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"Within that a person's personal life is examined," said Bishop Cameron. "But they are not examined to see if they are homosexual or heterosexual, they are examined in how they conduct their own personal life. Recommendation for ordination... would be on that basis."

Father Richard Jenkins, director of Affirming Catholicism, a progressive-thinking Anglican organisation co-founded by Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury, in the 1990s, praised the statement by the Scots as a positive step.

He said: "What the Scottish Episcopal Church has done does not go beyond what the Anglican Communion has already agreed. I think it is a progressive statement nonetheless.

"What they are doing is being really honest about where they stand. They are being really honest in saying that they respect and value the integrity and gifts of lesbian and gay people in and around the church.

"We all know that there have been gay priests in history, some celibate and holy and some not. The Scottish Episcopal Church is just recognising that lesbian and gay people are made in God’s image and have gifts to share."

But the Rev David McCarthy, of St Silas Church in Glasgow, warned that the public statement of willingness to ordain priests who are practising homosexuals could cause "some difficulty from here on in".

"This is now seen as the public stance of the Scottish Episcopal Church, which of course it isn’t," he said. "If we align ourselves with the North American church and the stance they have taken, I think we may find ourselves becoming something of a sect."

In their statement, the Scottish bishops said they were conscious of "significant diversity of view" within their church on gay marriage and the consecration of gay bishops. They added: "The Scottish Episcopal Church has never regarded the fact that someone was in a close relationship with a member of the same sex as in itself constituting a bar to the exercise of an ordained ministry.

"Indeed, the Windsor Report itself in suggesting that such a moratorium be placed on such persons being consecrated as bishops, itself acknowledges the existence of many such relationships within the Church.

"The Scottish Episcopal Church has, even before the 1998 Lambeth Conference, sought to be welcoming and open to persons of homosexual orientation in our congregations, and to listen to their experiences. This has on occasion led clergy to respond to requests to give a blessing to persons who were struggling with elements in their relationship, and who asked for such a prayer.

"We were glad to note that the concern of the Windsor Report and the Primates’ Communiqué was not with such informal pastoral responses to individual situations, and was about the official authorisation of a liturgical text for the blessing of such unions.

"We do agree that the whole area of debate in this matter is of such a fluidity, within which many different understandings exist, that it would certainly be premature to move formally to authorise such a liturgy."

The Scottish statement was welcomed as "sensible" by Stonewall, the gay rights group.

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