Intense efforts have been made to persuade hardliners to join the two-day closed discussions among almost 500 synod members. It is seen as a critical stage in the church's lengthy and painful consideration of whether to embrace people in same-sex relationships.

Pete Broadbent, the bishop of Willesden, told synod members: "If you are thinking of boycotting the conversations because they will compromise you in some way then I would say we particularly need to hear your voice."

General Synod is probably the longest running most expensive talking shop in the history of the church. Archliberal Giles Fraser himself describes it as a gabfest 'full of Anglicans in shorts trying to outdo each other with niceness. But really we're all waiting for some aggro in the bar,' he writes. General Synod is also the most unproductive merry-go-round of words in the history of Christianity. The eschatological outcome is that there is no outcome.

The Bishop of Liverpool begins his essay with his take on the story of the apostle Peter's encounter with the Gentile Roman centurion Cornelius. Paul Bayes appears to be saying Peter was guided by Scripture in initially believing that certain foods were unclean and Gentiles could not be saved. But his experience of the dream, and of Cornelius' household receiving the Spirit, over-rode the teaching of the Old Testament, which could now validly be set aside in favour of a new reality.

The move is likely to be seized on by Bell's supporters to bolster their argument that the church acted without sufficient evidence when it effectively branded the former bishop as a child abuser. The Church of England issued a formal apology when settling a civil claim last September against Bell, 20 years after the abuse allegations were first made.