Dallas ? With a schism in the Episcopal Church looking ever more likely, angry conservatives formally denounced the denomination’s growing acceptance of gay relationships Thursday and pleaded with Anglican bishops worldwide to help them reorganize the American church.

Bishops, from left, James Stanton, of Dallas; Peter Beckwith, of Springfield, Ill.; Gethin B. Hughes, of San Diego; Robert Duncan, of Pittsburgh; and David Benna, of Albany, N.Y.; bow their heads as the Rev. David H. Roseberry, on video screen, rector of Christ Church in Plano, Texas, leads them in prayer. The bishops gathered Thursday on the final day of the American Anglican Council meeting in Dallas.

Conservatives ended a three-day meeting by issuing a declaration that demands church leaders repent. It also looks to overseas Anglican bishops to “guide the realignment” of the denomination.

Though the situation is volatile, the gathering sponsored by the American Anglican Council gave a huge boost to an emerging conservative network that could evolve into a new denomination separate from the Episcopal Church.

“This is a defining moment in Christian history,” Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said at a news conference after the meeting. There’s a “life-threatening” disorder in the Episcopal Church and world Anglicanism, he said.

The issue of whether there’s a binding scriptural ban on gay sex has long been disputed by conservatives and liberals, but two votes this summer at the Episcopal national convention brought the issue to a boiling point.

One confirmed the election of a gay cleric with a longtime partner as bishop of New Hampshire, while the other acknowledged that some bishops are allowing blessings of same-sex unions. The conservatives’ declaration repudiated those actions, saying they broke “fellowship with the larger body of Christ.”

Next week, the heads of the 38 branches of the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, will meet in London to discuss the American crisis and a parallel problem in Canada.

The majority of Anglican leaders, or primates, support the conservatives’ position on homosexuality.