Oh! Such excitement! Pope Benedict's Anglicanorum Coetibus! The Revision Committee revises its original proposals! But who knows what we shall have to discuss (ED: or not?) at the February Synod?

The Press implied that the Revision Committee?s change of position was a reaction to the Papal initiative. On this reading, 'hundreds' of Catholic-minded Anglicans were going to cross the Tiber, and with one leap the C of E would be free to introduce women Bishops. And so the Committee, seeing what Rome was up to, swiftly changed its mind and came up with a much more open stance on female Bishops? jurisdiction and powers.

Well, that's not quite how it worked. One source close to the Committee (see how the Press affects the way we say things…) told me that on the day, it was a bit like the July vote that caused so much fuss: lots of alternative ways of doing it were proposed, but none of them mustered a majority. So they went back to avoiding all the complex smoke-and-mirrors jurisdiction stuff, and offered only a woman Bishop for a diocese, with a Code of Practice. (To which some of us say, hooray!). Benedict had nothing to do with it.

But we have to navigate February and July, with a Revision Committee report that will not bring unanimity and glee to the House of Bishops, and (presumably) some siren (mostly) clerical voices saying “abandon ship! This one won?t float.”

All of which throws the forthcoming Synodical elections into a fairly bright light. There was a time when candidates could fairly easily define themselves for the voters in terms of (broadly) being for or against particular proposals. This summer, however, those candidates? self-descriptions (and speeches at hustings, for those who still have them) will have to be more finely nuanced. It will not be enough to say „I am for women Bishops? (or, if you must, against them). You will have to define your intentions more clearly – and without knowing exactly what permutations are likely to emerge from the fog. Under what conditions are you for (or against)?

It's not over yet. Most people who support OSG are probably members of what Monty Python would call the Sensible Party. The next two synods, and the elections in the summer, are going to be key times for the Sensible Party if we are to see put into practice what we voted for two years ago. It?s not a time for 'wait and see'.

The Revd. Stephen Lynas
Bath & Wells : in a purely personal capacity.