Archbishop of Canterbury to take hard line on gay clergy at summit

The Archbishop of Canterbury is expected to side with conservatives in the Anglican communion on the issue of homosexuality to prevent a schism at this week's meeting of church leaders, a cleric claimed yesterday.

Rowan Williams has called the 38 primates leading the world's 70 million Anglicans to Lambeth Palace for an emergency summit on the ordination of gay clergy. He is prepared to reiterate the church's official view reached five years ago that homosexuality is "incompatible with scripture".

The two-day meeting in London was called after the election in America of Canon Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest with a long-term partner, as Bishop of New Hampshire. It threatens to be one of the most divisive.

A group of up to 30 conservative archbishops, many from Africa and America, is expected to demand the expulsion from the Anglican communion of the United States Episcopalian Church, which approved Canon Robinson's appointment. A survey for The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4 found about two thirds of the primates opposed to gay priests.

Dr Williams, widely perceived as having liberal views when he was appointed last year, ran into controversy in July when Canon Jeffrey John, who had been made bishop- elect of Reading, resigned after meetings with him.

One cleric involved with the meeting this Wednesday said: "It looks as if the position [of Dr Williams] will be as it has been hitherto ­ homosexuality is not permissible in scripture. This is also the view of the conservative majority who want the pro-gay movement expelled." Dr Williams will not want matters to go that far. Among the options will be an international commission on sexuality or for so-called flying bishops to be appointed to cater for hardline clergy working in liberal dioceses.

But feeling among conservatives may be so high that only an outright condemnation of the US Episcopalian Church will stop them walking out and causing a split. Evangelical leaders in America are reported to have held meetings with lawyers on how the assets of the Episcopalian Church should be divided between the two camps.

A spokesman for one of the key hardliners, Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, whose Church of Nigeria accounts for a third of all Anglicans, said that recognising sexual diversity ­ as proposed by the pro-gay lobby ­ was unacceptable.

He said: "This is a departure from the teachings handed down from the fathers of faith and the word of God in the holy scriptures." Campaigners for gay rights, who claim the support of half those attending the summit, said that relegating homosexuals to a lesser status would itself be against scripture.

The Reverend Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: "To relegate lesbians and gays to second-class Christians would be anathema to the Gospels which preach equality ... of treatment for all. "