Lord Carey will bless the traditionalists

It will also raise the temperature of the debate weeks before the publication of the final report by the Lambeth Commission, the body set up last year by Dr Williams to try to avert schism.

Dr Carey is to confirm several hundred adults and children from 11 conservative parishes in Virginia which have rejected the ministry of their diocesan bishop, the Rt Rev Peter Lee, because of his support for the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, Anglicanism's first active homosexual bishop.

He has been invited to carry out the ceremony on Sept 15 by Canon Martyn Minns, the English-born rector of Truro church in Fairfax, Virginia, one of the largest parishes in the American Episcopal Church.

Lord Carey's visit will not breach Church regulations because he is understood to have gained the permission of Bishop Lee to operate in the diocese of Virginia, but it will provide a major boost to the conservative minority in America which is demanding protection from the liberal majority.

Announcing the "extraordinary service of confirmation" presided over by the former Archbishop, Canon Minns said: "This will be an occasion for celebration but also a sign of the serious brokenness of the Episcopal Church and a tragic reminder of our alienation from the ministry of our own bishop."

The Truro parish is one of hundreds across the United States which is withholding money from central diocesan funds in protest at the decision last summer of the Episcopal Church's liberal leadership to confirm the consecration of Bishop Robinson, who lives openly with his male lover.

More than 100 parishes have now split from the Church and affiliated themselves with evangelical dioceses in Africa.

Meanwhile, a number of traditionalist dioceses have formed a new network which is demanding the creation of a parallel "Church within a Church" to minister across the world.

This would mean that traditionalist parishes with liberal bishops could instead invite in a conservative bishop. It is an arrangement Lord Carey is pioneering.

The Rev Richard Kirker, the general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said:
"This is an insensitive and provocative trip which will cause dismay to Rowan Williams, just as it would if, when George Carey was Archbishop, his predecessor Robert Runcie had gone ahead and ordained an openly gay man as a bishop.

"There are plenty of other bishops to conduct confirmations, and George Carey is doing much more. He is trying to turn the service into a needlessly provocative gesture."