Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said on Friday the Anglican Communion he heads cannot agree if the United States Episcopal Church has stepped back from its liberal stands on gay bishops and scriptural authority.
Just over half the Communion leaders surveyed felt the Episcopal Church had reassured them it would not appoint another gay bishop or allow blessings for same-sex couples, but the rest felt it fell short, he said in his Advent Letter to Anglicans.
"We have no consensus," Dr Williams wrote, noting the crisis went beyond issues of sexuality to encompass questions about how to interpret the Bible. "All of us will be seriously wounded and diminished if our Communion fractures any further."
Dr Williams said he would ask professional mediators to help guide talks between the Episcopal leadership and its traditionalist critics among US and foreign Anglicans.
Their four-year feud threatens to split the 77-million member Communion, which gave the US Church a deadline of September 30 to change its position. But the nuanced answer it gave has clearly not won wide approval.
"The Instruments of Communion have consistently and very strongly repeated that it is part of our Christian and Anglican discipleship to condemn homophobic prejudice and violence, to defend the human rights and civil liberties of homosexual people and to offer them the same pastoral care and loving service that we owe to all in Christ's name," he wrote.
"But the deeper question is about what we believe we are free to do, if we seek to be recognisably faithful to Scripture and the moral tradition of the wider Church, with respect to blessing and sanctioning in the name of the Church certain personal decisions about what constitutes an acceptable Christian lifestyle.
"Insofar as there is currently any consensus in the Communion about this, it is not in favour of change in our discipline or our interpretation of the Bible."
Dr Williams, who is spiritual head of the Communion but has no direct power over its 38 member churches, also said he had not changed his mind about keeping two US bishops - one gay, one traditionalist -- from taking part in Lambeth 2008.
"I have not seen any reason to revisit this," he said.
The consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 pushed tensions between Anglican liberals and traditionalists - many in developing countries - to the breaking point. Dr Williams has not invited him to the Lambeth Conference in England.
A number of parishes in the US Episcopal Church, and most recently, the Diocese of San Joaquin have sought oversight from provinces overseas.
Dr Williams stressed his opposition to such "uncontrolled intervention", stating "it is evident that this is not doing anything to advance or assist local solutions that will have some theological and canonical solidity".