Anglican crisis talks 'to last into the night'
By Jonathan Petre,
Religion Correspondent, in Dar Es Salaam
Last Updated: 7:56pm GMT 19/02/2007

The worldwide Anglican Church was struggling to reach a consensus tonight about how to resolve its bitter dispute over homosexuality.

The Church's primates, who are meeting in Tanzania, were deadlocked over key areas of their final communiqué, which is supposed to reflect the views of the whole gathering.

Embarrassed officials had to postpone a press conference at which they had intended to unveil the communiqué, explaining that talks were expected to go on into the night.

One said that if the primates failed to resolve their differences tonight, they may not release a communiqué at all, a development that would be regarded as signalling a profound split.
It was believed that the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, is leading a rearguard action by a rump of hardline conservatives.

They were deeply unhappy with early drafts of the communiqué because it fails to rebuke the liberal American Episcopal Church for bringing Anglicanism to the brink of schism by consecrating its first openly gay bishop in 2003. the rest