A group of senior Anglican clergy has told the Lambeth Conference that liberal churches must end the ordination of gay bishops and stop blessing same-sex relationships if the Communion is to arrest its slide towards a permanent split.
The working party given the task of finding possible solutions to the rift told the 650 bishops meeting in Canterbury that traditionalist churches in Africa must also stop setting up parallel church bodies in the United States as homes for congregations splitting away from the American Church because of the dispute.
The group, headed by the former Archbishop of the Middle East Clive Handford, said in the long term some sort of statement of shared beliefs and an agreement to abide by them would be necessary.
But in the short term, a ban on gay bishops and blessings was needed to prevent "irreparable damage" to the Communion.
Bishop Handford made it clear that did not mean that the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, should resign.
But it did mean the Episcopal Church promising not to repeat such ordinations.