Gay bishop to deliver UK sermon

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The Rt Rev Gene Robinson - whose ordination in 2003 split the Anglican Communion - is to speak at St Mary's Church in Putney, west London.

It comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Church. Earlier this month conservatives set up a splinter movement in rejection of the acceptance of gay bishops.

And last week the General Synod descended into acrimony after the Church of England's ruling body voted in favour of legislation aimed at introducing women bishops.

Bishop Robinson went public with his sexuality in the 1980s and has since been in a 20-year relationship with current partner Mark Andrew

His election to bishop in 2003 sent ripples through the Church of England, precipitating a running argument between traditionalists and modernists.

In the latest sign that the Church is facing a potentially irrevocable split, members of the Gafcon movement (Global Anglican Future Conference) established the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

Members said the move was born not of homophobia but to "reassert the authority of the Bible".

But the breakaway group is widely seen as a rebuke to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, after he invited supporters of gay bishops to next week's Lambeth Conference in Canterbury.

To the annoyance of the Church's modernists, Bishop Robinson himself has not been invited to attend the once-a-decade meeting of Anglican leaders. But despite the snub, colleagues said Bishop Robinson would be in Canterbury as the conference kicked off on Tuesday, but just not at the event itself.