TANZANIA:Anglican leaders remained locked in talks last night as deadlines for publishing a joint statement on their make-or-break meeting over homosexuality came and went.
The talks, in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, were due to end at 6pm yesterday but the primates, representing the world's 77 million Anglicans, reconvened after dinner with no resolution in sight.
They are battling to hold together the global family amid a bitter row over homosexual clergy and same-sex unions.
Conservatives in the US and the developing world want to see the American church forced out for taking a liberal stance, in contradiction of biblical teaching on homosexual relationships.
Last night primates from 35 of the world's 38 Anglican churches were shut away in a hotel unable to agree the wording of a final communique designed to sum up the progress made in six days of meetings.
Primates from the Global South grouping of conservative churches were believed to be considering releasing a minority statement. Earlier, officials published a statement of common principles, or covenant, setting out for the first time the mechanism by which errant churches could be expelled.
One observer at the Whitesands Hotel, just to the north of the Dar es Salaam, said: "Yet again we have had talk of splits and schism and it seems that yet again the primates are just about managing to hang on. There have been no walkouts, but the issue isn't going to go away and it seems that little has been resolved."
The Anglican communion saw tension between liberal and conservative wings erupt into crisis in 2003 when the American Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop.
The church was asked to apologise, impose a moratorium on the practice and put a stop to priests blessing same-sex unions.
A report presented to the primates last week suggested the Episcopals had made good progress on two out of three of these areas. However, conservatives at the meeting made it clear they were not satisfied.
Seven primates - from Africa, South America and southeast Asia - refused to take communion with Katharine Jefferts Schori, who leads the American church.
The draft covenant, published yesterday, is being presented as a means of avoiding such rifts developing in future. Until now, the Anglican communion has had no formal constitution and the 38 provinces have been allowed considerable latitude in worship and doctrine.
The covenant calls on member churches to interpret biblical texts "faithfully", to have regard to the common good of the communion and to work to find a common understanding of controversial matters.
And it makes clear that failure to comply will put errant churches outside the global Anglican family.