When the Rev Bill Murdoch walks down the aisle of All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi to become an Anglican bishop today he will be turning his back on an American Church that he believes has lost its way.

Mr Murdoch is the latest rebel conservative priest from the US to defect to an African Church over the issue of homosexuality. But he says he will not be turning his back on his younger brother, Brian, who is a gay priest in New England. “I love my brother and care deeply for him, and obviously that’s been a part of my family’s struggle for 20 years,” he said. “So this has been a deep struggle, not a casual decision at all.”

The Anglican Communion of 77 million has been beset by splits since the American Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. Since then an alliance of conservative archbishops, largely from the developing world, has accused the Episcopal Church of ignoring Biblical teaching. Liberals, who favour a looser interpretation of Scripture, in turn accuse conservatives of taking the Communion of 38 Churches to the brink of schism.

A meeting of primates in Tanzania this year agreed to draw up a “covenant” that would commit Churches to procedures for resolving disputes within the Communion, but the flow of American renegades to Africa has continued. More than 30 congregations have joined the Kenyan Church. Others have found sanctuary with Nigerian, Ugandan and Rwandan bishops. More than 200 of the 7,000 Episcopal congregations in the US have opted out of the covenant.

Mr Murdoch will be consecrated today alongside the Reverend Bill Atwood, from Texas. Both say that they are not trying to deepen divisions between liberals and conservatives. Mr Murdoch said that he had travelled to Kenya – where homosexuality is illegal – to find a spiritual home for his Massachusetts congregation, which felt alienated by the Episcopal Church. “It’s not about driving any wedges,” he said. “It’s a response to something that has already occurred.”

Today’s service will be conducted by the Archbishop of Kenya. It will be attended by ten primates – or their representatives – from the Global South coalition of conservative bishops.They were at pains to emphasise that the consecration of American bishops in Africa was a temporary measure.

Archbishop Greg Venables, of the Southern Cone, said: “The major struggle we are going through is how to resolve a conflict of this nature, where there is a group of people who want to go in a new direction while the rest of the Church is resisting that.”

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