The vote on women bishops is a triumph for our diplomatic Archbishop

The result of Monday’s vote on women bishops, the Archbishop of York stipulated, must be greeted in silence, as is the convention at the General Synod. This, perhaps, was a misjudgment: it would have been more natural, surely, to allow an instantaneous mass-whooping for joy and an outbreak of uninhibited Anglican hugging, rather than to force everyone to sit tight through two or three tedious extra amendments and then to make them all stand up and start singing and swaying to ‘We Are Marching in the Light of God’, which was what happened.

But, say those who are delighted with the outcome of the vote, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury must be praised for their work in bringing this vote to fruition. ‘The Archbishop of York was an excellent chairman of the debate,’ said Sally Barnes, media officer of Women and the Church — ‘except at the very end. It was disgraceful to be told to keep quiet and not rejoice. Yet again the message to women was, “You may not rejoice.” One or two of us did stand up and cheer, and were scowled at.’ But as soon as the session ended and they were let out on to the York University campus, she said, ‘the joy just spilled out, and it carried on and on into the evening’.

I rang the Bishop of Worcester, John Inge, early on the morning after the vote. (Clergy who live in cathedral closes are up and dressed for 7.30 Matins; you can ring them before breakfast.) Bishop John said he was impressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s work in getting people on opposing sides of the debate to talk to each other. This is not easily done: theological views, when stubbornly held, are notoriously hard to budge. Archbishop Justin Welby achieved a subtle toning-down of the extremes of violent disagreement with the help of a brilliant Northern Irish facilitator, David Porter, who is Canon Director for Reconciliation at Coventry.