DERRICK Holt (July 13) has answered Alba Thorning (July 9) from his own standpoint. I will answer her from hers.

In the first place, she is out of date. I understand that St Bridget and St Hilda were both bishops.

In the second place, she is illogical. It is a basic tenet of all Christians that God chose a woman for something infinitely more important than being a bishop.

He could, presumably, have had a son without female assistance, as the Greeks pretended that Zeus bore Pallas Athene out of his own head, but he chose otherwise.

Bishops were invented by the apostles after Jesus’ time on earth and so are not a necessary part of Christianity.

Miss Thorning further tells us that the Church of England’s future “is in Christian unity with the Roman Catholic church”.

She should not be advocating union with priests who do things which should disgust her and get their sins covered up by their hierarchy. I hope that when Miss Thorning next writes a letter, she will first think hard.

RALPH LEAVIS, Jourdain Road, Blackbird Leys, Oxford