THE election of Canon Gene Robinson as an openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire would have set evangelicals and liberals against each other in a battle for the soul of the Anglican Church.

The crux would come next year, when the invitations to the next Lambeth Conference are expected to go out.

The invitations are signed personally by the Archbishop of Canterbury and in 1998 all 800 diocesan and suffragan bishops were invited.

If Canon Robinson successfully fights off the latest attempt to derail his appointment, pressure will immediately build on Dr Williams to exclude him. It will be at the next Lambeth Conference, to be held in Cape Town in 2008, that the extent of any schism becomes clear.

The 38 primates of the 75-million strong worldwide Anglican Communion, who normally meet once a year at most and last met in Brazil a few weeks ago, plan to meet again soon to consider how to deal with the present crisis.

One olive branch already being offered to evangelicals and traditionalists by sources in the hierarchy is a separate province in America. The Church of England has two provinces, Canterbury and York, for 43 dioceses, while America has just one for 100 dioceses. A second province would provide a haven for evangelicals and AngloCatholics who cannot bear the thought of kneeling at the altar before either an ordained woman or a practising homosexual.

But although the Anglo-Catholics would welcome such a scheme, the evangelicals are resisting it, not wanting to be sidelined into a ghetto and preferring to remain mainstream.

In spite of the anger and the threats, the unity of the Anglican Communion itself is not at risk at present, because of money.

Legally, the membership of the Communion is determined by those provinces that are members of the Anglican Consultative Council, a registered charity in Britain. More than two thirds of the primates would have to vote, were a province to be expelled. And while a province could leave and set up a rival church, of the provinces that are currently opposing the liberal agenda, such as some in Africa and Asia, none has the financial resources as yet to leave and set up on their own.

“Money is at the root of all this,” David Virtue, an evangelical commentator in America, said. “The West has money and no people. The global South has people and no money. If they start getting money, things could change. Nigeria has already set up an endowment fund. The name of the game is power and money.”

Evangelicals instead want Dr Williams and the primates of the other 37 provinces to declare “impaired” or “broken” communion with the Diocese of New Hampshire. They are also lobbying for a similar declaration against the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada, which recently authorised a rite for same-sex blessings.

Evangelical bishops from America and the developing world will demand that they stand by the resolution on sexuality passed by the last Lambeth Conference in 1998, which upheld traditional biblical norms. Evangelicals want a statement before the next Lambeth Conference to prevent other dioceses around the world from following the lead set by New Hampshire.

They believe in upholding structure and hierarchy and their tactic to date has been to work for renewal and transformation of the Church from within. Through new international organisations such as Anglican Mainstream, and the Reform movement in England, they have been fighting against the liberal agenda, engineering the retreat of Dr Jeffrey John as the next Bishop of Reading. They do not want to leave the Anglican Church and they want to remain in communion with Canterbury.

Liberals are confident that there will be no schism and they believe that the eventual consecration of Canon Gene Robinson will open the door to acceptance of the ordination of practising homosexuals. They cite as precedents the ordination of women in America in 1976, the ratifying of a woman bishop in 1989 and the change of policy on racism in the 1950s. Those decisions, now accepted universally, were condemned at the time. So even if the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates do nothing beyond mouthing platitudes of regret, which is what many expect, they will not leave but simply work harder to change the Church from within.

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