Git commit message problem

When I issue the following command on 16.04 with Git 2.7.4 from the apt repository

git commit -sS --status

I get the following result:

Aborting commit due to empty commit message.

I have configured the Git global configuration as follows:

jonathan@Aristotle:~/EclipseWorkspaces/AGI$ git config --global -l
user.name=Jonathan Gossage
[email protected]
core.editor=gedit

Given this configuration I expected Git to bring up the gedit editor to allow me to enter the commit message. This is the first commit into an empty repository. The git status is included as an attachment.

Configure your editor with -w option, also add -s to run a new instance of gedit on each call:

git config --global core.editor "gedit -w -s"

or (because of this bug in gedit) use a call with long arguments:

git config --global core.editor "gedit --wait --new-window"