Church of England bishops have held a confidential "healing" session to bury their differences over Canon Jeffrey John, the homosexual cleric forced to step down as Bishop of Reading.
The House of Bishops devoted a whole day of a two-day London meeting to try to rebuild its collegiality, which disintegrated as its members squabbled publicly over the appointment of Dr John.
At the height of the row a quarter of the bishops wrote a letter to the press denouncing his appointment. The letter infuriated many of their colleagues, who had had no advance warning.
As part of Tuesday's "therapy" session about 50 bishops gathered in groups to vent their feelings about each other behind closed doors.
"There was a great deal of soul-searching," said one source. "The atmosphere between them has been much improved. Wounds have been healed.
"They were able to have a very serious discussion about the nature of collegiality."
Tensions between liberal and traditionalist bishops over homosexuality boiled over following the appointment in May of Dr John, a prominent gay rights advocate, as the Suffragan Bishop of Reading.
Open warfare was declared on June 17 when 16 bishops wrote to the press criticising the appointment made by the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Richard Harries.
As the battle escalated, eight liberal bishops released a letter supporting Dr John. With serious splits appearing in the Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, prompted Dr John to withdraw from the post in July.
Dr Williams is still facing a serious schism over the appointment of another openly homosexual cleric, Bishop-elect Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire in America.
He is hoping to achieve a similar sense of reconciliation between the primates - the heads of the 38 autonomous provinces which make up the Anglican Communion - at a meeting in London next week.