One really wonders how this is all going to end…Anglican clergy put their feet down.

Liberal bishops who support homosexual priests are to be barred from entering some churches and money intended for Anglican coffers will be withheld. In a dramatic escalation in the Church of England’s civil war over homosexual clergy, scores of evangelical churches will break their historic links with liberal bishops who oversee their parishes. The deepening of the conflict represents the "ultimate" protest by conservative clergy against liberal bishops’ support for homosexual priests who have used the Civil Partnerships Act to "marry" their boyfriends. The rebel clerics are setting up a panel of retired bishops to provide pastoral care to parishes in dioceses run by liberal bishops. The move is similar to the provision of "flying bishops" to opponents of women priests when they were first ordained in 1994. Up to 100 churches have said that they intend to split from their bishops and seek support from the new panel. That is likely to mark only the beginning of the schism, however, as the panel of conservative bishops will provide an attractive alternative to other disaffected parishes. Leading evangelicals will meet the Most Rev Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday to deliver papers laying out the plans for a restructuring of the Church. The archbishop will be told that dozens of churches in liberal dioceses feel forced to take the radical step of breaking with their bishops. The initiative has been organised by Reform and Anglican Mainstream, evangelical groups that represent about 2,000 parishes. The initial number of disaffected parishes could rise dramatically, however, because traditionalists from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church have expressed their support. Other evangelical parishes might also follow suit if an incumbent bishop with whom they agree is succeeded by a liberal cleric. The bishops of Chelmsford, Southwark and St Albans, who have all been supportive to homosexual clergy, are among those who will no longer be allowed to celebrate confirmations at many evangelical churches in their own dioceses.