During the early part of the Autumn, clergy in the forty-four dioceses of the Church of England, along with lay members of Deanery Synods, have been electing members for the new General Synod which begins its five-year term in November. Because (however one might feel about it) the Church of England is the established Church of the nation, the Measures passed by General Synod become the law of the land: this gives the electorate, clergy and lay, as well as the elected members of the General Synod, a particular responsibility to approach their task with careful prayerfulness.

One of the items already on the agenda for the next Synod is the issue of women bishops. Much theological groundwork has been undertaken on this matter, both in the Church of England and in other provinces of the Anglican Communion where women bishops already minister. I hope that this groundwork will encourage Synod to vote resoundingly in favour of the ordination of women as bishops so that we can continue to work in partnership with Christians of other traditions without allowing our internal agenda to dominate our thinking.

I have quoted before the remarks of Rowan Williams on his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury: "If there's one thing I long for above all else, it's that the years to come may see Christianity in this country able again to capture the imagination of our culture, to draw the strongest energies of our thinking and feeling into the exploration of what our creeds put before us." Debates about women bishops are unlikely to capture the imagination of people outside the Church. Instead, I hope and pray that members of our new General Synod will lead the way in enthusing and enabling our task of capturing the imagination of our culture; and that, both locally and nationally, we will work across denominational boundaries to bring Christ's Peace and Good News to those who are far off as well as those who are near.