The concerns were raised at the Global South summit in Rwanda earlier this month, though no direct reference was included in their final statement. However, in a fresh blow to hopes for unity, sources said a number of archbishops may refuse to attend the Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly summit of bishops held in Canterbury.

Dr Williams personally assured the conservative primates last year that it would be "a disciplinary offence" if gay priests entering civil partnerships refused to reassure their bishops that they would be sexually abstinent.

Since the Civil Partnership Act came into force in December, scores of clergy have "married" their partners.

A number have flouted the Church guidelines, but none has faced charges and many bishops appear to be turning a blind eye.

The row comes as a retired Anglican archbishop was formally reprimanded after he admitted that he had taken part in a same-sex marriage of a lesbian couple. Archbishop Terence Finlay, who formerly headed the diocese of Ontario in Canada, officiated at the ceremony during the summer.

In London, the Rev David Page, the vicar of St Barnabas in Clapham Junction, was visited by his bishop, but refused to talk about the sexual nature of his relationship with his partner.

"I have the freehold, which means that I'm not disposable," he said. "They have no way of legally enforcing the guidelines. There's nothing that they can do."

He attacked the Church's advice on the issue as "a political act" to appease the conservatives. "It is pretending to be conservative when it's not. What the American Church does openly and honestly the English Church does covertly and dishonestly

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