"Our present official position is that we exist in a state of impaired relationship at the formal level with both provinces. However, if these provinces, through their convention or general synod, refuse to accept the prevailing Anglican consensus as represented by the Windsor Report, we will have to consider moving beyond a state of impaired communion."

Relations with other provinces who remain strenuously opposed to the actions taken by the U.S. and Canadian church will factor heavily in that decision, the archbishop explained.

Already, some African provinces and the Province of South East Asia have severed ties with the rogue churches. Their leaders at the last meeting of primates even refused to attend the Eucharist attended by their fellow primates in the U.S. and Canada.

In a decisive move, the Anglican Church in Nigeria reportedly changed its constitution and deleted all references last month to a relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury who heads the worldwide Anglican Church.

According to Archbishop Gomez, those tensions within the church have been further heightened by the passage of a new act in the United Kingdom that recognizes civil partnerships, inclusive of same sex partners.

"If these provinces, through their convention or general synod, refuse to accept the prevailing Anglican consensus as represented by the Windsor Report, we will have to consider moving beyond a state of impaired communion."

The act provides for those couples to be recognized in various legal situations.

One local Anglican priest said, "It is very probable that there will be a split in the worldwide Anglican Church. It's just a matter of time."

At least one of the business sessions of the 105th Session of Synod here was expected to address the issue. The matter will also be explored in depth during a forum next week in Egypt for Anglican dioceses in the south where most of the members of the Anglican Church reside.

The archbishop is heading a local delegation that represents the Province of the West Indies. Archdeacon James Palacious and Rev. Angela Palacious will accompany him.

Last October, a blue-ribbon panel was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to study how the 77 million-member Anglican Communion can avoid a rift over homosexuality.

It acknowledged that the 2003 decision by the Episcopal Church of the U.S. to appoint and consecrate a bishop in a committed same sex relationship and a diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada blessing same sex unions led to major divisions.

At the meeting, an overwhelming majority of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference upheld the church's traditional teaching on homosexuality as contrary to biblical teaching and contrary to God's design in creation.

They urged their colleagues to express regret for their actions and ban any further consecrations of gay clergymen and the blessings of same sex unions.

But Archbishop Gomez reported this week that while the Episcopal Church in the U.S. has indicated a willingness to express regret for the repercussions that have emerged within the worldwide Anglican Church, it has not indicated regret for the action that precipitated it.

Additionally, in response to the call for a moratorium on the election and consent to consecrate any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union, the House of Bishops suspended all confirmations and consent to consecration until General Convention of June 2006.

"It is now abundantly clear that General Convention 2006 will prove to be a watershed event when the Episcopal Church will have to make some important decisions that will significantly impact the future growth and development of the Anglican Communion," he said.

He also said there are already indications that Canada will likely resist the consensus that was arrived at last year.

This week a top leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion who chaired the Lambeth Commission, Irish Anglican Archbishop Robin Eames, praised the U.S. church's efforts to avoid a church split.

But he also urged ECUSA to ponder the consequences of what it is doing because a schism "could quickly become a reality."

Much of the future depends on what happens at ECUSA's next General Convention in June 2006.

END