Nineteen bishops in the Church of England came to the defence of the Archbishop of Canterbury last night and his views on gay sex.

The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, who is the Church’s fourth most senior cleric, headed the list of bishops who signed a letter to The Times protesting at the “gross misrepresentation” of Dr Rowan Williams.

The bishops admit that many among them do not agree with Dr Williams’s contention that a same-sex relationship “might . . . reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage”. But they defend his right to differentiate between his role as theologian and church leader and to uphold “what has been received in faith from scripture and tradition”.

They also defend him against accusations of pragmatism in putting church unity first. The bishops say that his prioritising of church unity over his own beliefs “expresses what Jesus himself taught: the fundamental and deeply biblical teaching on the vital importance of church unity and of working for that unity by humility and mutual submission”.

In an interview with The Times, Dr Wright said last night that bishops were concerned that statements made eight years ago by Dr Williams in private correspondence should not be regarded as news.

He said: “To put it out as news just two days after the Lambeth Conference appears to be trying to scupper the whole Lambeth process. We are insisting that the Lambeth process was a good process and we do not want it to be damaged.”

At the 2½week Lambeth Conference at Kent University in Canterbury, which ended earlier this week, Dr Williams avoided schism by organising an event with no votes or resolutions. The conference was regarded widely as a success, even though just 617 of the Anglican Communion’s 880 bishops were registered to attend.

African-style indaba conflict resolution meetings helped Dr Williams to move forward in the process of drawing up a central Anglican Covenant, a doctrinal statement of beliefs to which it is hoped that all 38 provinces will be able to sign up. The conference also agreed a new Pastoral Forum to act as a clearing house for dissident bishops and dioceses and prevent fragmentation over the consecration of gay bishops and the authorisation of same-sex blessings.

Dr Wright said: “At this stage it is very important that we focus on what Lambeth did and not what what happened eight years ago.”

He said Lambeth had been successful in taking forward the Covenant process and the conference had achieved its objectives.

He said: “People can make political capital out of anything. Lambeth was a great achievement and we must build on that.”

However, conservatives continued to criticise the Archbishop. A spokesman for the evangelical lobby Anglican Mainstream said that Dr Williams had failed in his final address to the Lambeth Conference to affirm adequately the uniqueness of Christ.

The spokesman said: “He did not refer to the uniqueness of Jesus’s universal salvific significance. This is the key issue in a religiously plural world. If Jesus is uniquely the son of God, how does this relate to the salvation of those who believe in Him and those who do not?”

The Archbishop also continued to be criticised by liberals who had hoped that his appointment would herald a new inclusivity in Anglican doctrine. One commenter on the Thinking Anglicans website said that the tone and content of Dr Williams’s letters, published in The Times this week, reminded him of the Archbishop as he was before his translation to Canterbury.