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YET ANOTHER painful step has been taken by the Church of England on the road to women bishops. The conclusion of its annual general synod last weekend marked solid progress. And though there are further hoops to be gone through before all necessary elements are in place, the informed view is that the church could have its first woman bishop by 2014. Ironically, the defeat of compromise proposals by the church’s two most senior figures, archbishops of Canterbury Rowan Williams and of York John Sentamu, may have blunted opposition from traditionalists.

The archbishops had proposed that, in conservative parishes of a diocese with a woman bishop, she would allow certain functions be carried out by an alternative male bishop who would have some legal independence. On its defeat a further compromise, which would have allowed diocesan bishops (male or female) to decide what provisions should be made for traditionalists, was passed with the support of traditionalists.