Episcopal bishops meeting in New Orleans this week for highly publicised closed-door talks with the Anglican Communion's spiritual leader, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, remained tight-lipped on Thursday about progress on key issues, including homosexuality.

Some are calling the private meetings the most significant since the 2003 consecration of openly gay Bishop V Gene Robinson drove a wedge into relations between provinces and member churches of the communion.

Episcopal bishops remained wooly as they led a news briefing after nearly seven hours of meetings with Dr Williams on Thursday.

The Rt Rev Robert O'Neill, Bishop of Colorado, said the bishops had engaged in "a very open and forthright conversation".

He also expressed a continued commitment to the Anglican Communion.

"We're passionate about the work that we all do both individually and collectively. That passion was reflected in our conversation today," he said. "It reflected a passionate commitment to the vitality of life and ministry of both the Episcopal Church and to the global Anglican Communion."

The Rt Rev John Rabb, Bishop of Maryland, told reporters, "Our conversation has been rich in content, looking at all the issues that are before us."

They refused, however, to answer questions on the significance of the talks in respect of the Dar es Salaam communiqué in February which called for a ban on the consecration of gay bishops and blessings for same-sex unions. They also declined to speculate on the likelihood of an invitation to Bishop Robinson to the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

Dr Williams, who is struggling to hold the communion together, mentioned nothing of the rift over homosexuality in a 15-minute sermon he delivered in the New Orleans Convention Center on Thursday.

Instead, he encouraged congregants to re-build New Orleans into a God-fearing city following the massive devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Meetings with Dr Williams are due to conclude on Friday morning.

Earlier on Thursday, Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, urged bishops to demonstrate mutual respect during the meetings.

"We have lived in this Church and in this Communion for a number of years with abundant disdain, violent words, and destructive action toward those who hold positions at variance with our own. None of us is wholly free of blame in this game, for we have all sought to judge those who oppose us," she said during her homily.

Meanwhile, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, a fierce critic of the Episcopal Church in the US, has been invited by conservative Anglican congregations in the United States to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with them this week.

Archbishop Akinola is scheduled to attend the service on Sunday in Wheaton College's Edman Chapel in response to an invitation by congregations in Illinois that are affiliated with the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) - a splinter group of conservative Anglicans and offshoot of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.

The visit is a surprise to the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, the Rt Rev William Persell, who said that Archbishop Akinola did not contact him about his coming.

"Amidst the highly charged political rhetoric in our nation and around the world concerning events of the Anglican Communion, I want you to know that the Diocese of Chicago has no connection with the visit of Archbishop Akinola," said Bishop Persell in a letter to Chicago's diocesan clergy last week.

The Chicago bishop also stated that Archbishop Akinola's visit is not an AMiA event, according to the AMiA office in South Carolina.

The Episcopal Church - the US branch of Anglicanism - is expected to come out of the September 20-25 meeting with a response to Anglican leaders who requested an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorise blessings for same-sex unions. The deadline for the response is September 30.

Meanwhile, a silent protest is expected to take place outside the Holy Eucharist in Wheaton "on behalf of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Africans", according to Bishop Persell.

Archbishop Akinola, one of the most powerful Anglican leaders, joins with most Anglicans in the communion in opposing homosexual ordination. Within the communion, homosexual practice is deemed incompatible with Scripture. The Nigerian Archbishop is convinced that the Episcopal Church has "chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together" and holds little hope that the Episcopalians will reverse course.

Anglicans on both sides of the divide over homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture predict the Episcopal Church is not going to back down from its recent controversial actions and current stance supporting the "full inclusion" of gays and lesbians.

"We continued to be blessed by the rich diversity brought to our diocese by the gifts and talents of all our people including our most conservative members, moderates, liberals, who are straight, lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgendered," Bishop Persell wrote. "The God who unites us and calls us together in all our diversity for mission is stronger than those who would fracture our unity in Christ. Be of good courage and cheer."

The Chicago Diocese recently announced that an openly lesbian priest, the Rev Tracey Lind, is up for election to become the next diocesan bishop. If elected, Lind would become the second bishop in the Episcopal Church, after Bishop Robinson, to live with a same-sex partner.