A gay man living in an open relationship with his partner is top of the list of candidates for a bishopric announced yesterday by one of the most liberal dioceses in The Episcopal Church in the US.

In the highly likely event that Canon Michael Barlowe, a former Wall Street banker, is elected as Bishop of Newark, this will confirm fears that there can now be no reconciliation between the liberal and conservative wings of the worldwide Anglican Church.

In what can only be interpreted as an act of defiance against the Archbishop of Canterbury's attempt to hold the Church together, the Newark diocese announced the four nominees to be 10th Bishop of Newark the day after Dr Rowan Williams defining letter to his his fellow 37 primates.

Canon Barlowe's partner, the Rev Paul Burrows, is an English-born Anglo-Catholic priest who was studied at St Stephen's House, Oxford and was ordained into the Southwark diocese in 1980.

Dr Williams told the leaders of the 85-million strong Anglican Communion that they will all be required to sign up to a covenant setting out agreed Anglican formularies and doctrines if they wished to be counted as"constituent" or full Anglicans. Those unable to sign up will be cast out into mere"associate" status, similar to that presently occupied by the Methodist church.

At its recent General Convention, the Episcopal Church of the USA, or Ecusa, asked to be known by its legal name of The Episcopal Church, reflecting its membership of 16 nations besides the US and prompting speculation that it was preparing the ground to become a rival church to the Anglican Communion.

The choice of Canon Barlowe as bishop would, for many, be confirmation of the suspicion that The Episcopal Church is firmly set against turning back the clock on its programme of liberal reforms. If elected, he will be the second openly-gay bishop in the US, after Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire.

One former bishop of Newark is the ultra-liberal Jack Spong. The diocese is also home to Louie Crew, one of its delegates to General Convention, and who was awared a Bishop's Cross, the highest possible honour, by Bishop Spong. In 1974 Dr Crew founded Integrity, the US church's campaigning organisation for gay and lesbian Christians.

In the profile published on the Newark diocesan website, Canon Barlowe says Father Burrows has been his partner for 24 years. Father Burrows is currently Rector of Church of the Advent in San Francisco. He is also a spiritual director, a Benedictine oblate of Elmore Abbey in Newbury in England, and a naturalized US citizen. He remains an associate priest of the Walsingham shrine in Norfolk.

News of his nomination came as liberal primates throughout the communion interpreted the Archbishop of Canterbury's commination as good news for the future unity of the Church.

Archbishop Andrew Hutchinson, Primate of Canada, where the diocese of New Westminster authorised and carried out the first official same-sex blessings, told The Times:"Most of us have for some time been committed to a covenant of some kind among the churches of the Communion. Canada has been thoroughly committed to the Communion and remains so."

The Canadian General Synod will decide next year whether to give dioceses permission to authorise same-sex blessings. Archbishop Hutchinson defended the actions of New Westminster."One diocese in Canada has blessed 12 couples. Meanwhile, hundreds of couples have been blessed in England, but no-one seems to talk too much about that. The thought of anyone wagging the finger at Canada for 12 blessings is quite extraordinary."

Archbishop David Moxon, one of the presiding bishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, said that to describe Dr Williams' letter as an ultimatum to the liberal wing was to misrepresent it.

Furthermore, suggestions that New Zealand's Anglican church might find itself on the outer edge of the Anglican Church was hard to imagine, said Archbishop Moxon.

"I believe we will always be in communion with him. And also, with this particular Archbishop of Canterbury, there's a widespread trust in his scholarship, integrity and spirituality. Being in communion with him is a pleasure."

He continued:"Anglican Christianity has tried to say that we want a large room, of unity in diversity, which is clearly and simply described, and a covenant can do that."

The Most Rev Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, told a US journalist in a telephone call: "I think the archbishop takes a long view and underscores the fact that we are involved in a process rather than a quick fix."

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