But few knew of his record as a leading liberal theologian and, until recently, his position as chairman of the pro-gay Modern Churchpeople's Union, an Anglican society promoting a liberal theology. Now Mr Henderson is facing protests over the choice to make him bishop of one of four dioceses in Malawi in a dispute that threatens to plunge the Anglican Church into fresh controversy.

Anglicans in Malawi are mounting a canonical challenge to the election, due to be confirmed by church procedures in the first week of September. Protesters have petitioned the Malawian Church's provincial court, claiming that the electoral assembly flouted procedures to secure the post for Mr Henderson.

The allegations are to be investigated by the Primate of Central Africa, Archbishop Bernard Malango, a leading conservative evangelical who was a member of the Lambeth Commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to resolve the crisis over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion. He is meeting the protesters tomorrow.

Mr Henderson's parish has had links with Lake Malawi for 18 years. The late Bishop of Malawi, Peter Nyanja, was a regular guest at his vicarage and Mr Henderson arranged treatment for the Bishop at St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy, in London, for the prostate cancer that killed him in March this year. Mr Henderson is already learning Chichewa, the local language, spoken alongside English, and notice has gone out in Acton and Ealing that he is leaving for Africa.

However, his appointment could be jeopardised by the objections lodged with the Ecclesiastical Court of the Church of Central Africa, claiming that the electoral commission "twisted the formalities" to secure Mr Henderson as first choice.

Mr Henderson was one of three clergy shortlisted and received an overwhelming majority of votes from the elective assembly. But his liberal views could generate controversy in a province noted for its conservatism.

This year the Modern Churchpeople's Union, of which he remains a member, published a collection of essays arguing that the Church should move forward on the gay issue and be more inclusive on questions of gender and sexuality. Mr Henderson, who did not contribute to the book, said: "Although I am a liberal theologian, I am first and foremost a Christian and secondly an Anglican."

Dr Malango is one of the African bishops most determined to resist the advance of Western liberal theology in the Anglican Church.

African leaders are increasingly dissatisfied with the response of Dr Williams and the American and Canadian Anglican churches to the crisis that has developed since the authorisation of same-sex blessings in New Westminster, in Canada, and the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

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