The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC), will not be preaching at Christ Church Cathedral during her visit to New Zealand this week in order to "ease tensions" over TEC's recent ordination of its second openly gay bishop.

The measure is the latest in a series of unpleasant exchanges that have taken place between the Episcopal Church and other provinces of the Anglican Communion since TEC's ordination of the Rev. Mary Glasspool in April, which broke the church's 2004 moratoria.

During Pentecost, a letter from the church's symbolic leader Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested that the Episcopal Church be punished for Glasspool's ordination by having its officers removed from the Communion's ecumenical and doctrinal councils – a measure that was carried out a week later.

More recently, Schori was asked not to wear her mitre, or bishop's hat, during a preaching engagement at Southwark Cathedral in London in mid-June.

Schori was also asked to provide evidence of her ordination to various CofE offices, which one observer described as "the ecclesiastical equivalent of a background check," according to the Episcopal News Service.

Lambeth told her the measures were to comply with the fact that the Church of England (CofE) does not yet recognize women as bishops, although legislation overturning that rule will be considered in the coming months.

The presiding bishop described the treatment, which has been dubbed "mitregate" by some observers, as "nonsense" and "beyond bizarre."

Furthermore, just last week, the Rev. Mary Grey-Reeves of California was invited to a preaching engagement in Gloucester where she was permitted to wear her mitre.

According to the London Church Times, Bishop of Gloucester Dr. Michael Perham, who invited Grey-Reeves, said that the law concerning visiting bishops from overseas needs revision.

The law "makes no reference to what the bishop wears. . . On Sunday, when she stood at my side when I presided at the eucharist, and again when she preached at a Partnership Service later in the day, she did . . . wear her mitre," Perham told the Church Times.

On Tuesday, Schori told WRAL-TV in North Carolina that she sees the Anglican Communion as "a bunch of teenagers growing up and finding their adult identity."

"Like teenagers, there's rebellion against the parents. And some people see the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury as the big parent in the system," Schori said, adding that she views the TEC and the CofE as "siblings" rather than having a parent-child relationship.

Schori's comments riled conservative Anglican author David Virtue, who called the remarks "downgrading" and "insulting."

"Her language indicates, first and foremost, that she would like to be the one to determine the future outcome of the communion," Virtue wrote. "If only those fundamentalist African primates would get on board with The Episcopal Church's pansexual agenda, all would be well."

Schori, meanwhile, when asked about whether she feels "welcomed" by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that "they certainly have conversations" and that she does feel "welcome" by the Church of England.

"We have friends all over the place," she said.

Schori will be in New Zealand and Australia over the next two weeks to discuss issues of sexuality in the church and mission development.