TANZANIA:The leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans arrived in Tanzania yesterday in an attempt to prevent the church from splitting over the issue of gay clergy.
Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, invoked the power of prayer as he flew in with a series of compromises designed to prevent schism.
Church leaders are assembling in a beachside resort just north of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam in a make-or-break attempt to bring together liberal and conservative wings.
Archbishop Williams told reporters: "We have a difficult meeting ahead of us with many challenges and many decisions to make. I hope that all the people of the church will be praying for us as we meet together as the leaders of the Anglican church worldwide and that God's will be done."
The six-day meeting in Tanzania is billed as the biggest clash yet between conservatives from Africa, Asia and Latin American - billed as the Global South - and western liberals.
Tensions surfaced in 2003 when an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, was consecrated by the Episcopal Church of the United States. The conservative grouping want to see the American church thrown out of the worldwide Anglican family for its supportive stance towards homosexual relationships.
Several American congregations have already broken ties with bishops in the US and thrown their weight behind African leaders who take a more literal view of the biblical teachings. Traditionalist primates say they will snub their American counterpart, Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, for supporting Bishop Robinson and same-sex unions.
They spent yesterday finalising their position at their headquarters in the Beachcomber Hotel. So far a series of fudges have managed to prevent the Anglican communion sliding into schism. The American church was asked to apologise for going against official policy and was asked to halt the future consecration of gay bishops and blessings of gay marriages.
However, it failed to back the measures at its general convention last summer, paving the way for a stormy meeting in Tanzania.
One adviser to an African primate said: "We have seen a series of deals done to try to keep the communion together, but we cannot tolerate this continuing uncertainty.
"If the Americans are not prepared to put this right then we will see a split." Archbishop Williams arrives with a set of compromise proposals but many observers believe it may be too late to prevent a formal split at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
Rwanda's Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini said the Global South may recommend the Episcopal Church of the US appoint what he called a moderator as an alternative to Bishop Jefferts Schori. However, some officials say such a move would deepen the split rather than heal it.