London ? He has not even been enthroned as leader of the Church of England yet, but the next archbishop of Canterbury already is caught in a conflict :quot; between what he believes and what the Anglican Communion teaches on homosexuality.

On Feb. 27, Rowan Williams assumes his post as the new spiritual leader of the world’s 70 million Anglicans. He’ll be taking over for Archbishop George Carey, who retired last week.

Conservative evangelicals haven’t waited for Williams’ official installation to go after him on the issue of sexuality. They have demanded he affirm traditional church teaching, which forbids sex outside of marriage, and that he promise not to ordain those who fail to conform.

Williams, now the Anglican archbishop of Wales, has ordained a man he knew was in a homosexual partnership.

“I can and I do state what is the majority teaching of the church, as I am bound to do. But I can’t go beyond this and say that I believe what I do not believe,” Williams said in a letter to Reform, a conservative evangelical group that pressed him to give up the Canterbury post.

That doesn’t satisfy the Rev. William Taylor, rector of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, a lively evangelical parish in central London.

“It is impossible for a person to believe one thing personally and to act out another as an officer of the church, exercising discipline against people who believe the same thing as you and whom you have encouraged into ministry,” Taylor says.

In a symbol of protest to distance the parish from Williams, St. Helen’s is refusing to accept funds from the Church of England to pay clergy salaries, which ordinarily are paid from central funds.

Williams anticipated problems. On July 23, the day his appointment was announced, he wrote to primates of other Anglican national churches saying that the archbishop “does not have the freedom to prescribe belief for the Church at large.”

“I have indeed in the past written briefly on the subject of theology and sexuality, and hope that what I have written has contributed to the continuing discussion; but my ideas have no authority beyond that of an individual theologian,” Williams said.

Williams confirmed in an interview published by The Daily Telegraph in July that he had ordained a priest he knew was living in a homosexual partnership.

“On homosexuality :quot; a very tricky issue :quot; I start with nil credibility with the evangelicals,” he was quoted as saying. “My theological conviction is that there is a good case for recognition of same-sex partnerships if they are stable and faithful. I would not, however, call it marriage.”