The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is among the British Anglicans attending the US Church’s general convention in Columbus, Ohio, which opens today. Conservative critics say that the calls for repentance over the effects of the consecration of a gay bishop and for failing to consult with others before acting do not go far enough.

Campaigners on the Chirch’s orthodox wing want repentance for the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. Not only are they concerned about its effects, they demand a moratorium on such consecrations.

However, liberal lobbyists are equally determined to ensure that there is no backtracking on the gay rights agenda, even if it means that the US Church will have to leave the global Anglican communion.

Dozens of the 7,200 parishes and missions that make up the US Church have defected over the debate, and it is believed that a further 500 or more could go after the convention ends next week if the vote on repentance results in a “fudge”.

The dispute, which mirrors the conservative-liberal divide in secular US culture, has damaged the US Church, with membership down to 2.2 million and average Sunday attendance below 800,000. In a country where churchgoing remains fashionable and popular, the Free Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist and Methodist Churches all stand to benefit from the Anglican disarray.

In a recent lecture the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, gave a warning that if the General Convention did not reach a clear decision the Church would split, damaging its mission, in particular to the poor in Africa.

Speaking to a theological seminary in Virginia, he spoke of the “alarming and distressing” consequences of the consecration of Bishop Robinson, and called on the US Church this week to commit itself to a moratorium on the ordination of gay priests and bishops and to refrain from same-sex blessings.

He also called on the US Church to commit itself to a “covenant” as proposed by the Windsor Report into the crisis.

The Rev Martyn Minns of Fairfax, Virginia, says in an article posted on the website of the UK orthodox lobby group Anglian Mainstream that he is leading a team of clergy and parishioners to the US convention. He says they will “pray hard” for “repentance” for the actions of the US Church.

DIVIDED CHURCH

1998 Lambeth Conference rejects homosexual practice as “incompatible with scripture” and advises against the “legitimising or blessing of same sex unions” and of “ordaining those involved in same gender unions”

2003 Vicky Imogene “Gene” Robinson, a gay divorced father of two is elected and consecrated as ninth bishop of New Hampshire in the US

2003 Archbishop of Canterbury sets up Lambeth Commission to look into the crisis as Anglican Communion begins to implode

2004 Commission publishes Windsor Report that calls for repentance from the US Church and for a covenant to restrict similar unilateral action by one province

2006 US Episcopalians gather in Columbus, Ohio, to debate the call to repentance, the possibility of future gay ordinations and same-sex blessings

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