Gay people "have become scapegoats in what is a more deep-seated constitutional crisis" within Anglicanism, Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork Right Rev Paul Colton has said.
"Therefore, gay people in lay and ordained leadership as well as in voluntary work in our churches, or simply in our pews, or those who have been driven away by a sense of rejection, together with gay people in the community outside the Church, need to know and to hear our apology," he said.
He was speaking at the diocesan synod of Cork, Cloyne and Ross which took place over the weekend in Douglas.
Had it "not surfaced on the back of the sexuality debate, this dispute would have emerged sooner or later on an entirely different issue", he said.
In the current row "which purports to be about human sexuality, Anglicanism runs the risk of becoming something wholly unattractive and unrecognisable to those who are drawn strongly to its sometimes exasperating breadth, untidiness and inclusiveness", he said.
He warned that "any proposal for a way forward which undermines our inclusiveness or comprehensiveness ought to be subjected to rigorous and autonomous scrutiny".
He added: "Impetuously erecting walls of exclusion on the fuzzy edges of Anglicanism would, to my mind, be a negation of the essence of Anglicanism and of the Church of Ireland itself."
He also said he hoped all Anglican bishops would be invited to attend the next Lambeth conference in 2008.
Implicitly, he was suggesting it would be wrong not to invite gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in the US, whose consecration generated the current controversy.
Meanwhile, The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has criticised the Presbyterian Church in Ireland for opposing civil equality for gays and lesbians. The criticism comes ahead of new civil partnership legislation promised by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
In a statement the union said it believed "religion is a matter for private consciences not public laws, and we oppose ministers of religion seeking to impose their religious viewpoints on ministers of government.
"Instead of seeking to exert pressure on the Government to implement an anti-gay agenda, USI urges all churches to embrace civil equality for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation."
