Speaking about the difficulties for the first time this afternoon, Bishop Gladwin, 64, a former evangelical who has moved to the liberal wing of the Church and is chairman of Christian Aid, described events in Kenya as they unfolded.

Bishop Gladwin, his wife Lydia, mission director Canon Roger Matthews, 12 curates and others from Chelmsford were stranded deep in the bush in the Saburu game park after Archbishop Nzimbi decided to cancel the programme. They were on their way from the remote outpost of Archer's Post to Meru and then Embu, north of Nairobi.

Bishop Gladwin said: "We were really downhearted. That was a very low moment. We thought we were in deep trouble." The party prayed a lot, asking God for help.

Bishop Gladwin said he was given encouragement by Archbishop Nzimbi's predecessor, Archbishop Gitari. He later had a face-to-face meeting with Archbishop Nzimbi when they resolved their difficulties and the programme continued as planned.

Bishop Gladwin said: "When the Lord is doing something important the devil is at work. It is absolutely essential that we make sure that the devil does not destroy the good that is going on. It could have been utterly destructive. It was not."

Bishop Gladwin, who was giving a press conference at his diocesan offices after flying into Heathrow with his wife Lydia, had said earlier this year that one of his aims was to give the diocese of Chelmsford a higher public profile.

Getting himself and a party of 20 curates anathematized by conservative evangelicals in Africa cannot have been what he had in mind.

The visit, planned as part of ongoing relations between Kenya and Chelmsford that have been in place for 30 years, covered the four dioceses of Meru, Mbeere, Kirinyaga and Embu.

Bishop Gladwin said he had no regrets about becoming patron of Changing Attitude and did not believe this brought him into conflict with either the Church of England's position on the gay issue, or that of the wider church as expressed through the resolution of the 1998 Lambeth Conference that pledged the Church to strictly biblical, conservative stance.

"The Archbishop of Kenya was concerned over some of the issues that were raised, but we were not abandoned in the middle of the Kenyan bush as some may have had you believe," he said. "Though I can say that if we had been abandoned, Embu would have been a lovely place to spend the rest of our time in."

He continued: "When we finally did get to talk to Archbishop Nzimbi, he wanted to assure us that a warm Kenyan welcome continued to surround us, and that the planned programme should continue. With his agreement, we decided to avoid any high profile occasions to avoid being drawn into any controversies that would divert us from the principal aim of the visit."

He said that if anything, the relationship between Kenya and Chelmsford had grown deeper as a result of the controversy.

Canon Matthews, who at one stage during the visit stood up during a cathedral service to defend his bishop against accusations in the Kenyan press that he had links with a gay and lesbian club, said: "The experience certainly did drive the group to prayer in a way that was more poignant than it might have been. The 24 hours when we were away from mobile phone connections and landlines was a worrying time."

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