Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Would you be able to forfeit your time for just a second, John?
I thought you were going to go in a completely different direction with The Book of Common Prayer. I thought you were going to point out how difficult it was to change the rules of an institution.
The Book of Common Prayer was a revolutionary change in the form of worship. For one thing, it allowed people, who were participating in worship, to actually have a text they could read themselves, and not be dependent on someone to translate the Latin for them. It democratized worship. It provided a way that people could go forward in worship. However, it wasn't easy.
There's wonderful book called God's Secretaries about the process of Bishop Cranmer, who was, by the way, horrifically martyred and burned for heresy because he was part of the Reformation. These were sticky issues.
Most Anglicans no longer use The Book of Common Prayer, because we have modernized the language to be more gender inclusive and so on. However, the book and the literature is still exemplary. In the process, which is described in the book God's Secretaries, they had to consult widely. It took a really long time.
I hope I'm not stealing your thunder. You're not going in this direction later, are you? I thought it was a message to the government that it should take a leaf out of Bishop Cranmer's book, to ensure that it wouldn't rush to something too quickly, but consult widely, and recognize that the things that end up being written down last a very long time, and that when we reform the rules of this place, we could be living with them for decades.
I appreciate your yielding the floor to me. Also, I do plan to come over and ask to look at the copy of a book that is dated that very long ago. The member of your staff has quite a coveted and valuable copy of The Book of Common Prayer.
I don't want to press on your time. I was just struck by the parallels between that effort and trying to get our Standing Orders right. It will take time.