Anglican bishop sees schism over US church head

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) Anglicans faced a new crisis on Monday after a liberal female bishop became head of the US branch of the church and an English bishop warned that Anglicanism was in danger of splitting into ''two religions.'' The consecration of openly gay American bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same sex marriages in Canada three years ago have deepened differences between liberals and conservatives among the world's 77 million Anglicans.

Now the broad church, which prides itself on governing by consensus, is braced for fresh turmoil after the US Episcopal Church chose Katherine Jefferts Schori as its first female head.

''It will be a great adventure,'' Schori promised after her election at the weekend -- but the already battered and bruised Anglican community was not so sure.

''Having a woman primate is an exciting complication,'' said yesterday Church Times Editor Paul Handley.

''The problem is her views. She is quite permissive towards local churches giving blessing to same sex couples and she supported the ordination of Robinson,'' he told Reuters.

But he felt talk of a definitive split, although African Anglicans are strongly opposed to homosexuality, was premature.

''The genius of Anglicanism is that it has been able to cope with huge variations in doctrine and practice. Talk of schism is exaggerated,'' he said.

But the Church of England Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said the divisions were now so deep that compromise was no longer possible.

''Nobody wants a split but if you think you have virtually two religions in a single Church, something has got to give sometime,'' he told The Daily Telegraph.

''A CRITICAL TIME'' Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican church, said Schori was taking up ''a deeply demanding position at a critical time''.

''We are continuing to pray for the general convention of the Episcopal Church as it confronts a series of exceptionally difficult choices,'' Williams said in a statement after talking to Schori by telephone earlier in the day.

The issue of a ''stained glass ceiling'' stopping women from rising in the hierarchy ranks alongside the ordination of gay clergy as one of the most disruptive in the Anglican Church.

Anglicans in Canada, the United States and New Zealand already have women bishops.

Archbishop Williams won backing in February for the ordination of women bishops in the Church of England but theological and legal hurdles remain to be cleared.

One in six of England's parish priests is a woman and, a decade after they were first ordained, liberals say it is insulting not to let them hold positions of power.

But traditionalists argue that as Jesus Christ's apostles were men, there is no precedent in the Bible for women bishops.

Reverand David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, a conservative group that opposed Schori's nomination, said her election made a schism more likely.

''We would expect the Episcopal Church will continue its acceleration into outer space,'' he said in the United States. ''The fabric of the communion is being torn at its deepest level. This will simply accelerate and continue the tearing.'' REUTERS CH ND0904