By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent at Telegraph.co.ukLast Updated: 3:20am GMT 09/11/2007
The worldwide Anglican Church suffered a dramatic new split last night when a leading conservative archbishop approved plans to adopt breakaway American dioceses, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
Archbishop Gregory Venables is to allow conservative dioceses that are defecting from the pro-gay American branch of Anglicanism to affiliate with his South American province thousands of miles away.
The unprecedented realignment will rock the 70 million-strong worldwide Church and escalate the bitter civil war over gay clergy that is tearing it apart.
It will also dismay the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who is struggling to avert a formal schism.
Dr Williams is certain come under huge pressure to denounce what liberals will regard as an illicit “parallel” province.
But if he does he will risk the wrath of the powerful coalition of conservative Global South primates from Africa and Asia who are backing the initiative.
He is already facing threats of a conservative boycott of next year's showcase Lambeth Conference in Canterbury if he fails to discipline the liberal Americans over their pro-gay policies.
Global South leaders yesterday stepped up pressure on Dr Williams to postpone the conference, the ten-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops from across the globe, until the row has been resolved.
The crisis could deepen even further if the Diocese of Chicago elects a lesbian cathedral dean to be its next bishop at the weekend.
Archbishop Venables said that the Americans were to blame for triggering the crisis by consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop in 2003 in defiance of official Church policy.
The British-born Archbishop, who is the Primate of the Province of the Southern Cone, told the Telegraph: "This is a pivotal moment in the history of the Anglican Communion.
"The new realignment demonstrates the depths of the divisions that already exist. "
Dr Williams appears to want to keep the Communion together at all costs, but Gospel truth should never be sacrificed for structural unity.
"Conservatives in America and elsewhere cannot wait in limbo any longer. They need a safe haven now."
Archbishop Venables unveiled the decision of his bishops and other leaders after the plans were overwhelmingly approved by his provincial synod during a meeting in Chile last night.
A handful of conservative American dioceses are already in the process of opting out of the Episcopal Church by voting in their diocesan synods to alter their constitutions.
Up to five are expected to become part of the Southern Cone, which covers most of South America except Brazil, over the next six months or so.
The diocese of San Joaquin in California, which is due to take its final vote in December, is poised to leap first, while Pittsburgh, headed by Bishop Bob Duncan, will have to wait until the middle of next year.
Until now, only parishes have left the American Episcopal Church and affiliated with overseas provinces in Africa, often amid protracted and expensive legal battles over property.
But for the first time, there will be rival dioceses, each claiming to be authentically Anglican, operating in parallel within the same geographical boundaries.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the liberal leader of the American Episcopal Church, warned Bishop Duncan last week that he will face costly legal battles if he defects, but he replied: “Here I stand. I can do no other.”
In a letter sent last night, 46 conservative members of the Church of England's General Synod pledged their support. A number of traditionalist parishes in Canada are also likely to affiliate with the Southern Cone province in protest at plans by liberal dioceses to introduce same-sex blessings.
