The Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore has warned that current international controversy over same-sex unions could split the Anglican churches.
The Right Rev Harold Miller said yesterday: "I really believe that we could well be on the edge of a major split in the Anglican communion over this issue."
In his presidential address to the diocesan synod of Down and Dromore, he said: "A divided church, like a divided political party, can find itself consumed with internal battles and take its eye off the target."
Bishop Miller recalled how during an Anglican convention he attended in Albany, New York, earlier this month he heard the news that the person elected bishop of New Hampshire was a man living openly in a gay relationship.
He said this followed what was the first official same-sex blessing in the diocese of New Westminster, which happened only days after the primates of the Anglican communion had asked that this kind of service would not take place.
Bishop Miller said that in the Church of England, the Bishop of Oxford had chosen Canon Jeffrey John as the new Bishop of Reading.
He regretted all these situations because they pre-empted "the thorough discussion of these matters by the wider church".
The bishop said it was the intention of the House of Bishops in the Church of Ireland to issue a paper on this matter.
"In the Church of Ireland we have never moved ahead on major issues unless we can find agreement."
He regretted such situations also because they personalised the issues.
"People end up speaking against other people because of their principles and that can lead to great hurt."
He also regretted them because of the real danger of a major split.
"Even the Archbishop of Canterbury recognises that he may well preside over a 'communion' becoming a 'federation' of different stands," he said.
Bishop Miller was also "concerned for the many gay people in all our churches, who are seeking to live out their lives as Christians, often in great pain and at great cost.
"I want our church at all cost to avoid denigrating people because of sexual orientation and certainly to avoid any hint of homophobia.
"I want our churches to be welcoming places for all fragile sinners, but also to be places where, together, we learn to live in God's will and ways."
He had "tried to listen to the views of gay people, both those who are celibate and those who are not, and will continue so to do".