The long road towards accepting women bishops in the Church of England became an inch shorter on 11 February as the Church of England's General Synod passed a tentative enabling motion.

The General Synod of Church of England meets in Westminster this week, tackling issues that include the international financial crisis, women bishops, the Anglican Covenant, human trafficking, asylum, and the Church’s approach to the BNP.

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, will tomorrow (10 February) support proposals forbidding Church of England clergy and lay staff joining racist organisations.

Rowan Williams clarified the nub of his thinking and showed contrition for clumsiness, but he declined to apologise and is not off the hook, say commentators and other public figures today, amid calls for disestablishment.

"There is no dispute about our common allegiance to the law of the land" Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told the General Synod of the Church of England - and a watching world on TV and the internet - this afternoon.

While some members of the Church of England appear ready to expel or de-Christianise each other over different views on sexuality, others are trying to talk together - using the medium of social networking site Facebook. But not many so far.

A warm East African welcome met Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams when he arrived in Tanzania yesterday (13 February 2007) for a crucial Anglican Primates' meeting ‚Ä' but a gay Christian leader from Nigeria had a different experience, being interrogated for several hours before being given a visa.

The Church of England's General Synod is to be debate the Government's proposals to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, as well as the crisis in Britain's prisons, it was announced yesterday.