Leaders of the 80-million-member Anglican Communion decided Thursday to suspend its U.S. affiliate, the Episcopal Church, for a three-year period in response to a decision last year allowing priests to marry same-sex couples.

Leaders of Anglican denominations from around the world headed into their summit this week in Canterbury, England bracing for a schism in the Communion over the issue. A conservative bloc known as the Global Anglican Future — or GAFCON — was threatening to walk out of the meeting if the Episcopal Church was not censured, and the global head of the church, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, went as far as to tell the BBC that such a split "would not be a disaster."

One church leader, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of the Church of Uganda, did withdraw from the meeting after the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada — which is due to vote on performing same-sex marriages in 2016 — rejected his request that they voluntarily withdraw. But the conservative bishops ultimately prevailed.

"Recent developments in The Episcopal Church with respect to a change in their Canon on marriage represent a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our Provinces on the doctrine of marriage," the gathered primates, or heads of each of the thirty-eight churches in the Anglican Communion, said in a statement, also appearing to signal that a similar step could be taken against the Canadian church if it formally allows same-sex marriages.

“Many of us have committed ourselves and our church to being ‘a house of prayer for all people,’ as the Bible says, when all are truly welcome,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry told the body ahead of the vote in remarks he later provided to Episcopal News Service.