Sir, The doctrinal differences now threatening to split the Anglican Communion (report, July 1) find their roots in different interpretations of Scripture. This being so, it is now becoming essential for scholars to find a way of explaining these different approaches that can be understood by the public. If this is not achieved soon, the general reader through no fault of his or her own will be left with a collection of misleading impressions that will be damaging to all Christian believers. They will imagine that one side is wedded to some kind of fundamentalism that still holds that the world was created in six days because it says so in Genesis, while the other is happy to see the truth of the Scriptures as simply something subjective that we create as we encounter the text. Or, they will think that one side is peopled by misogynistic homophobes, while the other is full of spineless liberals who will adapt their faith to the secular agenda.

If Christians are to be saved from the ridicule that accompanies these inaccurate stereotypes, someone needs to find the language to express the genuine disagreements over the sacred text which are, indeed, worthy of respect.

Gervase O’Donohoe
Westerham, Kent

Sir, Your article detailing a controversial leader fighting to assert his authority, hardliners threatening to defect, and outright dissent among supporters, could easily have been written by your political correspondent.

But no political party would be able to get away with supporting the same level of discrimination towards women that many religions, including the Church of England, do.

I hope the archbishops of Canterbury and York stand firm in the face of such flagrant sexism and take the important step of removing gender barriers to higher positions within the Church. All institutions should be subject to the same laws of sexual discrimination in employment, especially those that have a role in the political process, as the Church of England does.

Both religion and politics draw on ideology, beliefs and interpretation so both should be subject to public scrutiny.

Mary Honeyball, MEP
Labour MEP for London and Labour spokesperson for women’s rights in Europe

Sir, To describe the threat of some 1,300 practising and retired clergy to leave the Church of England as a crisis “unprecedented since the Reformation” is a trifle overstated. In the Great Ejection of 1662 no fewer than 2,000 serving clergy of Presbyterian and other dissenting inclinations were expelled from their livings because they refused in conscience to accept the Prayer Book and episcopal order of the Church of England under the Restoration of Charles II. In an ecumenical age those of us who are Nonconformists may still argue whether or not this was a good thing, but please may we at least ask for a proper sense of history to keep matters in perspective.

The Rev Dr Keith Clements
Portishead, Somerset

Sir, Deuteronomy xiii, 6-10, requires the putting to death, even by stoning, of those who propose “to serve other gods”. Few Christians accede to these demands today. Why then, if this bit of the Bible can be discounted, is it sinful to accept women or homosexuals into the priesthood? Is it that the one is unsafe because it would be followed by retribution from a secular judiciary, whereas the other would not?

B. W. Thompson
Eastbourne

Sir, I don’t recognise the grass-roots Catholic Church that Melanie McDonagh is describing (June 30). In my diocese, as in many others, parishes where communities have lived and grown together for many years are closing or being clustered into groups because there are not enough male celibate priests to run them. Some of us believe that lay people (including women) might be able to keep parish communities flourishing alongside priests, as the early Christian communities might have lived. Diverse communities of many nationalities and ages and different views are wonderful and diversity is to be celebrated. It is the Anglican Vicar of Putney who actually mentions “in the Roman church, wiser heads recognise that clerical celibacy and the role of women are never going to go away, however authoritarian the present leadership”.

Pippa Bonner
Harrogate, N Yorks

Sir, If women have it in them to be saints then surely they have it in them to be mere bishops.

Anne Nightingale
Berkhamsted, Herts

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