THE mistakes the Church of England is making in ordaining women to the priesthood and to the office of bishop are two-fold.

First, they are out of sync with all the other major Christian churches; the whole of the Orthodox Church together with the Roman Catholic Church do not ordain women.

To do this alone without the support of these much larger and older churches seems at least questionable.

Even Anglican theolo-gians ask if the Church of England has the authority to do this.

Second, it is sterile to my mind to try to make Christianity palatable to the secular consciousness of the modern world, precisely because the modern world is in crisis.

To adjust a long-established theology of orders and to embarrassingly try to connect to where life seems to be at, and to understand culture by reference to its concerns with gender and sexuality, is to drink a toxic cocktail.

Fr John Michael Harvey, Freckleton Street, Blackburn.