How on earth they managed to vote against women bishops is beyond me. How a group of men could have passed judgement on the entire other half of the population defies belief. How dare they decide that women can’t be bishops.

Whose side are they on? Mankind’s? No. The general population’s? No. Their boss the Archbishop, who was openly in favour? No. Their own? Blatantly. Do we care one iota about what they think? No.

And yet they are allowed to decide the fate of giving women the same rights as them. Why? And how incredibly self-destructive. How do they think this reflects on the church? Isn’t Christianity about equality? How are women supposed to react when the message is very clear – we’ll have you in church and tell you how to live your lives, but only if men can be in charge.

And it’s not as if the church is overwhelmed with congregations as it is. Because, how are we, the female population, going to show our displeasure? By not going. What better way of turning off 50 per cent of the population than by so obviously snubbing us and then returning back to their ivory towers to read medieval scripts on male dominance, while discussing theological matters which no-one has any interest in. The piousness and hypocrisy of the entire situation is astounding.

And while the clergymen and women (we’re allowed to do the dirty work) who live in the real world are desperately scrabbling about for new parishioners and preaching about unity and love, their leaders are not only fighting but destroying the very institution they are supposed to be uniting and defending. It’s blatant masochism.

But it’s also sad they feel so threatened, and that in this day and age when we’ve all moved on and accepted the world as an equal place, church leaders are still arguing about something that is no longer relevant. How awful can it be having a woman in charge rather than a man? We’ve got Queenie, we had Maggie in the ’80s, and yet the church remains a resolutely male domain, and is scuppering its chances of survival in the modern world.

We will get there. That much is a given, making the fight even more pointless – the hopelessly out-of-date, bigoted, sexist, closed-minded minority are only postponing the inevitable.

But while we wait, congregations and parishioners are dropping like flies, disgusted that the example being set is so out of step with the modern world and the way we live our lives.

And if the existing female parishioners leave, the church will be left with male-only congregations, a sad reflection and a just punishment for their one-sided actions.

Angry? Seething! But it boils down to this: It’s insulting to women – pure and simple.