Pass the hat
Sir: Many people in the Church of England will share your reporter Damian Thomp- son's dismay at the losses incurred by the Church Commissioners. (`Many mortgaged mansions', 7 August). It seems likely, how- ever, that even if the Commissioners had followed a sounder investment policy, the contribution they are able to make from inherited wealth towards the financial costs of the present-day Church would have gone on decreasing, as it has consistently in recent years.
LETTERS
If Mr Thompson would seek a reason why the Church of England is finding it more and more difficult to maintain its claim to be a national church, he need look no further than the statistic he himself quotes, that 'only 21/z per cent of the popu- lation regularly attends the services of the Church of England'. It is on these commit- ted few that the burden of maintaining a presence in every neighbourhood in the country rests.
The only mystery to me is why people so often fail to see this connection.
Robin Burgess
48 Brentmead Gardens, London NW10
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