Gay bishop in disruption scare

Protesters are planning a direct challenge to the consecration today of Canon Gene Robinson, who is poised to become the first openly gay Anglican bishop, a move that threatens to split the Church's community worldwide.

Members of the conservative American Anglican Council (AAC) said that they will disrupt the service by standing up and objecting to Canon Robinson's consecration during a formal part of the ceremony. The consecration will be followed by co-ordinated statements from Anglican Church leaders across the world, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, condemning the consecration.

But yesterday, Dr Williams also struck a conciliatory note when he said any rift in the church would eventually heal. Dr Williams was speaking as he helped celebrate a significant step towards healing the 200-year-old rift between the Church of England and the Methodist Church.

The protests from the AAC were more polite than many heard in Durham, the university town in New Hampshire where demonstrators have gathered to object to the consecration of the 56-year-old divorced father.

"God hates Fags" was one of the slogans used by the Rev Fred Phelps, who runs a church made up of his family members in Topeka, Kansas.

By contrast, the Rev Bill Murdoch is not a man for bull-horns and placards. But his opposition to the consecration of Canon Robinson is as strident as any of the angry demonstrators ready to hurl you a mouthful of Leviticus. "This has undermined the moral theology on which the decision-making process operates," he said. Tomorrow, while Canon Robinson is consecrated as the Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rev Murdoch, from Massachusetts, will hold an alternative service in a "borrowed" church in Durham, for those opposed to what is happening.

The consecration is due to take place at the University of New Hampshire's indoor ice hockey arena where more than 4,000 clergy, straight and gay, and supporters are expected. The alternative service will take place two miles away, at the Durham Evangelical Church.

Canon Robinsonsayshe will let nothing stop him from becoming Bishop, even though he has been forced to hire bodyguards, given the seriousness of some of the threats. "The only thing that will stop this happening is if I'm not around any more. We have to take that seriously," he said in a recent interview.

Primates from the southern hemisphere have prepared a statement that will condemn Canon Robinson's appointment. "The breach is already there, the statements will just be enunciating it," the Most Rev Gregory Venables, Archbishop of the Southern Cone, a slice of South America from Peru to Argentina, said.

Dr Williams, after an emergency meeting of 37 primates representing the Anglican Church in 160 countries, said he felt Rev Robinson should withdraw.The AAC, a powerful group within the US church, also believes that even at this late stage, Rev Robinson should stand down.