Twenty seven percent of British people believe that the Church of England should not have gay bishops and ten percent believe that they should not have female bishops. Whether the church should have gay women bishops was not asked but you and I could make a fair guess how the numbers would fall, right?

The Church, of course, has just had a rather tormented weekend away in York to discuss the issue of women bishops. They did not debate the issue of gay bishops – that appears is the episcopal oversight that dare not speak its name.

It’s a shame that these figures weren’t available to the Church during its discussion, isn’t it? Well, no, actually it isn’t. For when the day comes that any church makes decisions based on public opinion is a sad day indeed.