The number of women entering the ministry is also expected to fall, though not as significantly, to 124. This puts them ahead of male entrants for the first time since the Church admitted female priests 12 years ago.

The figures were welcomed by campaigners for women's ordination who said the shift in the balance between the sexes would have a profound effect on the public face of the Church.

Archbishop Henry Orombi, Primate of the Anglican Church in Uganda, issued a statement on September 23, 2004 announcing that churches in Uganda were withdrawing grant requests from the United Thank Offering (UTO) sponsored by the Episcopal Church Women.

"The thrust of our concerns is that our communion is a family and if you have a family there has to be give and take for us to keep the family together," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"That is what we are expecting and we hope that the American Church will be willing to behave the way members of the family should behave.

The ACIC has existed for more than three decades. Its members follow the 1928 version of the Book of Common Prayer.

Generally, the members are former Episcopalians, who have opposed the liberalization of mainline church teachings in areas such as abortion rights, ordination of women and same-sex marriages.

However, the final break for many of these clerics was the controversy last year over the Episcopalians' ordination of an openly gay man, Bishop Gene Robinson.