all clergy operate under his licence and no member of the clergy can operate without it. The Bishop is also in charge of discipline, as evident in the Ordinal:

WILL you maintain and set forward (as much as shall lie in you) quietness, peace, and love among all men; and such as be unquiet, disobedient and criminous within your Diocese, correct and punish, according to such authority as ye have by God's Word, and as to you shall be committed by the Ordinance of this Realm?

Jeremy Morris is a highly-regarded specialist in nineteenth-century religious history but he evidently relishes this broader focus of a narrative history in the mode of Tom Holland. He holds a balance between offering a coherent historical thread and challenging established preconceptions throughout. Only towards the end do we lose the momentum of quite an exciting story and that is because of the uncertainty of current trends: their outcome still has to be determined.

A press release issued at the conclusion of the meeting on Wednesday said: "Bishops spent time praying, reflecting, and discussing a spectrum of possible ways forward for the Church regarding same-sex relationship and marriage, and the theological basis for each. They will continue those discussions at a third meeting in mid-January at which it is anticipated that they will agree an 'offering' to the Church, giving a clear sense of direction."

This is despite the low threshold for establishing antisemitism used by the Church of England since it adopted the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism in 2018. The IHRA has been widely criticised for weaponising antisemitism in order to silence critics of Israel by conflating criticism of Israel with attacks on Jews for being Jews.