"There would be outrage," Dean Slee commented. "I think a lot of clergy would consider resigning. This would be interference with the proper processes of an independent province, forced on them by other provinces who have no jurisdiction there."

A delegation of bishops flew in from America to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as it appeared that the Eames Commission, meeting this week, was moving towards taking action against ECUSA.

Adding to the pressure on Griswold and the hierarchy of the Episcopalian Church, Queen Elizabeth II has told the head of the worldwide Anglican communion, Rowan Williams, she will not tolerate the 2.3 million-member Episcopalian Church splitting the Anglican communion over its gay and lesbian agenda, said David Virtue, a conservative analyst of the church.

Buckingham Palace declined to confirm or deny that report.

The delegation has the support of the liberal Primate of the American Episcopal Church, Bishop Frank Griswold, who presided at the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Bishop Griswold is also understood to have brought forward a trip to London. The bishop, who faces the humiliating prospect of being barred from the annual primates meetings, the highest Anglican council, was due to fly to Britain on Friday but will now leave the US today.

"Spouses thereby ensure the survival of society and culture, and rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the state.

"Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason: legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage."