|TOP|Turmoil continues to reign over the Anglican Communion following the announcement last month of openly gay candidates on the shortlist for the next Bishop of California.

In defiance of the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on the appointment of gay bishops in the Anglican Communion, the Diocese of California took the highly controversial step of including the Very Rev Robert Taylor, the openly gay Dean of Seattle, and the lesbian Rev. Bonnie Perry, Rector of All Saints’ Church in Chicago, on the list of nominees up for election in May.

The Rev. Nick Wynne-Jones, the secretary of the Church of England Evangelical Council, came out at the weekend to condemn the inclusion of the two actively homosexual candidates as both “provocative” and “in defiance” of the wishes of the rest of the Anglican Church.

“It just seems that they are determined to pursue their own particular agenda," he said. "If they persist in that line it seriously jeopardises the future of the Anglican Communion as it's currently constituted.

"The condition of the Episcopal Church in America is unravelling fairly fast and this would exacerbate this situation and I think that more and more individual parishes are likely to align with other dioceses. It is frustrating. Anyone who's concerned for the future of the Church would be concerned."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, also stressed his opposition to the gay nominations following their announcement last month.

|QUOTE|“If there is ever to be a change on the discipline and teaching of the Anglican Communion [on homosexuality] it should not be the decision of one Church alone.

“The Church must have the highest degree of consensus for such a radical change,” he argued.

Dr Williams also made reference to the “bitter controversy over sexuality in the Communion” once again in his letter to 38 Anglican primates last week.

Canon Chris Sugden, the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream International, said: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced what many people knew in his letter to the primates: that there was no mind in the Communion to change the position on homosexuality.

"He's very clear that there is a group of people in power in the highest echelons of the Episcopalian Church in America for whom this is a determined crusade. They will brook no opposition, they will not listen to any calls for restraint. It has been done during the moratorium deliberately. It is a clear challenge to the rest of the Communion and the Church of England."

Miss Perry is one of the favourites to be elected as the new Bishop of California who will replace the retiring Bishop William Swing in May.