|PIC1|Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female leader of the US Episcopal Church, has further extended the rift in the Anglican Communion by controversially defending homosexuality; announcing her personal belief that it is not a sin.

Elected this week as the head of the 2.3 million member church, the 52-year-old Bishop told reporters that she felt homosexuals were created by God to love people of the same sex. The comments are sure to send shock waves across the worldwide Anglican Communion.

She told CNN, “I believe that God creates us with different gifts. Each one of us comes into this world with a different collection of things that challenge us and things that give us joy and allow us to bless the world around us.

"Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender."

She defended her view claiming the Bible passages relating to homosexuality are written in a different historical context, "The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings. The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear -- there are rules in the Bible about those that we don't observe today.

"The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that's certainly the great message of Jesus, to include the un-included."

|TOP|Bishop Schori’s election was a sting for many conservatives in the Church who are suspicious of her liberal credentials on various issues — especially homosexuality.

It is now believed that if the newly elected presiding bishop continues with her liberal agenda, there will be no room for reconciliation with the majority of the Anglican Communion, who remain faithful to the Biblical tradition that condemns homosexuality as sin.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, took almost a day to offer his greetings to Bishop of Nevada Katharine Jefferts Schori as the next Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church in a statement in which he refrained from extending his outright congratulations.

The Rev Geoffrey Kirk Secretary of Forward in Faith, a conservative group within the Church of England, said the election of Bishop Schori was deliberately at a time of crisis in the Anglican Communion.

|AD|He said: "Such an appointment can only exacerbate divisions and create further difficulties with our senior ecumenical partners."

Commentators have predicted a schism within the Anglican Communion following developments regarding homosexual members of the Church, including the consecration in the U.S. of Gene Robinson, Canada’s previous decision to allow same-sex marriage blessings, and the Church of England’s approval of gay bishops registered under the Civil Partnerships Act on the promise of abstinence.

Especially in Africa, Church leaders, such as The Most Rev Peter Akinola, have condemned the liberal trends appearing in a number of western Anglican Communion Churches.

The Archbishop of Nigeria has already last year declared the formation of a Convocation of Anglican Nigerian Churches in America. The purpose of the new organisation he said was to create a "safe harbour" for the Nigerian faithful – many of whom now feel unable to attend the Episcopal Church in the US (ECUSA)

In relation to the ECUSA, Akinola has said that until the Episcopal Church in America realises the serious reality of the situation that there would be no hope at all for any "meaningful reconciliation."