ATLANTA — Conservative Episcopalians in Georgia were told a split with liberals is inevitable but may be years away, according to The Associated Press.

In the meantime, said the Rev. Robert Duncan, vice president of the American Anglican Council, he and AAC president the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson are drafting a charter for the Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes. Both said it would be a church within a church.

Duncan and Anderson are leading critics of Episcopal Church USA's consecration of openly homosexual Bishop V. Eugene Robinson.

Speaking at the AAC's Georgia chapter meeting Nov. 24, Duncan told conservatives to be patient, assuring them that early skirmishes with the national church will come within the next 60 days.

The national church, with 2.3 million members, is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

U.S. conservatives who believe homosexual sex violates Scripture have said they want Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, to authorize a separate Anglican province for them in North America.

Bishops overseas announced in October they were in a state of impaired communion with the Episcopal Church — a step short of declaring a full schism.

International church leaders are not expected to announce any permanent break until after a commission formed by Williams reports next year on whether a split is avoidable, the news service reported.

AAC leaders advised parishioners to stay with their churches for now and work within the existing framework by organizing with fellow conservatives by withholding funds from hostile dioceses.