Synod has therefore upheld the traditional doctrine of marriage – but also moved to find ways to respond to committed relationships between two people, regardless of gender.

In effect, it has also established a four-year timeline for change to take effect: the working group will present its recommendations to the 2016 General Synod, and any constitutional and canonical changes would then have to be reported back to episcopal units before confirmation at the 2018 General Synod.

The Archbishop voted against David Cameron’s Same-Sex Marriage Act in the House of Lords last year, saying that he feared it “weakened” the family and society.

Although he has reiterated that opposition since, he also told the church’s General Synod a few weeks after the vote that the hostility he felt in the Lords brought home to him how radically and rapidly opinion had changed in Britain on the issue.

"We're still looking," he said. "We're always looking."

Over time, the church has lost more than half of its parishioners. At its peak, Gauss said, 780 people attended Bishop Seabury. Now, up to 200 people attend Sunday services.

Gauss insists that these departures were not due to a difference of opinion, but rather a desire to have a permanent building. Others left simply because they "didn't want to do battle," he said.

The new vicar at St Matthew-in-the-City, Helen Jacobi, believes church leaders have had long enough to think.

"I desperately hope they won't take that option because we have discussed and had a lot of in-depth research and meetings and reflections and discussions for years and years now. It is absolutely time to move forward."

END