CHICAGO (Reuters) — Anglican church leaders and others demanding the US Episcopal Church harden its stand on gay issues may be yielding to unwarranted impatience instead of waiting for divine guidance, the head of the US church said on Wednesday.Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the 2.4-million-member US church, acknowledged “we could lose our voice at the table” of the Worldwide Anglican Communion by not complying with demands handed down by leading Anglican bishops when they met recently in Africa.

But in the face of possible schism within the 77-million-member worldwide church, she said, gays and lesbians in the US church should be assured “We are about affirming the equal dignity of all human beings ... I see no desire from anyone to retreat from this position.”

“We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and outside this church who hunger for clarity,” she said in a conference broadcast over the Internet from New York to church members worldwide, who were allowed to pose questions.

“That hunger for clarity at all costs is an anxious response to discomfort in the face of change,” she added.

“The impatience we are now experiencing is an idol, a false hope that is unwilling to wait on God for clarity, an idol that fails to ... expect that the spirit will lead us.”