London ? Anglican leaders Thursday condemned the planned consecration of a gay American bishop and warned that it could cause the 70 million-member Anglican Communion to break apart, but they stopped short of attempting to prohibit it.

After two days of intensive meetings here, 37 primates of the worldwide network of churches issued a statement expressing “deep regret” over the decision of a diocese of the Episcopal Church of the United States to select the Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop, saying it had caused “profound pain and uncertainty” in many churches, especially in Africa and Latin America where homosexuality is condemned as sinful.

If Robinson’s consecration proceeds as scheduled on Nov. 2, they warned, “we have had to conclude that the future of the communion itself will be put in jeopardy. … This will tear the fabric of our communion at its deepest level.”

But at a news conference after the session, the primates acknowledged that they had no power to ban the consecration or punish leaders of the Episcopal Church, which has 2.3 million members. The U.S. church confirmed Robinson’s election as bishop of New Hampshire at its General Convention over the summer.

“The primate’s meeting has no legal jurisdiction,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglicans’ spiritual head, who called the emergency session at Lambeth Palace, his headquarters here. “All that our meeting could do was to state the situation as it is: These are the actions that have been taken, these are the consequences that are likely to follow.”

Instead, the primates called for Williams to establish a commission to address the issue and report back to them within a year. They also called for American dioceses to provide alternative priests and oversight for Episcopalians who object to worshipping at churches served by gay priests.

The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop, Frank Griswold, signed Thursday’s statement, which also criticized decisions by some dioceses in Canada and the United States to grant official church blessing to gay relationships.

Londoner Ben Evans, a supporter of gay rights, protests outside the meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in London. Outrage is a gay rights nonviolent civil disobedience action group demanding a change in attitudes within the Christian community.

Griswold said that in signing the statement he was acknowledging that Robinson’s election had caused pain, but added: “I stand fully behind the careful process used by the diocese of New Hampshire to discern who it wished to have as its next bishop, and I also fully respect the decision of the General Convention and the House of Bishops” that confirmed the decision.

He did not rule out asking Robinson to reconsider whether to accept the appointment.

Representatives of both sides of the dispute in the United States, who traveled here to monitor the meetings, pronounced themselves satisfied at the statement. But both sides agreed that the intensely bitter and emotional conflict between liberals and traditionalists would continue to rage.

Traditionalists, who consider Robinson’s selection as heresy and had hoped for punitive action against the Episcopal leaders who had endorsed it.

But church liberals said that because it stopped short of punitive action, the primates’ statement was acceptable to them.