Fratricidal tensions at the Church of England Synod

From The Guardian of London-

If you think David Cameron frets about his uppity Lib Dem coalition partners and loses sleep over eurosceptic Tory hooligans at Westminster, trot across Parliament Square to Church House this week and weep for a leader with serious problems and conflicting thinktank advice that goes back 2,000 years.

All afternoon on Wednesday the archbishop of Canterbury sat hirsuite, silent and glum (it's a Rowan Williams speciality) while members of the Church of England's parliament – its 477-strong Synod – politely pummelled each other's soft tissue over the perennial issue of woman bishops, the church's Clause IV.

If this was vulgar secular politics, the protagonists might reinforce their claims with an erudite quote from Edmund Burke, the Radio Times or Twitter. But members of Synod think nothing of invoking the blog according to St Mark and the emails of St Paul, or drawing attention to the famous Synod held in 664 at Whitby whose abbot was – wait for it – St Hilda. Not a chap then, as Sister Faith, a modern Whitby-ite, was keen to point out on Wednesday.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/08/fratricidal-tensions-church-england-synod?newsfeed=true