Cooking the Book
Sir: The pastiche employed by Bishop Michael Hare Duke of St Andrews (Let- ters, 25 July) is evidence that counterfeit has to be better than that if it is not to be unmasked as forgery. Unlike the Bishop of St Andrews, Archbishop Cranmer did not use the `Tesco-speak' of his day though he would have quickly realised that his prayer book would need to be 'doctored' if it was to allow the priesting of women. Legal opinion given to and accepted by the Gen- eral Synod is that the ordination of women as priests would be contrary to the wording of the Book of Common Prayer (and the Ordinal of 1662). The contentious legisla- tion now causing such divisiveness inside
'I feel guilty. It's National Condom Week and I haven't had casual sex.' and outside the General Synod is designed to leave the Prayer Book as it is but change its meaning in a very casual way. No amount of neo-Cranmerian flummery from Scotland will convince me that changing meaning is honest.
C.A.A. Kilmister
Chairman, The Prayer Book Society, 36 The Drive, Northwood, Middlesex
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