Members of the Church of England General Synod have carried a motion to "engage positively" with the Anglican Communion Covenant process.

The motion was "clearly carried", according to Archdeacon Clive Mansell, who estimated that the vote in favour of the motion was as high as two to one.

A Covenant Design Group was appointed earlier in the year by the Archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of the Primates of the Anglican Communion to clarify the foundations of Anglican belief, particularly on the homosexuality issue and how member churches and provinces should manage related disputes.

The Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev Drexel Gomez, is leader of the Anglican Communion Covenant Design Group.

He told Synod members: "There can be little doubt that I am speaking to you at a time of great tension within the Anglican Communion. The 'bonds of affection' which once held our fellowship together are strained; indeed some would say broken."

Archbishop Gomez continued his sober analysis of the Anglican Communion by saying that positions had polarised even more since the Windsor Report three years ago and that scaremongering was "commonplace".

"In a situation which is becoming increasingly overheated, we need to hear a voice of calm. We need to identify the fundamentals that we share in common, and to state the common basis on which our mutual trust can be rebuilt," he said.

Archbishop Gomez added that the Covenant would only succeed "if it accurately describes a sufficient basis to hold us together and for us to want to stay together, based on what we already hold and believe".

The motion supporting the Covenant received the backing of one of the Church of England's more conservative leaders, the Bishop of Rochester, the Most Rev Michael Nazir Ali.

He said: "We are looking then for a covenant which will express the Apostolic Faith, enable us to come a common mind which is that of Christ, and free us to proclaim the good news of salvation to the world. The Covenant may be the first step in recovering our integrity, but it cannot be the last word."

Another motion put forward by Tim Cox from the Diocese of Blackburn called on Synod members to reject the draft Covenant and instead "uphold the biblical teaching that sexual intercourse belongs solely within the lifelong commitment of a man and a woman in marriage".

That motion was, however, rejected in favour of upholding the development of the Covenant.