The move threatens the fragile unity of the Anglican Communion, the world's third-largest Christian body, made up of 38 provinces around the world that trace their roots to the Church of England and its spiritual leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Chane opened his latest philippic against Israel with a special memory from 2003, when he joined evangelical Left activist Jim Wallis in visiting British Premier Tony Blair to implore that Britain's not join the liberation of Iraq. Obviously, Blair was not persuaded by their prophetic pleas. But according to Chane, Blair "begged" the prophets to urge President Bush to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the other trench lie the militant Godless who - bizarrely - wholly agree with the creationists. Darwinism, they proclaim, does indeed undermine religious belief and a good thing too. Darwin is their icon and they frantically genuflect before his image, in a way brilliantly parodied by the satirical magazine The Onion.

He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs.

"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.

He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."