The issues have confronted the archbishop with deep divisions not simply between liberals and conservatives in the United States but also across the broader church with its many followers in Africa, Britain and elsewhere. Four conservative dioceses in the United States and many individual Episcopal churches have broken away from the national denomination to forge alliances with conservative Anglican groups such as the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Archbishop Williams said: “There is at least the possibility of a twofold ecclesial reality in view in the middle distance: that is, a ‘covenanted’ Anglican global body, fully sharing certain aspects of a vision of how the Church should be and behave, able to take part as a body in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue; and, related to this body, but in less formal ways with fewer formal expectations, there may be associated local churches in various kinds of mutual partnership and solidarity with one another and with ‘covenanted’ provinces.”

The archbishop has promoted the idea of covenant  described by some analysts as a kind of good-behavior guide for churches  to overcome the rift.

“This has been called a ‘two-tier’ model, or, more disparagingly, a first- and second-class structure,” the archbishop’s message said. “But perhaps we are faced with the possibility rather of a ‘two-track’ model, two ways of witnessing to the Anglican heritage, one of which had decided that local autonomy had to be the prevailing value and so had in good faith declined a covenantal structure.”

The message continued: “It helps to be clear about these possible futures, however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are  two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out but which would not exclude cooperation in mission and service of the kind now shared in the Communion.”

The archbishop’s message drew mixed responses from liberals and conservatives in the United States, The Associated Press reported. The Rev. Susan Russell, president of an Episcopal gay advocacy group, said it was disappointing that Archbishop Williams had debated the inclusion of gays and lesbians from “solely a political or rights-based” perspective rather than a theological perspective.

But, she said, “what the archbishop is really stating is the reality: that the structures that have served the Anglican Communion historically need some work. The 21st century is different than the 16th century.”

Canon Kendall Harmon, a conservative, said the archbishop’s message was “going to increase the chaos in the province of the American church and in the Anglican Communion,” The A.P. reported.