The meeting, chaired by the Most Rev Richard Holloway, the Bishop of Edinburgh, had been expected to be controversial and a walkout by traditionalists was predicted.

But most of the bishops said nothing as they left the venue in Edinburgh after their discussions.

'Principle of communion'

The two-hour long session was part of a 10-day meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council and was chaired by Bishop Holloway in his role as Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

A homosexual priest and a number of lesbians and gay men, as well as local members of the laity, gave testimony to the ACC during the talks.

"Listening to everyone and to each other is a cardinal principle of consultation and communion," said the Rt Rev Simon Chiwanga, Bishop of Mpwapwa.

"Hence, the call from the 1998 Lambeth Conference that there should be a listening process with church members who are homosexuals has begun today."

The BBC's Alex Kirby on an expected stormy meeting

The church, which has about 70 million adherents globally, tried to deal with the issue at last year's Lambeth Conference, the once-in-10-years meeting of all 800 Anglican bishops.

But Lambeth ended in division. The large vote for the traditional teaching of the church - that all homosexual activity is sinful - appalled some of the liberal bishops.

Protesting at liberalism

This is part of the unfinished business of Lambeth, which committed the church to listen to its homosexual members.

But one archbishop, Moses Tay, the leader of the province of south-east Asia, has refused to attend the ACC at all, in protest at what he calls the Scottish church's heretical liberalism.

Richard Holloway, a bishop used to controversy

Dr Tay is especially upset by a book published this year by the Scottish church's leader, the bishop of Edinburgh, the Right Rev Richard Holloway, who is hosting the ACC meeting.

Dr Holloway, one of the most liberal of the Anglican bishops, called his book Godless Morality, a title which drew criticism from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, who said it was "unacceptable" to leave God out of the moral debate.

Dr Tay goes further, describing Dr Holloway's book as "horrendous and heretical".

In it Dr Holloway argues for homosexual rights and for the legalisation of cannabis, which he admits having smoked himself.

Gay Christian campaigners say Dr Tay's decision to stay away from Scotland, which he says is "deviating from its traditional roots of faith", is a protest aimed directly at them.