8 p * Although some of us may share M.A.'s ilietY about
CACTM in more or less degree „ Is not the fundamental reason why we are Oattracting enough candidates for Holy ca::ers in the Church of England. The real pt. se has been discussed within the confines
ni
century. It has not been ventilated much to a wider public because of the effect on careers, and the unrealised hope that the situation might right itself. The great stumbling-block is the assumption of authority in the Church of England by Oxford University.
Oxford University now supplies most of the hierarchy (even Cambridge has been demoted to do this) but a very small proportion of the clergy. Oxford has now secured a monopoly of the primacies (both Canterbury and York). The Episcopal Bench ip draped mainly in dark blue.
It is indefensible to refuse one's vocation. But it is natural not to commit oneself fully to an organism that is dying slowly From the head downwards. No one would expect the Oxford City Fathers (howeqr con- sc(entious) to be capable of managing the government of the country. It should be equally unthinkable that Oxford graduates % could control the fortunes of the Church of England successfully.
No amount of reorganisation, no generous hand-outs by episcopal journalists to bolster up morale will stop the inevitable running- down of the Church of England if the situation at the top is not radically altered.— Yours faithfully,
VICTOR H. BEATON
Rougham Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds
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