THE Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday summoned the world’s leading Churchmen to a “gay summit” in an unprecedented attempt to avert schism in the Anglican Church.

Dr Rowan Williams acted in response to demands from evangelical bishops in America and worldwide that he intervene after the election of the openly gay Canon Gene Robinson to be Bishop of New Hampshire in the US.

The move comes as figures were released by the Church of England yesterday showing that the number of adults going weekly to church had fallen back below one million.

The meeting of the 38 primates, who between them represent 164 nations and more than 75 million Church members, is expected to lead either to the censure of the Anglican Church in America or a “re-alignment” of the Anglican Communion worldwide.

However, as evangelical anger grows daily, insiders believe that a split within the Church is now inevitable. They said that Dr Williams would need all his much-vaunted intellectual skills if, far than preventing schism, the summit was not to formalise it.

Dr Williams’s decision to call the crisis meeting places his authority on the line as never before. His willingness to sacrifice his friend Dr Jeffrey John as next Bishop of Reading in the face of threats from evangelicals to withdraw funds and boycott the consecration indicated how far he was prepared to go to preserve Church unity.

Evangelical primates from the “global South” will now demand that the Church in America is declared to be in “impaired” or “broken” communion as a result of the decision to ordain the Church’s first non-celibate gay bishop.

The Primate of Nigeria, the Most Rev Peter Akinola, said: “As things stand, a clear choice has been made for a Church that exists primarily in allegiance to the unbiblical departures and waywardness of our generation, a Church that enthrones the will of men over and above the authority of God and His revealed and written Word.”

Nigeria has 17.5 million Anglicans and recently set up an endowment fund that will eventually give it the financial muscle to break free from western support.

“Such a Church is bound to become a shrine for the worship of men rather than God. We cannot go on limping between two opinions,” he said.

It is unlikely that Dr Williams, who broke his holiday with friends in the country to address the crisis, will be prepared to sacrifice an entire Church, especially given that the American province is the wealthiest of all 38 provinces and dioceses such as Liberia are almost entirely dependent on its support.

If no such pronouncement is made, the primates will almost certainly seek some sort of “re-alignment” which would threaten the Church of England’s position as the mother church of the Anglican Communion.

Already, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly meeting of all 800 of the Church’s bishops, has been moved from England to South Africa. One senior African primate said: “We don’t need to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Swine flu vaccine for all as drug rushed through
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes