On 7 July 1990 the chairman of the Dioceses Commission told the General Synod that the sixteen members of the Commission were united in a ‘feeling of frustration’ about the difficulties arising from the provisions of the Dioceses Measure 1978. He said that the 48-page Report entitled The Dioceses Measure 1978, a Review (GS 925) put before the General Synod by the Commission was ‘a genuine cri de coeur’. This Report analysed the problems and suggested solutions with the obvious aim of obtaining some assistance from the General Synod in response to the cri de coeur.