Kampala - Anti-gay Christian bishops from around the world are meeting in Uganda as a follow-up to their last conference in Jerusalem, in which they formed a movement that threatens to split the 70-million-strong Anglican Church. 

About 40 bishops from Africa, Australia, the United States, India, Canada and Britain are taking part in the conference, which began Monday near the Ugandan capital Kampala. 

The conservative anti-gay clergy formed the Global Anglican Future Conference Movement (GAFCON) this year after the mainstream Anglican church refused to condemn the 2003 consecration of an American gay cleric. 

"We are telling people in homosexual relations that we appreciate you as human beings, but it's not a rightful relation," GAFCON chairman and Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa. 

"The right relationship is that between a man and a woman," he added. 

The clergymen say their meeting was called to explain the details of a declaration made at the Jerusalem conference organized in opposition to the 2008 Anglican conference, held this August in Lambeth, Great Britain. 

A bishop from the south of India, Vinay Samuel told dpa during a break at the conference that "we are a global movement and people need to know our stand." 

"This meeting is an exercise to explain the declaration we made after the conference in Jerusalem," he said. "We need to explain to those who disagree with us on the issue of taking the authority of the Bible as we do." (dpa)