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The Church of England’s opposition to same-sex marriage is facing a major challenge from within after Anglicans in the US approved same-sex blessings in churches.

Bishops in the American Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican Communion, voted overwhelmingly to accept a special liturgy for what is effectively a form of homosexual wedding. 

The liberal stance of American Anglicans has proved one of the biggest challenges to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams’s authority during his 10-year tenure. 

Its decision nine years ago to consecrate the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, triggered a crisis in the Anglican world, splitting the 77 million-strong Communion into liberal and conservative camps. 

When Dr Williams was faced with the same choice over the ordination of Jeffery John as Bishop of Reading he was forced into a bitter u-turn, an episode which came to marr his tenure at Lambeth Palace.

Now the American church has opened up a new challenge to the authority of the Archbishop as titular head of the Anglican Communion by accepting same-sex blessing services. 

Although some Church of England clergy already offer informal prayers for couples in civil partnerships, formal blessing services have been ruled out. 

And last month Dr Williams and his counterpart in York, Dr John Sentamu, put their names to a strongly worded rejection of the Government’s plans for same-sex marriage in Britain. 

They argued against the prospect of homosexual weddings in churches and even suggested that the issue could lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England. But many within the Church have questioned the document. 

Yet in a vote at the Episcopal General Convention in Indianapolis, the American House of Bishops has voted by almost three to one to adopt a special rite called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant." 

Last night it was also expected to receive the full support of other delegates. 

The Convention has also approved new guidelines making it easier to ordain transsexuals as clergy. 
 

The US votes are bound to prompt a fresh challenge within the Church of England. 

Although it was not on the agenda at this week’s General Synod in York, a question-and-answer session with the Archbishops was nonetheless dominated by challenges to the official Church response to the same-sex marriage consultation.