More than 88 per cent of Uniting Church members oppose gay ordination, according to a survey by the Reforming Alliance group.
Survey organiser Stephen Estherby, a Wollongong minister, said more than 27,000 members from 1459 congregations replied.
The church leadership yesterday responded by releasing a National Church Life Survey report, originally embargoed to February 1, which found that only 45 per cent of Uniting Church worshippers actively opposed gay ordination.
Both groups played down the other's survey. The church leadership attacked the methodology of the dissidents' survey, noting that many congregations did not take part, while the Reforming Alliance criticised the size of the NCLS sample.
The alliance's survey, conducted late last year, followed the decision taken in Melbourne last July by the national assembly of the Uniting Church to allow gay ordination. Entire congregations and hundreds of members have already left the church - Australia's third largest - over the issue.
Mr Estherby, releasing the alliance's results yesterday, said the survey "shatters the myth that Uniting Church people regard homosexual leadership as acceptable in the church".
Nearly 88 per cent believed members should have been consulted, a rebuke to the leadership at the national assembly, which decided not to refer the issue back to the churches.
The survey asked three questions: should Uniting Church leaders be required to commit to celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage (88.6 per cent said yes and 6.3 per cent no); should people living in same-gender sexual relationships be ordained (6.5 per cent yes, 88.8 per cent no), and is gay ordination an issue on which church members should be directly consulted (87.6 per cent yes, 7.7 per cent no).
The NCLS survey, taken before last year's assembly, asked 2791 people in 19 denominations whether homosexuals should be appointed to leadership positions on the same basis as heterosexuals.
About 330 respondents belonged to the Uniting Church. Of these, 45 per cent said no, 18 per cent said yes, and 20 per cent said yes but only if they do not engage in homosexual practices. Seventeen per cent were undecided.
The NCLS report noted a decrease in opposition to gay ordination in the Uniting Church between the 1996 and 2001 surveys.
The secretary of the Uniting Church general assembly, Terence Corkin, said it was no surprise that a significant number of people in the Uniting Church opposed gay ordination.
"It's not news," he said. "The issue is what do we do about it when you have a significant difference of opinion? And the difference is much greater than suggested by the Reforming Alliance."
Mr Estherby also said the survey results were no surprise. "What was surprising was the response of many church leaders who were suspicious, offended or frightened by a group independent of Uniting Church structures conducting an open survey of members."
He said the alliance - a coalition of conservatives and others unhappy at the process the national assembly followed in July - had been told of leaders who tried to ban or dissuade members from taking part in its survey. "Do they believe this survey will reveal a truth they would prefer remained hidden?" he asked.