Last week, the General Synod of the Church of England rejected a revision of canon law which—coming after years of deliberations, defections, redraftings, and often ugly debates—would finally have opened its episcopate to women…

Until last week, neither the Queen nor the Parliament has had to consider the elevation of women bishops—for the simple reason that no Synod had reached the stage of producing a canonical revision to that effect. The difference today is that a revision was produced and rejected before it left the Synod floor—which meant that an arm of the state had pointedly defied the state’s law against discrimination…

In today’s Daily Comment, Jane Kramer considers why the Church of England seems to have a problem with women bishops: http://nyr.kr/UTxpIL

Photograph of Justin Portal Welby, by Frantzesco Kangaris/Eyevine/Redux.