The Archbishop of Canterbury tonight called on the Anglican church to unite, after a report warned that the row over ordaining gay priests could split the church in two.

Dr Rowan Williams called on pro and anti factions to join together to renew and re-energise the Anglican Communion worldwide, following the publication of the Lambeth Commission’s Windsor Report. The archbishop conceded however that there was no simple solution to the crisis.

The report, published today, called on those in the US Episcopal Church who took part in a "deeply offensive" consecration of a gay bishop to apologise for their actions or withdraw from the Anglican Communion.

The commission, headed by the Irish primate Robin Eames, also proposed in its 121-page report that the 38 national churches that constitute the communion should sign a resolution which called for the reassessment of the churches' "care for and attitude towards persons of homosexual orientation".

The commission is dealing with a deep split among Anglican national churches caused by the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire last November and the decision of the western Canadian diocese of New Westminster to bless gay relationships.

In consecrating Bishop Robinson, the report said, the Episcopal bishops “caused deep offence to many faithful
Anglican Christians."

"[They] acted in the full knowledge that very many people in the Anglican Communion could neither recognise nor receive the ministry as a bishop in the church of God of a person in an openly acknowledged same-gender union."

The report called for the withdrawal from the communion of those who took part in the consecration if an apology was not forthcoming.

It also invited the Episcopal Church to call a moratorium on promoting any other person living in a same-gender union to the bishopric "until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges."

"Pending such expression of regret, those who took part as consecrators of Gene Robinson should be invited to consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican Communion," the report said.

After the report was published, Dr Williams said: "I hope that everyone with the well being of our communion at heart will now take time to study the report and to pray and reflect upon its proposals which, as the Commission has made clear, offer neither easy nor simple solutions to real and demanding challenges.

"If we are serious about meeting those challenges, as I know we are, then we have to do all we can to continue to travel this road together."

The Windsor Report also went on to criticise the demonising of homosexuality. It said: "Any demonising of homosexual persons, or their ill-treatment, is totally against Christian charity and basic principles of pastoral care."

Dr Eames, Archbishop of Armagh, said that the depth of feeling on all sides had led to "a degree of harshness and a lack of charity which is new to Anglicanism"

He insisted today's report was not a judgment but part of an ongoing process. "It is part of a pilgrimage towards healing and reconciliation," he said. The report envisioned a conclusion with a formal signing by the national primates at a religious service, but no date was set.

The report also called on conservative bishops who have threatened a breakaway faction to apologise and to affirm their desire to remain within the communion.

A coalition of conservative US Episcopalians affirmed on Saturday that it had split from the national church and formed four new congregations, in part because of last year's consecration.

Some conservative churches in Africa and elsewhere have refused to meet with Episcopal Church leaders, and the issue of homosexuality has threatened to undermine the long-term future of the 77-million strong worldwide communion, which has its roots in the Church of England.

Anglican conservatives are heavily in the majority. A 1998 conference of all Anglican bishops declared gay practices "incompatible with Scripture" and opposed gay ordinations and same-sex blessings in a 526-70 vote with 45 abstentions.

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