Now that these Conversations are over, the question floating in the breeze is, "Where do we go from here?" The radical wing has its objective, which it seeks to achieve by salami-slicing opposition to its agenda and by planting facts on the ground while the Guardians of Christian doctrine - the Bishops - are as usual looking the other way. The game plan will be familiar to anyone who has followed the story in the Episcopal Church, USA, or the Anglican Church in Canada.

LGBT activists in the Church of England wish to change the law of England which currently forbids same sex marriage ceremonies in Church of England churches and prohibits its clergy from officiating at them. The law can only be changed at the request of the General Synod. So the first slice of the salami is to secure permission for clergy to bless civil partnerships, the precursor of same sex marriage, exploiting the thesis that such registered legal relationships are not necessarily sexual in nature. The bishops long ago ceased to resist clergy entering into such arrangements and living together in the Vicarage.

The next stage is to seek permission from the General Synod to bless (not to solemnise, since that would be illegal) same-sex marriages contracted in state register offices. Once the Synod has agreed this, and such services have been taking place for a couple of years, the final stage is to persuade Synod that there is no difference in kind or in theology between blessing such unions and actually performing them in its 16,000 places of worship.

The government, which receives its daily orders from Stonewall, will be only too delighted to change the law at Synod's request, and Voila! Same sex marriage will be lawful, and not only lawful in the context of England's monochrome human rights culture, but a human right that no minister of the Church of England will long be permitted to deny to same-sex couples.

The new law will be accompanied by a conscience clause in order to secure passage through General Synod, but within a year the first orthodox cleric will be contemplating either a civil lawsuit demanding huge damages, or even arrest and prosecution for a hate crime.

The activists have their supporters and allies in the House of Bishops, which alone initiates debates about doctrine in the General Synod. And there is a session of General Synod coming up in February 2017. And the most recent press release from the House of Bishops indicates that they are working (in strict secrecy and set apart from their clergy and laity) on some kind of proposals to be brought to the Synod that month.

But the House of Bishops contains more Evangelicals than it has done since the early 20th century, and while not a majority, there are thought to be enough to block any proposals which would weaken the doctrine of Christian marriage in the Church of England which is contained in Canon B30 "Of Holy Matrimony":

The Church of England affirms, according to our Lord's teaching, that marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.

All the intervening ground has long since been thrown to the wolves by the House of Bishops. They have facilitated remarriage after divorce, permit the ordination of divorced and remarried candidates, allow bishops to divorce and remarry or to have civil partners. They have no room for manoeuvre, no more bones to throw to the revisionists, nothing to offer by way of yet another compromise in which orthodoxy always comes off worst.

To permit the blessing of civil partnerships or of same-sex couples would make a nonsense of Canon B30. It is anticipated, therefore, that the orthodox among the House of Bishops will acknowledge that they have nowhere else to go but to defend Canon B30 with all the votes and influence at their disposal. Work which is being undertaken by the House of Bishops from now until February 2017 will test whether there are enough bishops with enough resolve to block proposals for change to doctrine. Probably there are, and an impasse means retaining the status quo for now.

There will be the usual cries of anguish from politicians and the main stream media. But for now Canon B30 will prevail. And while the debate drags on and on, as it will, there will be more married clergy-couples, bishops coming out, more and more disobedience to Christ's teaching and flouting of canon law. The revisionists only have to win once. The orthodox have to win every time. It will be a test of resolve and strength for the long term in the struggle to maintain Christian marriage as defined by Canon B30 as a foundational component of the Church of England's moral teaching and pastoral practice.

The final battle, however, will not take place in February 2017

John Prior is a longtime observer of the culture wars gripping the Church of England

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