The draft measure, with only minor amendments, passed in all three houses on 12 July 2010, to be considered by individual dioceses.

Money is raised by assessing the individual dioceses.

Most are administered by individual dioceses and parishes.

The Episcopal report, issued yesterday after three years of study, recommends that the decision on whether to ordain homosexuals be left to the individual diocese.

Provincial synods prescribed the special application of the Concordat to the individual dioceses.

However, there have always been individual dioceses which do not belong to any province, but are directly subject to the Holy See.

Prior to 2001, the primary responsibility for investigating allegations of sexual abuse and disciplining perpetrators rested with the individual dioceses.

The essential question has been how the two sides would reconcile control over the church hierarchy in China, in particular the bishops who run individual dioceses.

Archbishops and Bishops administer individual dioceses as successors of the twelve apostles.

It is a unitary body, in that the power of the General Convention is not limited by the individual dioceses.