The Church of England's only openly gay bishop threatened to overshadow the start of the Lambeth Conference this week.

American Gene Robinson criticised the Anglican hierarchy in a sermon yesterday at St Mary's church in Putney after being frozen out of the highly influential conference. However, in an act of open defiance, he may still turn up at the event in Canterbury.

The clergyman, who is bishop of New Hampshire, told the congregation in Putney that "it must break God's heart" to see the Church so obsessed over a debate on gay ministers at a time when the world was gripped by fear.

He said: "I do not think there is a more often repeated phrase in all scripture than 'be not afraid'. How sad that the Church, who has the answer to fear, should be so locked in its grip."

Seconds into his sermon Bishop Robinson was interrupted by a heckler wearing motorbike leathers who repeatedly shouted "repent" and called him a heretic. The man was eventually persuaded to leave after a round of slow clapping drowned his objections.

Today the bishop said he had not been afraid but had felt sadness for the "darkness" in the man's heart. He said: "I was really overcome and got quite tearful afterwards with sadness for this young man. He clearly felt very strongly about what he believed.

"I thought there is this place in his heart that has been filled up with all this darkness and it could be filled with love."

Bishop Robinson's appointment in 2003 caused a schism in the Anglican Church - it has yet to be resolved amid deep divisions over women bishops and homosexuality in the Church.

Continuing his attack, but with a note of support for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Bishop Robinson added: "With young men being knifed all over the streets of London, and more than a billion people striving to survive on less than a dollar a day, how sad and discouraging that the Anglican community is tearing itself apart.

"The Archbishop of Canterbury has got it exactly right in calling the bishops to look at all of the issues that face the world. He has called on them to look at all these things before they get to the issue of human sexuality.

"That belongs in its rightful and secondary place. All of us know that the fear that grips the world is so much more important. We will get to the issue of sexuality in our time. None of us will be marginalised or pushed to the side ever again."

One member of the congregation in the packed church was the Government's health minister Ben Bradshaw. After the service the gay MP for Exeter, who is the son of a Church of England vicar, said: "It was excellent and inspirational, to the point, humble and truthful."

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