The Ottawa Diocese of the Anglican Church in Canada has shocked the worldwide Communion by voting in favour for blessing same-sex relationships in church.

The vote, which will further stoke the flames of division in an already strained Anglican Communion, is sure to anger conservative members of the 77-million member worldwide Church.

A large majority of 177 to 97 rubber-stamped the proposals for same-sex blessings, and it is believed that any progress made recently with the US Episcopal Church in urging restraint on the issue could be undone by the latest developments.

The Ottawa diocese was the first in Canada to consider the issue of gay blessing since June, when the Church's governing body decided to refuse dioceses the authority to offer such blessings for the sake of preserving church unity.

Even though the current crisis over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion is widely attributed to the ordination of the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003, a Canadian diocese in Vancouver also sparked controversy after allowing same-sex blessings even before that event.

Although the vote is not binding, the result is another blow to the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, who has tirelessly tried to ease divisions by asking liberals not to rush ahead with their own agenda, but to restrain from further same-sex blessings and ordinations of gay bishops.