UP TO 15 bishops plan to challenge opponents of the new Bishop of Reading, Dr Jeffrey John, as the Church of England row over gay priests escalates.

An open letter is being drawn up by a group of liberal diocesan bishops to fight back against a statement this week from nine evangelical and Anglo-Catholic diocesan bishops who criticised Dr John’s appointment as a threat to church unity.

The statement is intended as a gesture of support for Dr John as well as for the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Rev Richard Harries who appointed him.

In an interview with The Times yesterday Dr John disclosed that he was still in his gay relationship of 27 years although it has been platonic for some time. This keeps him strictly within the official bishops’ guidelines governing homosexual relationships.

Bishops who have already openly supported Dr John include the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Right Rev John Packer, the Bishop of Hereford, the Right Rev John Oliver, and the Bishop of Worcester, the Right Rev Peter Selby. Another 12 are understood to be sympathetic.

The liberal bishops are anxious not to exacerbate the deepening divisions that threaten to split the Church in two. But they are increasingly aware of the effect their silence is having on the Church.

One insider said: “By remaining silent, they are allowing the Church of England to be presented in the media as an organisation made up mostly of homophobic bigots.”

In the interview, Dr John said he did not intend to stand down, arguing that this was not his decision. He also argued that love between two people reflected God’s love for humanity, and that this could work for two people of the same sex as much as for married couples.

His skills as a communicator and record of encouraging church growth have won him support at the highest level. Senior bishops are desperate for the Church to move on from its current obsession with sex, in particular gay sex.

Failure to do so, they believe, will place further barriers between the Church and millions of potential believers it is trying to tempt back into the pews. The statement comes after a poll of clergy in the Reading area, where Dr John will be based, which showed a majority backed his appointment.

The Times canvassed one third of the clergy, and found that of those, two thirds supported the appointment. However, many clergy were worried that he would become a focal point for detractors and deepen existing divisions over the issue of homosexuality.

The poll increases pressure on the Bishop of Oxford, who will today meet a group of evangelicals from his diocese who are understood to be “incandescent” about Dr John’s views, reported in The Times.

They are particularly furious at what they regard as his “failure to repent” over the fact that his relationship with his partner, although now celibate, was once physical.

Some are considering withholding “quotas”, the funds they pay to the diocese, or seeking oversight from a bishop they regard as orthodox.

The worldwide Anglican Communion is also fracturing over the issue. The Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev Peter Akinola, said there could be serious consequences if Dr John took up his post. Archbishop Akinola’s province, which has more than 17 million of the Anglican Communion’s 70 million members, has already broken off communion with the New Westminster diocese in Canada, after its bishop authorised same-sex blessings.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One, Archbishop Akinola said: “We claim that we are Bible-living Christians. We cannot be seen to be doing things that are clearly out of the boundaries allowable by scripture.” He said he had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, making clear that Dr John could precipitate a rift.

• The Liberal movement has become the first Jewish body in the UK to sanction blessings for gay and lesbian couples in synagogue, according to today’s Jewish Chronicle.

  Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, chair of the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues’ rabbinic conference, said that there had been “no deep divisions” over the policy.

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