A "church within a church" is proposed in a new report as a way of finding a home for the opponents of women priests and bishops in the Church of England.

A series of new dioceses that would transcend geographical boundaries and be havens for men and women opposed to female ordination is the radical proposal set out in the long-awaited report on how to proceed with the Church's desire to consecrate women bishops.

The report sets out a number of possible options and says that the General Synod must decide. But if the Church decides to opt for a structural solution, it makes clear that this would be the best way forward.

Critics claim the solution to how to consecrate women bishops without disenfranchising a substantial minority of opponents would leave the established Church resembling a "Gruyere cheese", with dioceses being left with large "holes" in them as parishes fled wholesale from the prospect of women bishops.

It would also set a new precedent in altering for the first time the centuries old principal of dioceses being determined by geographical boundaries. As a precedent adopted by the Church of England, the mother church of the entire Anglican Communion, it could even offer a way forward to a body in the throes of schism over how to accommodate those in favour and against gay ordination.

The long-awaited "Manchester report", published today, demands from the majority in support of women's ordination that they accept that the "theological convictions of those unable to receive the ordained ministry of women are within the spectrum of Anglican teaching and tradition."

Those who hold them should therefore be able to receive pastoral and sacramental care "in a way that is consistent with their convictions," it says.

The report warns that to consecrate women without safeguards for opponents "would trigger a period of uncertainty and turbulence within the Church of England." It says that many priests and congregations would undoubtedly leave. "The Church of England that emerged at the end of the process might possibly be more cohesive. It would undoubtedly be less theologically diverse."

The working group chaired by The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Revd Nigel McCulloch, was the second attempt to come up with a way of legislating for women bishops after an earlier attempt was rejected. The group included ecclesiastical Anglican heavyeweights such as the Archdeacon of Chester, the Ven Donald Allister, the Rev Jonathan Baker, principal of Pusey House, Oxford, the Dean of the Arches, Dr Sheila Cameron and the Dean of Leicester, the Very Revd Vivienne Faull, one of the most senior women in the Church.

The report breaks new ground by addressing how women can become bishops rather than whether they should. The General Synod in July 2005 voted to set in train the process to remove the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate.

Previous attempts have foundered because of the problem of how to go with the majority support for women bishops while preserving a space for opponents without appearing to be discriminating or half-hearted about women bishops.

Even with the new solution of a number of extra-geographical dioceses with their own male bishops to provide spiritual havens for opponents, the process is likely to take until 2014. The solution is one of several proposed but is certain to be hotly debated over the coming years by parishes, dioceses and the General Synod, beginning at its meeting in York in July. But of all the structural solutions proposed, it is the one that would be the least complex.