LONDON -- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams may invite representatives of the conservative wing of The U.S. Episcopal Church to meet with Anglican leaders ahead of a key February gathering on the future of their embattled global fellowship.

In a Dec. 18 letter to heads of the 38 Anglican provinces, Williams said deep divisions in the American church warrant the move. The text of the letter was posted on the blog titusonenine, run by Canon Kendall Harmon of the Diocese of South Carolina, and on the blog of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member global Anglican Communion, a loose-knit group of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England.

Most overseas Anglicans are conservatives who are pressuring the American denomination to adhere to traditional Christian teaching on sexuality and other issues.

But many Episcopalians counter that conservatives are demanding a conformity of belief that was never before required of Anglicans.

In 2003, the U.S. denomination ordained the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, prompting conservative Episcopalians, a minority in the 2.2 million-member denomination, to distance themselves from national church leaders.

Some have left the denomination and affiliated with like-minded traditionalists in overseas Anglican churches. The most dramatic departure came on Dec. 17, when two of the largest and most prominent Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Virginia, and seven smaller parishes in the diocese, broke with the denomination and joined a rival U.S. church network overseen by Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, an outspoken conservative.

As the Anglicans' spiritual leader, Williams is struggling to keep the communion unified. The 38 Anglican provincial leaders, called primates, will discuss whether they can resolve their differences during the February meeting in Tanzania.

Williams affirmed in the letter that he will invite newly installed Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to the gathering. Jefferts Schori, who was invested as head of the American church last month, supports ordaining partnered gays and blessing same-sex couples.

She is also the first woman to head an Anglican regional church in the nearly 500 years of Anglicanism. Some Anglican leaders reject the ordination of women.