Senior Anglican leaders have been drafting a statement in an urgent attempt to find a compromise between warring factions within the worldwide Communion on Sunday night.

|PIC1|Bishops at the meeting, taking place in New Orleans, are hoping to find a way to maintain a degree of unity within the Anglican Communion by keeping the US Episcopal Church within the worldwide body. It comes amid fierce criticism from conservative members of the Church regarding liberal bishops' stance on homosexuality.

The matter will be further discussed at the US House of Bishops meeting on Monday, and it is thought some compromise will be sought to allow liberal clergy to continue offering pastoral support to gay couples, but impose a ban on formal blessing services for homosexual couples as well as the promise not to appoint any more openly gay bishops.

Last week, the spiritual head of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams issued a firm message to conservative members of the Episcopal Church that they should remain inside of the official US branch of the Communion and not join other conservative African Churches looking to reach out to them in the US.

The Archbishop of Canterbury rebuked African efforts to recruit dissident parishes in the US and rebutted calls for next year's landmark Lambeth Conference to be postponed in light of the current threat of schism within the Communion.

Dr Williams joined the meeting of bishops on Thursday and Friday, but was criticised by conservative Episcopalian bishops who reported the Archbishop refused to see them or return any of their calls during his entire visit.

It has been reported that a number of conservative bishops have now left the meeting and plan to gather in Pittsburgh this week to discuss their next steps. There is speculation that they will seek oversight from an African province.

Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh expressed his belief that around five of the US Church's 112 dioceses would now seek to affiliate outside the US.

However, Bishop Duncan made a call for unity, saying: "We are inevitably in the business of compromise...if we are able to get this right, to live with it in some structure, in a godly way, we will have done something for the whole Christian community."

The House of Bishops is due to conclude its meetings on Tuesday.