FINALLY, there was “a little bit of constitutional work”, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: “By writs dated the tenth day of June addressed to myself and the Archbishop of York respectively, Her Majesty has ordered, by and with the advice of her Privy Council, that the Convocation of Canterbury and the Convocation of York, which were called together on the 23 November 2010, should be dissolved today, the 13 July 2015. In obedience to Her Majesty’s writ addressed to me, I have executed an instrument dissolving the Convocation of Canterbury immediately upon the prorogation of this group of sessions.”

The Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, then said: “In obedience to Her Majesty’s writ addressed to me, I have executed an instrument dissolving the Convocation of York immediately upon the prorogation of this group of sessions. In consequence of this dissolution of the convocations, under section 1(4) of the Synodical Government Measure 1969, this General Synod will also be dissolved immediately upon the prorogation of this group of sessions.”