Wednesday, August 5, 1998 Published at 14:39 GMT 15:39 UK
Confrontation at Lambeth Conference
Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma confronts gay protesters
Earlier, there were angry scenes between conservative clergy and lesbian and gay campaigners over the issue which will be voted on by 800 bishops.
"He was basically saying that we needed to repent and that there was no place in the Church for people like us and that we ought to leave because we were defiling the Church."
"And we would not have debated it all as an issue. But since it has been bought forward as an issue we are going to make sure it is thrown out."
While some western bishops favour blessing same-sex unions in church, some of their African counterparts say that homosexuality is sinful.
The North American bishop championing the gay cause said he will not vote for anything that will force him to discriminate against gay priests in his diocese.
"They have been murdered, they have been burned at the stake and I think we ought to be repenting for that sort of behaviour and try to embrace them as children of God."
He told the Today programme that the way society views homosexuality had changed in the last 25 years.
Bishop Spong said: "We're living in a world of vast cultural differences.
"We have been debating openly and publicly in the US and in the western world in the past 25 years and we've come to a lots of new conclusions.
But the bulk of the bishops, especially those from Africa and Asia, do not want homosexuality debated.
Archbishop William Moses, Primate of South India, said homosexuals could not be part of the Church of England.
He told Today: "It's a matter for serious dispute and we will not accept it."
A sub-committee dealing with the issue has seen some of the fiercest debate of the three-week conference.
Its report condemns homophobia and "any discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation".
But it insists that only marriage between one man and one woman is acceptable within the church.
The committee motion says the conference "cannot advise the legitimising or blessing or ordaining of those involved in same-gender unions".
'Devil is in the detail'
BBC religious affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan said: "It's very much a case here of the devil being in the detail.
"If the wording of the resolution can avoid strong condemnation of homosexuals - while not condoning gay equality - it looks likely that liberal and conservative bishops will vote for it.
"Otherwise the danger of a deep and lasting split remains."
The conference, held every 10 years, cannot bind the bishops to the resolutions it adopts, but it is seen as influencing opinion within the church.