Scottish Episcopalians voted against the adoption of the Anglican Covenant on Friday, a move which follows the Church of England's decision earlier this year to also oppose legislation that would set boundaries in belief and practices for all 40 member churches in the Anglican communion.

The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church votes included 112 against, 6 in favor and 13 abstentions, the Anglican Communion reported.

"The Anglican Communion matters deeply to us in the Scottish Episcopal Church," said The Most Rev. David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane from Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh, where the General Synod is meeting from June 7-9.

"We invoke the history of Samuel Seabury, consecrated in 1784 by the Scottish bishops as the first bishop of the church in the United States of America. We want to be part of the re-founding - the bringing to birth of a new phase of communion life."

A major debate facing Anglican churches, with a key focus on the Episcopal Church in the United States, has involved perspectives on homosexuality within the churches, including the ordination of gay and lesbian bishops.

Rev. Chillingworth said discussions on the Covenant "explored the way in which Communion is spiritual before it is institutional - decentralized before it is centralized."

"[I] am convinced that we discern that our particular attitude to authority - rooted in the collegiality of a College of Bishops - is echoed in the aspiration to a dispersed rather than centralized authority which is the vision of the Anglican Communion," he said.

"And we needed to recognize that what brings division and difficulty to our life as a Communion is a number of inter-related issues, not just one - not just the single complex of issues around human sexuality," he added.