Sir, The election of Canon V. Gene Robinson to episcopacy (reports, August 6) will not split the Anglican Communion. It is time Anglicans faced reality. We are already split.

We have had impaired Communion since the first women priests were ordained in 1971. That split has been widened in England by those who already refuse the ministry of bishops known to have ordained gay men.

The current furore is an invitation to all of us to accept that there are two sorts of Anglicans — those who long for an inclusive Church and those who prefer to become an exclusive sect.

It is time we became a federation of friendly Churches who have at long last decided to become honest.

Yours faithfully,
UNA KROLL,
St Mary’s Lodge,
Priory Street, Monmouth NP25 3BR.
unakroll@aol.com
August 6.

From Mr Anthony Hilbert

Sir, Ruth Gledhill, your Religion Correspondent, suggests (Analysis, Online edition, August 5) that “the real issue behind all this, and an issue that the Church has done its best to avoid facing full-on since the Enlightenment (is): whether the Bible is actually true or not”.

The evangelical movement has always tried to present the dispute in these terms: it is faithful to the Bible, liberals are not. But with the possible exception of some obscure cults, all Christians pick and choose which biblical commands to observe literally and which to consider no longer applicable. The conflict is not between the exact word of the Bible and some liberal fudging of it, but between two equally arbitrary pick-and-mix readings.

Yours faithfully,
ANTHONY HILBERT,
34 Grange Avenue, Leeds LS7 4EL.
kail@runesmith.co.uk
August 5.

From the Reverend Frank Julian Gelli

Sir, The all-important question, from the point view of traditional High Anglican theology, is surely: would the sacraments administered by Canon Robinson be valid or not?

Surprisingly, and quite independently of the strictly biblical angle, the answer must be: yes.

You cannot get more traditional than the 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England. Yet Article 26, which appears in the Book of Common Prayer, lays down that “the Unworthiness of the Ministers . . . hinders not the effect of the Sacrament”.

Although I strongly deplore the breach of church unity that the election of Canon Robinson is inflicting on the worldwide Anglican Communion, speaking as a traditionalist Anglo-Catholic priest I recognise and subscribe to the wisdom of the Book of Common Prayer.

Yours faithfully,
F. GELLI,
58 Boston Gardens,
Brentford, Middlesex TW8 9LP.
numapomp@talk21.com
August 6.

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