What were the terms of the request to the Doctrine Commission of May 1999 that initiated the report printed from page 85 of the Standing Committee's report to the Synod as they recorded in the minutes of Standing Committee.

To which the President replied -

I am advised the answers are as follows -

The minutes of the Standing Committee meeting of 24 May 1999 record that the Standing Committee resolved as follows -

"Standing Committee requests that the Diocesan Doctrine Commission report to the 1999 session of Synod on whether the Commission considers that there are valid theological reasons to overturn the recommendations and conclusions of earlier Synod Diocesan Doctrine Commission reports about the ordination of women to the priesthood and, having regard to the fact that licensing in addition to but separate from ordination is the pre-requisite for appointment to a parish incumbency, whether a restriction on licensing women as incumbents would meet the theological reasons previously advanced with respect to restricting the ordination of women to the priesthood.".

As noted in the 1999 report of the Standing Committee, the Diocesan Doctrine Commission subsequently indicated that it would report to the 2000 session of the Synod. I believe that the Doctrine Commission decided to split the reference into 2 parts and address the second (and easier) part so that some material might be available for the Synod this year.