London, England - A senior Church of England conservative has intensified the storm over homosexuals in the clergy by warning he will boycott next summer's Lambeth Conference if liberal American bishops are invited.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said he would find it difficult to attend a Church council alongside those who consecrated or approved the appointment of Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop.
His comments are fresh evidence of the divisions within the Church of England over the issues and will exacerbate the difficulties facing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in maintaining unity.
Bishop Nazir-Ali's conservative views are thought to be shared by as many as one in four of his colleagues.
Another conservative, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, has claimed more than half of English bishops are considering whether to attend the Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly gathering of all Anglican bishops, in Canterbury.
Bishop Nazir-Ali's remarks come at a hugely sensitive time for Dr Williams, who is fighting to keep the liberal American bishops in the worldwide Church despite pressure from conservatives to expel them for consecrating Gene Robinson in 2003.
Bishop Nazir-Ali said profound differences needed to be resolved because the American Church had now drifted apart from traditional Christianity in a number of fundamental areas.
He claimed that American clergy were increasingly weaving other faiths such as Buddhism and Hinduism into their worship and many regarded the Bible as a man-made book that could be rewritten rather than a revelation from God.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Bishop Nazir-Ali backed the calls of African archbishops for Dr Williams to convene an emergency meeting of all the primates to decide whether to discipline the Americans or postpone Lambeth.
He said: "My difficulty at the moment is not with a particular person, such as Gene Robinson, but with those who felt it right to approve and to officiate at his ordination.
"Unless they are willing to say that what they did was contrary to the Gospel, and we all of us from time to time need to repent about what we have done wrong, I would find it very difficult to be with them in a council of bishops."
He said if the conference was no longer to be regarded as an authoritative council, as it had been in the past, then he might be able to attend, but many would then question whether such a costly gathering had any point.
Bishop Nazir-Ali dismissed the view of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, that conservatives who boycotted Lambeth would be expelling themselves Anglicanism because they had broken their links with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
"It is nothing to do with loyalty to the Archbishop of Canterbury," said Bishop Nazir-Ali.
"In fact it may be an expression of loyalty to him to say that the Lambeth Conference has integrity."
He said the sort of divisions tearing the Anglican Church apart in the United States, where whole dioceses are preparing to break away, could not be ruled out in England.