The Church of England is facing rifts comparable to those that have split the US Church after hundreds of leading evangelical clergy were told to take "courageous action" and invite bishops from outside their own dioceses to do "irregular" ordinations.

Members of the influential Reform grouping were told at their conference in London today that they must not be afraid to opt out of the care of their own diocesan bishop if he was a liberal or was refusing to ordain conservative evangelical clergy for their parishes.

The advice mirrors practice in the US, where conservatives have even had their own bishops ordained by evangelical Archbishops from Global South provinces such as Uganda.

English evangelicals are not as yet prepared to go that far, but the 1,700 Reform members were told by new chairman, the Rev Rod Thomas, that they must prepare to be courageous in the face of the Church of England's "increasingly liberal agenda."

'If Church got rid of gay clergy it would collapse'

A homosexual bishop claims the Church of England would come close to dimise if it was forced to manage without gay clergy

BACKGROUND

• Gay weddings flourish in a religious stronghold

• Pope to discuss influx of Anglicans

• US Church pledges not to consecrate gay bishops

• Bishop defects to Catholic Church in gay row

BACKGROUND

• Pro-gay agenda pushes Church closer to schism

• Archbishop of Canterbury's 'secret gay communion'

• Archbishop faces clash over gay marriages of 50 priests

Mr Thomas also called on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to recall invitations to next year’s Lambeth Conference issued to pro-gay US bishops, warning that “failure to do this will seal the division of the Communion."

Increasing numbers of Church leaders, including the Primate of Nigeria, Dr Peter Akinola and the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, are threatening to boycott the ten-yearly conference if Dr Williams does not act more decisively against The Episcopal Church of the US.

Mr Thomas warned that without action from Dr Williams, his role would be left "in tatters" and fractures would spread rapidly through the Church of England.