The world's 38 leading Anglican clerics prayed together today at the start of a two-day summit on gay clergy which could change the shape of their loose alliance of churches for ever.
The clerics were whisked into London's Lambeth Palace - headquarters of Anglican spiritual leader the Archbishop of Canterbury - through a back door without speaking to the media.
They prayed in the palace's 12th century chapel before sitting down to discuss an issue which is threatening to rip apart the 70-million-strong Anglican communion.
Conservative Anglicans, particularly in Africa, have demanded that their liberal colleagues in the United States either go back on their decision to appoint the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history or leave the communion.
In heated exchanges, the Africans have equated homosexuality with Satanism while on Monday, Britain's leading campaigner for gay and lesbian Christians compared church conservatives with Adolf Hitler's Nazis.
The gathering, due to conclude with a news conference tomorrow evening, was prompted by the election of Gene Robinson, a divorced father of two, in the United States.
There will be no vote on the issue and the church leaders are likely to try to draw up a consensual statement at the end of the meeting.
They might propose, for example, that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams travels to the United States or to Africa to try to soothe troubled waters.