CANTERBURY, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - Anglican bishops from around the world gathered in their spiritual home Wednesday for a once-a-decade meeting clouded by deep splits over the roles of women and homosexuals.

Some 650 bishops were to attend the 20-day Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, southeast England, for an intensive session of worship, study and conversation.

However, the position of gays and women in the worldwide Anglican Communion -- which has around 77 million followers, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams -- is likely to dominate proceedings.

About a quarter of the communion's bishops -- including most from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda -- are staying away, a week after the Church of England, the communion's mother church, gave the green light to women bishops.

Another notable absentee will be the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, the bishop of New Hampshire in the United States, who was not invited but will be in Canterbury holding events on the conference fringes.

It was Robinson's consecration as bishop in 2003 which effectively carved out the battle lines in the ongoing bitter struggle between Anglican liberals and conservatives over gay and, most recently, women bishops.

The 1998 Lambeth Conference produced resolution 1.10, which declared active homosexuality to be incompatible with the teaching of the Bible -- a move which helped place traditional churches on a collision course with liberal ones.

In a welcome message, Williams admitted the Anglican Communion was experiencing tough times.

'The chief aims of our time together are, first, that we become more confident in our Anglican identity, by deepening our awareness of how we are responsible to and for each other; and second, that we grow in energy and enthusiasm for our task of leading the work of mission in our Church,' he said.

'Our ministry takes place in the context of a needy and divided world, in which there is both deep fear and great suffering.

'Our Communion is living through very difficult times and we are bound to be aware of the divisions and conflicts that have hurt us all in recent years. But as the Lord says (John 16:35), it is in union with him that we shall find peace.'

The conference, held at the University of Kent in Canterbury, gets under way with a plenary session at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) followed by an evening meal and night prayers.

Bishops then spend three days in retreat at Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the Anglican Communion, considering 'God's mission and the bishop's discipleship', before the mainstream discussions begin on Monday.

Participants will cover subjects including evangelisation, human sexuality, social justice and issues such as the environment and violence against women.

The schism in the church hinges on the divisions between conservatives, who argue that allowing gay and women bishops goes against Bible teachings, and liberals, who want a more inclusive communion.

Around 230 from a worldwide total of around 880 Anglican bishops are expected to stay away from the conference, many from developing countries.

Nearly 300 conservative Anglican bishops and archbishops formed a breakaway movement, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA), following a conference in Jerusalem last month.

FOCA claims to represent half of the world's Anglicans.

Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola told the BBC: 'Rather than make a mockery of the holy Eucharist or the sacrament of the Lord, it was better we don't participate and all efforts to get us back are failed.

'So until there is restoration of communion there is no basis for coming together.'