3 APRIL 1993, Page 24

No problem with women

Sir: If, as William Oddie claims (An addi- tional curate's egg', 20 March), the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure indicates a 'radical tampering' with the ancient orders of the Church of England simply because females will be ordained, then why did Anglo-Catholics not respond to the ordination of women as deacons in the way that is now proposed? The suggestion that the ordination of women to the priesthood will fundamentally change the doctrine of the Church of England is implausible not least because neither the form and manner of ordination nor the functions of the office are in any way altered in the proposed canon.

Revd Timothy Platts

32 Bourne Avenue, Reading, Berkshire