An Anglican version of the Roman Catholic church's "inquisition" is proposed today in a document seen by The Times.

Bishops are urging the setting up of an Anglican Faith and Order Commission to give "guidance" on controversial issues such as same-sex blessings and gay ordinations.

The commission was put forward as a proposal this week to the 650 bishops attending the Lambeth Conference as a way of preserving the future unity of the Anglican Communion. Insiders compared it with the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the body formerly headed by the present Pope as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and previously known as the Holy Office or Inquisition.

This morning's "observations" document is the second in a series of three. The third will be published next week. The document says: "Anglicans are currently failing to recognise Church in one another."

In a damning passage about the rows exposing the Church to public ridicule, it continues: "We value independence at the expense of interdependence in the Body of Christ. We denigrate the discipleship of others. This has led to internal fragmentation as well as to confusion among our ecumenical partners."

The document continues to propose solutions to restore unity: "We commend the suggestion for the setting up of an Anglican Communion Faith and Order Commission that could give guidance on the ecclesiological issues raised by our current crisis."

The measure is one of several new initiatives being planned described in the document as "vital for strengthening the life of our Communion".

Another project is looking at the place of the Bible in the Church. The document says: "Such projects are urgent and vital if we are to regain a sense of common values and mutual understanding."

The document also describes as "crucially important" for future unity the Anglican Covenant, a new "unity pledge" that provinces will be asked to sign up to. The covenant will be debated in detail next week.

The proposals are a sign of how the Anglican Communion is centralising its authority in an attempt to prevent further schismatic events such as the consecration of a gay bishop.

Although he will resist describing himself as such, the effect of all these measures, if they are successfully implemented, will be to turn the Archbishop of Canterbury into a de facto Anglican Pope.

In a related move, the same group, which includes the former Dean of St Paul's Dr John Moses and the Primate of South East Asia, the Most Rev John Chew, is also working on a "blueprint" of canon law. This, which would be an Anglican equivalent of the Catholic church's Code of Canon Law, is intended to become a fifth "instrument of communion" designed to hold Anglicans together.

The four existing instruments of communion are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates Meeting and the executive body at the centre, the Anglican Consultative Council.

The church is on the brink of schism over the issue of homosexuality. About 230 bishops have boycotted the conference. The head of the Sudanese church, Archbishop Daniel Deng, this week called on the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, to resign.

Yesterday the Common Cause group of conservatives in the US headed by Pittsburgh bishop Bob Duncan took the first steps towards setting up their own conservative province in the US.

Bishop Duncan, one of the organisers of last month's Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem, is under threat of deposition by The Episcopal Church bishops when they next meet in September.

Bishop Clive Handford, former Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East who chairs the Windsor Continuation Group that produced the document, said: "On the whole it has been received well". He said it had led to a "stimulating conversation".

Jim Naughton, spokesman for John Chane, the liberal US Bishop of Washington, said: "It's troubling, but perhaps unsurprising to see a group composed almost exclusively of bishops, and advised by Anglican Communion Office bureaucrats recommending new structures for the Communion that strengthen the role of bishops and bureaucrats at the expense of clergy and lay people."

Christina Rees, of the women's ordination group Watch, criticised the proposals. She said: "What is needed is the transformation of hearts and minds – a softening of hearts and a turning again to hearing from one another with a goal of consensus, without the pressure of intention of a set form of words that will have disciplinary and legal weight."

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Sarah Brown and the ladies who tweet
• Open letter to a hero's daughters, from the daughter of a murdered officer
• Transplant drug extends life in mice