THE largest group of conservative Anglicans in America yesterday called upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to set up a parallel Episcopal Church for followers who believe homosexuality to be un-Christian.

The church leaders made clear to a conference of more than 2,400 dissenters that if the Archbishop did not act, they would split from the Episcopal Church anyway.

“The birthing is under way,” Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council (AAC), told his followers.

Forty-six bishops, 800 clergy and nearly 2,000 parishioners from the conservative wing of the Episcopal Church, the American wing of the Church of England, signed an open letter that will be delivered to a meeting of the 38 Anglican primates under the stewardship of Dr Rowan Williams in London next week. Dr Williams and his senior colleagues have convened the special conference to consider the election by the Episcopal Church of Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as Bishop of New Hampshire, and the approval of the blessing of same-sex partnerships.

Yesterday’s appeal said: “We repudiate the confirmation of a non-celibate homosexual to be a bishop of the Church and its acceptance of same-sex blessings.” It calls for the primates to “discipline those bishops in the Episcopal Church who, by their actions, have departed from biblical faith”.

The document also calls upon Dr Williams to “guide the realignment of Anglicanism in North America”, a euphemism for endorsing a permanent schism between the Episcopal Church and a new, more conservative Anglican church, tentatively called the Intervention Church.

Canon Anderson said: “Can this Church be birthed? It is here in this room.”

A number of dissenting churches and parishioners are already diverting their cash donations from the Episcopal Church to organisations such as the AAC.

The open letter declares: “We redirect our financial resources towards biblically orthodox mission and ministry and away from those structures that support the unrighteous actions of the (Episcopal Church) General Convention.”

The document also calls on Dr Williams to ease the way of those departing from the official Episcopal Church by granting “episcopal oversight, pastoral care and apostolic mission” to those in dispute with their bishops over theology. In practice, this would mean that a priest could not be defrocked, removed from his parish or punished for disagreeing with church policy towards homosexuals.

Until now, only primates have been allowed to grant legitimacy to a dissenting priest. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, extended his protection to a priest in suburban Philadelphia last year and priests under fire from their more liberal bishops have also sought the shelter of conservative Anglican primates from the Caribbean and Africa.

More difficult will be removing the ownership of church buildings from the Episcopal Church. Canon Anderson asked his followers to explore the deeds of their churches to discover whether there was an easy legal remedy.

The Intervention Church intends to forge close links with other Anglican dissenting churches, such as the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Mission in America. “The unfolding of the intervention will enable other Anglican fragments to be gathered in,” said Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh.

The new church will also review whether there should be women priests, the most recent issue to divide American Episcopalians. “The decision to ordain women into the historic three-fold ministry has been a source of great controversy and division,” Mr Duncan said.

He said that the new church would “attempt an honest discernment of God’s will for women in holy orders”.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?