Archbishop Fred Hiltz said that his Church may have to come to terms with the division as those who are not able to live with the rites will leave.

In an interview with The National Post, he predicted that some parishes will choose to celebrate gay unions while others will remain opposed. And he predicted that the traditionalists would then leave the Anglican Church.

"There may come a point we have to acknowledge that and respect their decision. It's not what any of us want, but it's what happens sometimes. If they feel they cannot stay and withdraw other parishes with them, obviously it's a sad moment for the Church. But I also think at that point you don't fight. You don't fight.

You have to acknowledge the situation, acknowledge the pain, acknowledge the brokenness. It's the kind of stuff that drives the Church to its knees," he said. But he said that the important issue now for the Church was to keep both sides talking. "My own personal position is that there's an urgency in many places where it would be appropriate for parishes to move ahead on blessing same-sex unions," he said.

"The reality is, in the office I hold now, my task is to hold the Church together in a conversation, so we arrive at some conclusion. But my sense is that over this particular issue we may have to acknowledge that we're never going to find consensus, we're never going to reach a position where we all agree that this is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do."

Archbishop Hiltz added: "In the final analysis, the real challenge may be to learn how to disagree with grace. How can we remain a church in which we have huge theological differences? There's a huge challenge there."

Although the current split in the Anglican Communion has been blamed on the consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the USA, the Canadian Church has also been the focus of attention by traditionalists because of its moves towards same-sex blessings

In June the Canadian General Synod blocked a move to allow dioceses to decide for themselves whether to allow the blessings, but traditionalists were angry that it was ruled that they did not violate core doctrine.