London, England - The American Episcopal Church, whose election of an openly gay bishop three years ago threatened to break up the worldwide Anglican communion, has offered an olive branch to its critics by proposing to refrain from further consecrations of homosexual clergy.
A report by a special commission of bishops and senior clergy and lay representatives, conducted in advance of the church's decision-making triennial general convention in Ohio in June, proposes that members should exercise "very considerable caution" before making any further nominations, elections and consecrations.
It adds that the church should not authorise public blessings services for gay couples in order to fall back into line with the rest of the Anglican communion.
But it was still unclear whether the proposals will get Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and nominal leader of the worldwide church, off the hook of whether to invite American bishops to the Lambeth conference of all the world's Anglican bishops in 2008 - a sign of whether the third largest Christian denomination remains united.
The Episcopal plans were last night dismissed by the Anglican church's conservative factions and greeted with some dismay by liberals.
The Rev Ephraim Radner, a Colorado Episcopalian minister and senior fellow of the conservative Anglican Communion Institute, described the proposals as "not only a disappointment, but an ecclesial quagmire, perhaps even a disaster".
Others reacting immediately on conservative American websites claimed they were a smokescreen and "giving the middle finger to orthodox Christians".
The Rev John Kirkley, president of a pro-gay group, retorted that Anglican unity could not be based on scapegoating gays and lesbians.
In the short term, the proposals were seen as an attempt to head off the possibility of the Episcopal diocese of California also choosing a gay bishop when it meets to select its choice next month.
Three of the six candidates for the see, including one woman cleric, are openly gay.
In the American Episcopal church, unlike most other parts of the world, bishops are elected by the parishioners of their dioceses, not chosen nationally, giving an extra element of local democratic control but also additional uncertainty about who is selected.
Choosing one of the three could precipitate the long-predicted split in the church, particularly if the choice was then endorsed at the general convention, as the election of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire was by the last convention, three years ago.
Bishop Robinson, who has recently been treated for alcoholism, has lived with his male partner for a number of years.
The special commission's report suggests that the general convention should reaffirm the American church's abiding commitment to the fellowship of churches that constitute the Anglican communion. It offers not only its deep regret for the pain its previous action in electing Bishop Robinson caused them but also uses the word "repentance" which evangelicals have been demanding.
Although the report recommends that no public rites of blessing for gay couples should be approved, it does, however, offer liberal clergy "a breadth of private responses to situations of individual pastoral care" which would still enable them to conduct private services.
Its injunction to use caution in future Episcopal appointments also does not absolutely preclude them, as conservatives have wanted.
Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona said yesterday that the proposals represented a go-slow rather than a u-turn or change of direction. "To continue right now to consecrate an openly gay bishop would be offensive to the rest of the communion. My personal opinion is that if an openly gay bishop was elected the necessary assents would not be forthcoming in the house of bishops," he told the BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme.
The proposals seem unlikely to mollify Anglican bishops in the developing world, particularly Africa, who continue to disparage gays and condemn the decadence of the American church for trying to accommodate them.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the church in Nigeria, who regularly visits the US as a guest of conservative factions there, recently ordered Nigerian priests working in the Episcopal church to "remove" themselves or face disciplinary action and threatened to start consecrating his own bishops to minister there.