Just hours after its newly elected woman head preached a sermon in praise of “our mother Jesus”, the Episcopal Church agreed to “exercise restraint” in appointing any more gay bishops after a tense day of debate and argument.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, welcomed the resolution with gratitude and what appeared to be relief, but he also made clear his reservations.

He welcomed the “exceptional seriousness” with which the Episcopal Church had treated the calls for it to repent and to impose moratoriums on same-sex blessings and the consecration of any more gay bishops. He said that actions by bishops and laity of the Episcopal Church yesterday showed “how strong is their concern to seek reconciliation and conversation with the rest of the Communion.”

But he continued: “It is not yet clear how far the resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor report. The wider Communion will therefore need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.”

But this fragile consensus was immediately shattered by leading bishops on both sides.

Thirty liberal bishops issued a statement of dissent, saying that they could not abide by the new resolution. Bishop John Chane of Washington, a prominent church liberal who officiates at the National Cathedral in American capital, said that he would not agree to block the ordination of any gay bishop. “I will defy the resolution by consenting after prayer and careful consideration to any person duly elected by a diocese in this church,” he said.

On the other side, five conservative bishops accused the General Convention of “misleading the rest of the Communion by giving a false perception that they intend actually to comply with the recommendations of the Windsor Report”. They continued: “We therefore disassociate ourselves from those acts of this Convention that do not fully comply with the Windsor Report.”

They said that they repudiated the actions of the convention and committed themselves to providing pastoral care to worshippers and parishes on the orthodox wing, so placing themselves also in potential breach of Windsor because this would entail crossing diocesan and parochial boundaries.

The resolution was agreed after panicked bishops summoned the rare joint session of the whole Church at its three-yearly convention. The session was held the day after the 800-strong House of Deputies resoundingly rejected the Anglican hierarchy’s demand for a moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops.

Delegates, many wearing pink “It’s a girl” badges in celebration of the Right Rev Katharine Schori’s election as the new presiding bishop, were warned by the current primate of the Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold, that if they did not at least make an attempt to comply with demands for a moratorium on the consecration of any more gay bishops, they would risk exclusion from key bodies of the Anglican Church.

A proposal put forward by Bishop Griswold committing the Church to “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate for the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider Church and will lead to further strains” sailed through the 300-member House of Bishops on a show of hands and was approved 75-34 by clergy delegations and 72-32 by lay delegations in the House of Deputies.

Earlier, at the morning Eucharist at the convention in Columbus, Ohio, Dr Schori signalled her feminist credentials in a sermon that drew on the writings of the 14th-century Julian of Norwich. She said: “Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation — and you and I are His children. If we’re going to keep on growing into Christ images for the world around us, we’re going to have to give up fear.”

Liberals in Britain and America defended her sermon as being in a long tradition of writings by women theologians that use the metaphor of Jesus as mother.

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