in a committed relationship with a man.

Religious conservatives angry at Rennie's appointment as minister of Queen's Cross church in January challenged the appointment.

Saturday, religious leaders of one of Scotland's largest Protestant churches, and a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, voted to keep Rennie as minister, despite a vocal campaign mounted by opponents – going so far as likening supporters of gay clergy to Nazis. And a petition against the appointment gathered more than 12,000 signatures from clergy representing various denominations worldwide.

The church's general assembly, its governing body, overwhelmingly confirmed Rennie's appointment in a 326 to 267 vote.

“I'm relieved, humbled, I'm obviously pleased and I'm really looking forward to going to be with my new congregation,” Rennie told reporters Sunday. “I've had a long time to wait, they've had a long time to wait and I'm just glad we can get on with life.”

The Anglican Church's crisis over the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy began in 2003 in the United States when the Episcopal Church – the Anglican body in the U.S. – consecrated the first openly gay bishop, Rev. Gene Robinson.

Robinson, 61, lives in Weare, New Hampshire with his longtime partner.

Last July, Robinson was excluded from the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference of church leaders after conservatives pressured the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to act. Fearing a worldwide schism over the issue, Williams uninvited Robinson.

Conservatives in the church argue that the Bible forbids gay clergy. Reformers propose that the Bible cannot be the definitive word of God.

“Jesus Christ says this amazing thing at the last supper,” Robinson said last July. “He says to his disciples: 'There is more that I would teach you, but cannot bear it right now. So I will send the Holly Spirit who will lead you to all truth.'... God is now leading us to the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.”

After the vote, Rennie told UK paper The Guardian: “The question was about the call of God in my life, the call of God in a congregation's life, and we've to respond. Everybody responds to the call of God. Just because I'm gay doesn't meant that I shouldn't.”