As if they needed reminding, given the cameras trained on them, General Synod members were told on Monday morning that there were “many eyes and ears which are attentive to what we say and do”.
Eighteen months after the collapse of the previous women-bishops draft Measure, a new creation was awaiting approval, gestated during hours of negotiations led by a diplomat with reconciliation in Northern Ireland under his belt. There was a mood of trepidation.
Introducing the Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd James Langstaff, was clear: “While we may be aware of those others, we are here today to do what we believe under God to be right.”