The rebel clerics are setting up a panel of retired bishops to provide pastoral care to parishes in dioceses run by liberal bishops. The move is similar to the provision of "flying bishops" to opponents of women priests when they were first ordained in 1994.

Up to 100 churches have said that they intend to split from their bishops and seek support from the new panel. That is likely to mark only the beginning of the schism, however, as the panel of conservative bishops will provide an attractive alternative to other disaffected parishes.

Leading evangelicals will meet the Most Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday to deliver papers laying out the plans for a restructuring of the Church.

The archbishop will be told that dozens of churches in liberal dioceses feel forced to take the radical step of breaking with their bishops. The initiative has been organised by Reform and Anglican Mainstream, evangelical groups that represent about 2,000 parishes. The initial number of disaffected parishes could rise dramatically, however, because traditionalists from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church have expressed their support.

Other evangelical parishes might also follow suit if an incumbent bishop with whom they agree is succeeded by a liberal cleric.

The bishops of Chelmsford, Southwark and St Albans, who have all been supportive to homosexual clergy, are among those who will no longer be allowed to celebrate confirmations at many evangelical churches in their own dioceses.

The revolt will deal a fresh blow to the embattled archbishop, who has fought to hold the Church together despite entrenched views on both sides of the debate. It also threatens to cripple the Church's finances, because about 40 per cent of its income is supplied by evangelical parishes. Liberal bishops risk the loss of millions of pounds of income as parishes that are traditionally the largest contributors withhold funds.

Those parishes had also threatened to withhold money following the nomination of Jeffrey John, the homosexual dean, as Bishop of Reading in 2003. Traditionalists won a significant victory when the archbishop sided with them and asked him to stand down from the post. However, there has been growing dismay among conservatives at the failure of bishops to discipline homosexual clergy who defy official guidelines on civil partnerships.

Such priests are asked to give assurances that they will remain sexually abstinent. Church policy prohibits homosexual priests from engaging in sex, and evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics believe that the rule must be upheld.

In an effort to mollify conservative Anglican leaders, the archbishop vowed last year that it would be "a disciplinary offence" if clergy wanting to "marry" their boyfriends failed to give those assurances.

While some priests such as Mr John, who "wed" his long-term lover in July, have stated that they are in a celibate relationship, others have flouted the rule and escaped censure. In Durham diocese, the Rev Christopher Wardale had his "marriage" to his boyfriend, Malcolm Macourt, blessed in church.

The evangelical rebels have lost patience, believing that the archbishop is relinquishing control over a Church deeply divided by gay clergy and that many of their bishops are turning a blind eye to these "marriages".

In 2004 Anglican Mainstream issued advice on how to use fiscal action against "unbiblical" bishops, arguing that parishes concerned by heretical teaching would be "biblically justified" in withholding their contributions to central Church funds.

The decision to take action is likely to have serious financial repercussions. The average annual income from parishioners in evangelical churches in 2003 was £84,000, compared with £40,000 in non-evangelical churches, according to latest figures from Christian Research. The Church receives about £250 million a year from evangelical worshippers.

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