One Canadian diocese has already unilaterally approved a rite for such blessings, and officials believe there is little doubt that the Synod will validate its decision.

Although illicit gay blessings are widespread in the Anglican Church, such a vote would be seen as the first clear endorsement of the practice by an entire province.

It would represent a fresh blow to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

"Bishop Anderson is acting improperly," said Archbishop David Crawley, metropolitan (senior bishop) of the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and the Yukon and Bishop Anderson's superior.

"The canons of our church state that a bishop is not allowed to interfere in
another diocese," said Archbishop Crawley in an interview, adding that he is "gathering documentation" and that the matter could be cause for discipline.

Last November, a small group of Christians calling themselves "The Anglican Gathering" began worshipping on Sunday afternoons.

"When I saw and experienced how my mother struggled to raise three children on her own, it made me very angry," Andrew says. "To have that absence, to be placed in a situation where I did not have that father, where that was something that my friends did, I always wondered what it would be like to have a father."

To fill the void of an absent father, Andrew started using marijuana at a young age.

"I smoked it on a regular basis, say about three or four times a day," he says.