Letter: Vicar: a good word for both men and women

Sir: In reply to your correspondent, as an ordinand, I hope that I may one day be a vicar. Being a doctor of philosophy and a member of the Society of Authors, and having been a university lecturer, I do not see any need for a feminine version of the word 'vicar'.

Incidentally, I expect to become a cleric: this seems to me to be a good English word to use in referring to just one of the clergy, whether male or female.

Yours faithfully,

SUSAN RAMSARAN

Ripon College

Cuddesdon,

Oxford

27 April