EVANGELICAL church leaders from around the world called on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to intervene yesterday after the Episcopal Church of the United States of America appointed the Anglican Church’s first openly gay bishop.

Canon Gene Robinson is already being fêted by liberals throughout the Anglican Communion and has received invitations to preach and talk worldwide.

In October he will be the main speaker at a conference in Manchester organised by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. Organisers are also considering asking him to preach at the conference service in Manchester Cathedral.

The event, the week before his consecration in New Hampshire, will further inflame the debate in England, where evangelicals successfully secured the withdrawal of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, but are now incandescent about the election of Canon Robinson. Other dioceses and parishes could also invite him to preach and speak while he is in Britain.

Protests are expected at the conference, where speakers include the Right Rev Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster, Canada, who recently authorised the Anglican Church’s first official same-sex blessing rite.

Canon Robinson, 56, who has two children and lives with his partner, Mark Andrew, was elected bishop after a turbulent 48 hours, during which a hastily convened inquiry exonerated him of allegations of sexual harassment and links to pornographic websites.

Dr Williams said: “Difficult days lie ahead for the Anglican Church. It is my hope that the Church in America and the rest of the Anglican Communion will have the opportunity to consider this development before significant and irrevocable decisions are made in response.”

Dr Williams is away until September and his words did nothing to halt the avalanche of protests from evangelicals in the West and in particular from Africa, Asia and the rest of the developing world, where most Anglicans now live and where the denomination is growing most quickly.

The Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Rev Benjamin Nzimbi, said that the American Church had “brought a great wound” to the Anglican Communion. He said: “The decision . . . to elect and confirm an active homosexual man as a bishop is wrong. It is against biblical teaching, it is sin and it damages the body of Christ and leads people astray.”

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, who is one of the Church’s most influential evangelical leaders, said: “It is a historic moment in Anglican Communion affairs. This catastrophic decision cannot simply be allowed to pass away into history as a one-off aberration. It represents a time for decision by mainstream, biblical Anglicans around the world, and undoubtedly will result in a significant realignment of relationship within the Communion.”

The Bishop of Egypt, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, Dr Mouneer Anis, said: “We have a great respect for the Church in North America but we cannot comprehend a decision to elect as bishop a man who has forsaken his wife and the vows he made to her in order to live in a sexual relationship with another man outside the bonds of his marriage.”

In England, the Evangelical Alliance said that the election of Canon Robinson was a matter of deep concern. Martyn Eden, director of strategic development, said: “This is a defining and disturbing moment for Christian witness in the UK and around the world. The appointment of Canon Robinson flies in the face of orthodox Christian teaching and traditional church practice.”

The Rev Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, however, said: “The Anglican Communion has deepened and enriched its understanding of the Gospel by appropriately affirming the gifts and spirituality of Canon Gene Robinson. New Hampshire is fortunate they will have him as their bishop in a few months.

“Whatever else may happen, at long last there is at least now one part of the Anglican Communion that has made an official and clear step towards creating a genuinely inclusive Church where neither a particular sexual orientation nor a loving relationship between two members of the same gender is automatically considered a disqualification for office.”

About a quarter of the bishops of the Episcopal Church stayed away from the House of Bishops meeting in Minneapolis yesterday in protest at Canon Robinson’s appointment. Bishops representing the Anglo-Catholics, the traditionalists and the evangelicals all stayed away.

Bishop Frank Griswold, the Primate of the Episcopal Church, has spoken to Dr Williams about the threat to church unity. “I have been in conversation with the Archbishop of Canterbury and I appreciate the fact that what we did is considered unmindful of what people in other places would feel,” he said.

Officials from the Diocese of New Hampshire are making preparations for the consecration of Bishop-elect Robinson on Sunday, November 2, at Durham, New Hampshire.

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