30 AUGUST 1997, Page 22

Sir: John Gummer, in his attempt to sound the death-knell

of the Church of England, echoes the words written in 1832 by Arnold of Rugby: `The church as it now stands, no human power can save.' Only a year after that, the Oxford Movement had already begun to give it a formidable new lease of life.

Gummer's rather confused account of the ecclesiastical role of our monarchy brings to mind that of another Roman Catholic who, on the death of King George VI, greeted an Anglican priest by saying, 'I was so sorry to hear that the head of your Church had died.' Yes,' came the reply, `but hadn't you also heard? On the third day He rose again from the dead.'

hfon Roberts

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