The Church of England's governing general synod voted this week to start "formal conversations" about unity with the Methodist Church.
The Methodist Church will now decide whether to back the initiative, but this will not be until their conference in June next year.A previous plan for unity between the Church of England and the Methodist Church twice failed - in 1969 and 1972 - to achieve sufficient majorities in the assemblies of the Church of England.
The Bishop of Grimsby, David Tustin, the chief Anglican representative at the "talks about talks" that led up to this week's decision, told members of synod: "This is not a `merger scheme', as some have misreported. It is a next step on the way towards visible unity."
Keith Reed, the Methodist Church's ecumenical officer, told ENI that full unity was likely to be "several years" away even though he hoped for a strong affirmative vote at next year's Methodist conference.
He described Bishop Tustin's comment as "realistic and pragmatic."