Church of England General Synod members will be asked to back the process of drawing up a possible "covenant" aimed at resolving the impasse within the worldwide Anglican Communion over gay priests.
Members of the Synod meeting in York will be addressed by the Most Rev Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies and chairman of the Anglican Covenant Design Group.
The covenant would aim to set out a framework of faith and unity to avoid further schism in the worldwide Communion over gays.
Last year the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams suggested that the covenant could mean dividing the Anglican Communion into "associated" and "constituent" provinces.
The Anglican Communion has been debating the way forward since the consecration in 2003 of a practising gay man, Gene Robinson, as Bishop of New Hampshire in the US, sparking outrage among conservatives within the Church, particularly in Africa.
There have also been disagreements over church blessings for same sex couples.
The discussions about a covenant come after the US Episcopal Church last month rejected a demand made by the Anglican Primates in Tanzania which called for a moratorium on same-sex blessings or further elections of gay bishops.
