The Longest Day.

Friday is always the longest day at GS because of the Synod dinner. Missed the 9.22 to Edinburgh, but met Msgr Kerr from St Francis on the platform, so chatted about local issues on the way in, (my trip to Walsingham, their pilgrimage to Compostella, how we can do the ecumenical Stations of the Cross better next year, the possiblity of a walk of witness on Good Friday). The days business was fairly dull, but worth noting were the booting out of the 1st reading of Canon 41 on membership (Yaay! We stopped it last time too!)-it fell in the House of Bishops. The last time they split 4-3 on a Canon was on the 1st attempt to pass legislation to aloow the ordination of Women to ther priesthood - 20 years ago! So the "Oooh!" from Synod members was deserved.

I was pleased that we simplified the acquisition of LEP (Local Ecumenical Partnership) staus by remitting it from Synod to the National Sponsoring Body at ACTS - NOW I MIGHT THINK ABOUT APPLYING FOR IT!!! Allowing CofS clergy to celebrate the Blue Book in "my" church! Never saw me thinking about that 15 years ago. And the stuff on Meissen (relations with the Evangelical Church in Germany) has taken on an local interest for me as we are looking to build links as a Council of Churches with our equivalent in Dortmund which includes EKD members and possibly Old Catholics with whom we are in full Communion. We fly to Germany in September to have an exploration.

The dinner was ok. Food good, company excellent, coffee lukewarm. Off to the final session now.