4 MAY 1991, Page 25

Recipe for failure

Sir: I would not presume to question Charles Moore's predictions of the innova- tions that the new Archbishop of Canter-. bury will adopt ('Another voice', 9 March); however, before predicting their. success, I suggest he look at the experience of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. In the last decade it has adopted similar policies — admission of women to holy orders, experiments with liturgy and language, 'folk masses', etc., but they have not put 'bums on seats'. That church has lost more than 25 per cent of its communicants in that period.

Robert L. Meyer

2217 Via Pedrera, La Jolla, California, USA