The Church of England is the broadest of churches. It has a reputation for carrying out an exhaustive search for compromise even if that means fudging difficult issues.
That’s what made the Synod’s substantial vote last summer to press ahead with the ordination of women bishops seem all the more decisive.
Traditionalists were left disappointed and angry when they were denied the legal right they had wanted to opt out of the control of women bishops.
The Synod clearly felt that ordaining women to the most senior posts was too important a principle to allow the pain of a minority of traditionalists to send it off course.
But when the Synod met this week for a passionate debate about the exact circumstances under which women were to be made bishops, determination seemed to have given way once again to an anxious search for the middle ground – and pessimism about the likelihood of finding it.