Most people have probably heard about the tense situation that exists between evangelical Anglicans and the more liberal leadership throughout the Anglican Communion - but just how bad have things gotten? So bad that a meeting of evangelicals had to vote on whether to allow Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to even visit their gathering and deliver a prayer.

Eventually they agreed to allow it - but no more (and some evangelicals wouldn't even stick around for that - they held a private prayer service elsewhere). After his prayer, he left. Stephen Bates writes for the Guardian:

Evangelicals, founding their belief on biblical revelation and personal conversion, form the most dynamic and growing element of the CofE and some are rejecting the leadership of their bishops and archbishops. In the 1950s, 7% of worshippers counted themselves as evangelicals, now the figure is 40% and that stretches to 60% of ordinands in training. Although by no means all feel this way, a sizeable proportion do. To their church opponents they are the Taliban, zealous for orthodoxy and the unchanging message of the Bible.

It is all over an issue that many see as, at best, a secondary one: how the established church deals with one small section of the population - gays and lesbians - within its midst and how it presents itself to those out in the wider community. Dr Williams' crime in the eyes of conservative evangelicals has been to preach in the past the possibility of tolerance for gay relationships. The fact that he now says he will uphold the current position of the church does not save him in their eyes. They want retraction and repentance.

Compromise is not in their vocabulary. Progress is anathema to them. They are evangelicals - and if they cannot impose their will upon the whole of the Anglican Communion, they will pick up and leave entirely. Will the Anglican Communion be better off without the haters, the bigots, and the extremists? Perhaps - but at the same time, when the extremists isolate themselves and ensure that they are no longer exposed to alternative views, they may become even worse.

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• Episcopalians
• Anglicanism
• Evangelicalism
• Archbishop Rowan Williams