Letter: Priests a minority in the Sea of Faith

Sir: The Independent was the first paper to report the widespread protest of Anglican clergy at Anthony Freeman's sacking (letter, 28 July) and has led the field in intelligent reporting and discussion of the religious and philosophical issues arising from it. But may I correct one or two mistaken notions about the Sea of Faith network which keep cropping up.

While its membership of 600 includes Anglican clergy, Roman Catholic priests and Nonconformist ministers, these are all heavily outnumbered by non-clericals, including humanists and agnostics as well as many Quakers (who have always believed in 'that of God in everyone' rather than a cosmic Father Christmas).

Second, few would describe themselves as 'Don Cupitt's disciples' (letter, 5 August). Cupitt's writings and TV series inspired the formation of the network, but the idea that all religious expression is a human creation and that values make religion rather than religion making values is a few hundred years older than the tabloids' favourite 'atheist priest', who writes regularly for our magazine and speaks at our conferences but is not, and does not wish to be, our guru.

Yours sincerely,

DAVID BOULTON

Editor, Sea of Faith magazine

Dent, Cumbria

5 August