A new split in the worldwide Anglican Communion was narrowly averted last night when clergy in Canada succeeded in preventing their Church moving towards same-sex marriage.  

The meeting of the General Synod near Toronto voted against a first reading of a resolution that, if passed, would have needed another vote at a second reading in 2019 when the synod meets next.

Most speakers at the synod supported gay marriage but the vote needed a two-thirds majority in all three houses of bishops, clergy and laity.

After the Anglican Communion primates in January imposed "consequences" on The Episcopal Church over the issue of same-sex marriage, it had been thought the bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada would vote against for the sake of worldwide unity.

However, in the end the bishops backed it, voting more than 68 per cent in favour. The laity also back it at more than 70 per cent. It fell by a small margin in the House of Clergy, where 66.23 per cent voted in favour, just one vote short of the two-thirds required.

The result led to  "bitter disappointment" among some members, according to CBC. The Rev Allison Courey of Rupert's Land diocese in Manitoba, who has married her female partner, is among those who received abuse in the run-up to the vote, in her case in the form of hate mail.

"The Bible runs so deeply in my veins I cannot imagine my life without it," she told the 200 delegates at the synod meeting.

The motion was opposed by several delegates from Canada's indigenous communities. One condemned it an "abomination" and disobedient before God. Another said: "God did not create another Adam, he created a woman."

René Boeré from Calgary said: "The creator made us male and female and marriage is the union of those two." 

Before the vote the primate of Canada, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, said the decision made would have serious consequences: "There may be people who feel compelled to leave our Church. That's the gravity and the weight of the situation that is before us."

Same-sex marriage became legal in Canada in 2005. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is among the supporters of gay marriage.