The world?s 38 leading Anglican clerics prayed together yesterday at the start of a two-day landmark summit on gay clergy which could change the shape of their loose alliance of churches for ever. The clerics were whisked into London?s Lambeth Palace ? headquarters of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury ? through a back door. They prayed in the palace?s 12th century chapel before sitting down to discuss an issue which is threatening to rip apart the 70-million-strong Anglican communion.

Conservative Anglicans in Africa have demanded that their liberal colleagues in the USA either go back on their decision to appoint the first openly gay bishop in Anglican history or leave the communion.

In heated exchanges, the Africans have equated homosexuality with Satanism while Britain?s leading campaigner for gay and lesbian Christians compared church conservatives with Adolf Hitler?s Nazis. The gathering, due to conclude with a news conference tomorrow, was prompted by the election of Gene Robinson, a divorced father of two, in the United States.