A lesson in communication
LETTERS
From the Rev Peter Curgenven, the Rev J. A. H. Bell. Peter Cloft, D. A. N. Jones, Peter Cadogan, Sir Dents Brogan, David Pugh. W. H. F. Barklam, M S. E. Grime, Roger Franklin, L. E. Weidberg, Eric Silver, Vernon Bogdanor, M. M. Carlin.
Sir: Mr Ludovic Kennedy owes it to the clergy of the Church of England to produce evidence for his sweeping denunciation of them in failing to read the Scripture', intelligibly in public worship (9 May). His qualifications, in spite of having interviewed the Archbishop of Can- terbury half a dozen times, would not appear to be very convincing. By what right, for in- stance, does a self-confessed humanist (agnos- tic?), who seems to have been surprised to have been asked to do anything in church, pre- sume to lecture parsons about the way they read the lessons? Admittedly, judging by the elementary nature of his own biblical dis- coveries, we clergy have not made a very good job of him : but that may not have been alto- gether our fault. In referring to those dis- coveries, he gives the impression that he is a connoisseur of Bible-reading .by the clergy. Would he care to substantiate this or, if not, give other reasons why we should take his strictures seriously?
At least one other remark casts serious doubts about Mr Kennedy's competence to give any 'lesson' in which the communication of the Christian faith is concerned. He writes that 'the abiding impression of a Church of England service today is one of colossal super-' ficiality . . . where communion and communi- cation have been sacrificed for gibberish.' Any educated man, however jaundiced in his views about the Church of England, who can refer to the Book of >Common Praper and presum- ably also the Bible as 'gibberish.' must surely stand convicted of colossal superficiality.
Peter Curgenven The Vicarage, Compton Avenue, Goring-by- Sea, Sussex
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