All those in favour..

It only took five minutes but involved five hundred people travelling to London from all over the country.

The measure to allow women to be bishops was passed at the York synod in July. Since then, Parliament has approved, and the Queen has given her Royal Assent. All that was needed now was for the General Synod to do the last remaining formality, which it did with a show of hands (above) in an  item that was over in under five minutes.

Then the Archbishop of York led us in the General Thanksgiving.

Not everyone is happy with the outcome but everyone is agreed it will be a relief to talk about something else. Perhaps that's why we had the General Thanksgiving.

So what else did we do on day one of this short one-and-a-half day synod?

We began with worship. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave his Presidential Address on his programme of visits to the churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

We also did some legal business on: church property, graveyards, and the Diocese of Europe, and we were asked to consider the vexed question of the granting of rights to graze livestock in churchyards. This is not exactly a burning issue in Bermondsey but it was good to hear about it.

Next up was an excellent report on 'Guidelines for the professional conduct of the clergy' with some good points made in the debate.

Tomorrow we have a presentation on violence against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. That should put everything else into perspective.

The instrument of enactment allowing women to become bishops