The requests, which Dr Jensen's office declined to elaborate on, indicate a leading role that the diocese is playing among a network of church conservatives opposed to the US church's election of the openly gay Gene Robinson.

The request was "not the first I have received" and came because the diocese stood for biblical authority and sound Christian tradition, Dr Jensen told his church.

"My response has always been that the difficulties are best met at as local a level as is possible. The closer to the problem, the better the solution."

But Dr Jensen warned synod members in a carefully crafted statement: "We may be only at the beginning of the disturbances which will lie before us and the effort we will be called upon to make".

The state of the fragile Anglican communion was debated last night, with Dr Jensen playing down the possibility of disintegration.

While the diocese needed to work and pray for the unity of the church, the communion was undergoing "remarkable transformation" in the wake of its crisis of biblical authority. "I do not talk of a split, for example. Nor have I been one to talk of schism and the break-up of the Anglican communion," he said.

"I have always said that it is more likely that we will see its devolution into a looser federation of churches, networking across old lines in new ways. Indeed, I think that this has now begun to occur.

"As a consequence, I do not think that the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury while, of course, very important, will regain its old place."

Dr Jensen said the US church had made genuine attempts to express regret over global tensions but it was missionary-like in its position on human sexuality.

"The powerful individualism of American culture, and its triumphalistic belief that it leads the world in civic freedoms, has captured the church. The new faith is a missionary religion."

END