In November, Sydney's diocesan synod rejected a compromise attempt to allow women priests to be ordained in the diocese. It also refused to accept the new Australian prayer book.

Sydney Diocese, the largest in the country, has long argued against women priests on the grounds that the Bible denies headship to women in the Church or at home. The compromise proposal was to ordain women priests according to the 1992 General Synod legislation, but ask the Archbishop not to license women as rectors. The bill was rejected decisively in the House of Clergy but lost by only a few votes in the House of Laity.

The Synod found Australia's new prayer book "not Evangelical in tone or tendency" and refused to accept it. Under the constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia, General Synod legislation is operative in individual dioceses only if the diocesan synod accepts it.