Sir, There is a simple way to deal with the opposition to equality before the law for gays (“Church ‘out of touch’ as public supports equal rights for gays”, June 27).

The institution of marriage is now and always has been a civil legal contract. It is a contract that antedates both Christianity and Judaism whereby women, who until relatively recent times suffered chattel status at law, were contractually passed from one owner, usually a father, to another, usually a husband, for financial consideration. Because this legal transaction required a written record the overseeing of such contracts fell into the hands of the Church in the Dark Ages where it unfortunately still largely remains, despite the contract remaining a civil one requiring two witnesses, and it has nothing to do with the religious ceremony.

The simple solution to this inequity is to remove from the clergy the legal right to “solemnise” marriage and require all couples desiring to enter a legally binding union to have their contract witnessed before the civil authority, as must same-sex couples presently.

Nothing then would prevent couples from having their union blessed by the Church and nothing would prevent the Church from declining to bless unions of which it disapproves. Of course blessings might then be deemed to be “services” by the courts, in which case the churches might be required by existing law to bless same-sex as well as opposite sex unions or to get out of the marriage business altogether.

The latter possibility is greatly to be desired, but the consequent financial loss to churches would undoubtedly be considerable.

Andrew Trimingham

Honiton, Devon

Sir, Your poll has good news for the state of civil rights and liberty in this country. You state that the Church remains the “final bastion of formal discrimination”. This is not entirely true.

It makes the mistake of identifying “the Church” with its hierarchy, not its worshippers. There is no theological justification for this — the Church is the whole people of God. In the churches I have served or worshipped in, I have encountered no hostility to gay people from the laity. It might have been there, but no one felt any need to express it, and on the contrary there was a lot of warmth and support.

Many of those 68 per cent who favour “full equal rights” would describe themselves as Christians. The Church is bigger than bishops. Thank God.

The Rev Richard Haggis

Littlemore, Oxon

Sir, Your Populus poll did not gather opinions that bear vitally on young people under 18 by not canvassing anyone from that vast age bracket. Youngsters’ opinions on what they should be taught, and the gender and sexual preferences of adults bringing them up, are at least as worth knowing as those of the over-18s.

John Webster

London SW1

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