A senior American bishop has launched an extraordinary attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, accusing him of aiding and abetting "those who would destroy our Church".

The Bishop of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, the Right Rev Paul Marshall, charges Dr Williams with endorsing the "crudely divisive" actions of conservatives and of "callous treatment" of North American Anglicans over the issue of homsexuality.

Bishop Marshall, who has been condemned as "revisionist" by conservatives, says Dr Williams has made a "laughing stock" of the US church over the gay issue.

In a document posted on an internal church discussion website, he accuses Dr Williams of "shunning" liberal British bishops while meeting conservatives such as Bob Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh.

In language reminiscent of battles fought over race and slavery, he also accuses the Archbishop of appointing a "virtual lynch mob" to draft a new unity document, or covenant, intended to avert schism.

He describes this as tantamount to turning the Anglican fellowship into a "curial bureaucracy" using tactics reminiscent of "the great and oppressive Coloniser."

He also compares the Archbishop to US leaders during Vietnam, arguing that just because Dr Williams is "smart", it does not mean he is right.

Bishop Marshall’s document, circulated at a meeting of US episcopal bishops in Texas last week, was leaked to The Times as Dr Williams joined the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and other Church of England bishops for their annual January meeting in Leeds.

It raises the stakes further for the 39 Primates who next month head for Tanzania to debate the continuing crisis caused by the election of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in June 2003. There is speculation that some conservatives might refuse to share communion again with liberal Primates who support The Episcopal Church and Bishop Robinson.

The liberals include the first ever woman Primate, Bishop Katharine Schori, recently elected to lead The Episcopal Church in the US.

Bishop Marshall, writing with what he describes as "regret and trembling", says he is not asking Dr Williams to agree with him, even if the actions of the US church were inspired by some of Dr Williams’ own teachings when he was a more liberal academic.

He says: "He doesn’t have to receive communion. He doesn’t have to eat or hang out with us. He certainly ought to meet us face-to-face and accept accountability for his breathtaking words and actions."

Although Bishop Marshall is an elderly bishop who is little known outside his numerically small province of The Episcopal Church, his words are being afforded weight because they reflect a growing frustration at Dr Williams, primus inter pares, or first among equals of all 39 Primates.

Bishop Marshall admits he has been concerned about Dr Williams since the Archbishop, who had been in New York at the time, wrote about 9/11 in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Bishop Marshall says: "People in my own diocese who lost loved ones in that attack have never recovered from the insensitive academic speculation of their galactic leader asking those covered in blood, ashes and strewn body parts to reflect on the bombers and ‘why they hate’ the US."

Dr Williams, as an academic and as Archbishop of Wales, was understood on his appointment to the top job to be liberal on the issue of gay clergymen.

In essays such as The Body’s Grace, he argued a Christian case for the acceptance of homosexuality.

But since becoming Archbishop, he has distanced himself from these views and become more sympathetic to the conservative cause, believing that Church unity must come first.

Conservatives regard active homosexuality as sinful and unbiblical and believe that provinces that appoint practising gay priests and bishops are heretical.

A Lambeth Palace spokesman defended the Archbishop last night. He said: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has already said there is no aspect of this debate which is pain-free. Just because the liberal voice is not all that often heard in complaint does not mean to say that they do not feel this pain just as acutely."

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