On Monday night or Tuesday morning, vandals lit the crosses, charring them at their bases. Police think the act was connected to the spray-painting of a nearby school and seven cars because the messages were "vulgar, sexual and anti-religious," said police spokeswoman Detective Katherine Collins.

"Unless there is a clear perception on the part of our Anglican brothers and sisters that they have been taken seriously in their concerns, it will be impossible to have any genuine conversation," Griswold said in a special session of the convention's two policymaking bodies, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, that he called.

"I don't believe so. I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us," she said.

"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."

But conservatives predicted that she would lead the Episcopal Church further along its liberal path on issues such as homosexuality, and her election will dismay traditionalists opposed to women priests.

One leading traditionalist, the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt Rev Jack Iker, said: "She will be the only woman among 38 primates and the majority of them do not even recognise women bishops. This is going to be very difficult for the Archbishop of Canterbury."