The new worshiping communities, which are independent of the Episcopal Church USA, have just a few dozen members and are meeting in private homes. Several similar, but smaller, home-based prayer groups have also formed. Robinson, who lives with his longtime partner, is thought to be the first bishop in Christendom to have been open about his homosexuality at the time of his selection as a bishop.

Dean Jensen used a speech to conservative Christians in England to call for the resignation of the spiritual leader of the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has become a target of critics for his private, liberal views about homosexual relationships.

Tonight, in an address to the Perth diocese synod, Dr Carnley said any suggestion that Anglicanism was dying in Australia because of a drop-off in church attendance levels was false and misleading.

Not long after the group began their activity, members of the Pink Angels, which the statement describes as "a militant mob of homosexuals," confronted the protesters and attempted to drown out their message with whistles, while hiding the signs with large sheets of pink Styrofoam.