NORMALLY I do not engage in verbal arguments with my critics, but I object to my letter of December 6 being described as “inept and silly” by RS Pearson (Letters, December 14). In RS Pearson’s letter of November 30 regarding the vote on women bishops, he asked: “How did women get involved in the first place?”

I thought my answer was far from inept and silly, as I pointed out that without women there would have been no men for Jesus to choose as disciples. In his letter of December 14, he asks a totally different question and, as I am not a regular churchgoer, I feel I am not qualified to answer.

What I would like to point out that, if women can be queens, presidents, prime ministers, saints, priests and hold other positions in the Church, it would seem unfair not to allow them to become bishops.

I also question why the Church is not subject to the Sexual Discrimination Act like the rest of us.

AP Cox, Heath Close, Holgate, York.

 

• The answer to RS Pearson’s question is that the disciples filled a special role in first century Palestine. They were itinerant preachers going from town to town, calling for self-control and compassion in an angry, Roman-occupied country; as such they had to be men. In the Jewish society of the day, women had very limited rights and no authority to preach, as St Paul, a some-time Pharisee, continued to insist. Under Roman law women were completely dependent and could fill no public office. As itinerant preachers women could have expected no protection from either the religious or secular authorities.

To have sent them out preaching house to house under such conditions would have been a suicide mission. In many parts of the world that would still be true today.

That did not deny them a role. Then, as now, personal testimony and pastoral care have as great a role as preaching in speading faith.

Maurice Vassie, Deighton, York.

 

• So The Press thinks it good to see the Church being brought into the modern world. The more modern it gets the less Christian it becomes and if it continues in the direction The Press wishes, in all truth it will have to drop the appellation “Christian”.

The truths of the of the real Christian church are immutable and not subject to fashion or fancy. Malachi 3:6 says: “I am The Lord and I change not.” Hebrews 13 :8 declares “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for ever”.

The Bible has been the rulebook of the Christian Church for almost 2,000 years and is not subject to amendment. Christianity is a strict and exclusive club. Membership is available to anyone who accepts the rules, but those who refuse to accept the rules, or try to change them to suit their own foibles, automatically exclude themselves from membership.

Ken Barnes, North View, Catterton.