It will be a surprise to no one to learn that the task force established by the national Executive Council [p. 6] will go to the three dioceses in which women are not ordained in order to assist the people of those dioceses in the development and implementation "of an action plan for full compliance with the canon" requiring the ordination process to be fully accessible to women in all dioceses. The strategy was adopted by the 73rd General Convention last year in Denver, and the council is simply carrying out the wishes of that convention.

The resolution, forcing the compliance of every diocese to embrace a belief still opposed by a sizable portion of the Anglican Communion and nearly all of catholic Christianity, flies in the face of Anglican tolerance. If there is anything positive to be found in the council's action, it is that its members agree that the task force needs to be pastoral and graceful when it visits the dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin. Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold provided effective leadership in urging the task force to use a pastoral approach and to remind its members that the rest of the Anglican Communion will be watching.

The council also acted wisely in appointing four non-council members to the task force, assuring a wider representation and potentially additional pastoral sensitivity. It is too early to predict how the three dioceses will respond to the visitors. They would be wise to be gracious hosts and to try to make the most of a difficult and possibly tense situation.