BRITAIN: The General Synod of the Church of England yesterday initiated a debate on homosexuality, the most divisive issue to confront the church since the ordination of women priests.
Liberal and conservative factions are split deeply over the consecration last year of the openly gay Dr Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire in the US.
The synod, in effect the church's parliament, comprising ordained and lay members, grasped the nettle with a debate which highlighted the real danger of a schism in the 450-year-old Anglican Church, with 70 million faithful around the world.
"Fault-lines have already opened up," the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Richard Harries, conceded.
The Rev Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, has argued that the Church of England must resolve the issue of homosexuality to retain its credibility.
"We have been urging the church for nearly 30 years to get real and accept that God has created all of the human race - black and white, men and women, heterosexual and homosexual - equal," he said.
The synod put under the microscope, "Some Issues in Human Sexuality", a theological handbook which basically spells out what needs tackling by the church in an increasingly materialistic society.
Pleas were equally impassioned on both sides of the divide as speakers sprang eagerly to their feet.
The Rev Paul Collier, who has been living with his male partner for five years, said: "Please talk with us and not about us." Rejecting celibacy as a solution for gays, he said: "For us, abstinence can only be sterile and hopeless."
Conservatives argue that the Bible specifically condemns homosexuality.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has adopted a cautious approach. - (Reuters)