Letter:Carey and the causes of 'moral decline'

Sir: In Dr George Carey's interview with Andrew Marr our Archbishop appears to fix on a sad reality. Britain is morally decadent and by our failure to judge right from wrong, we are by inference an amoral society. Teachers having to double up as parents in teaching children moral values is particularly worrying.

And yet the Anglican Church over which Dr Carey presides is also in moral decline, prompting one to challenge him to put his own house in order before tackling the woes "of a shallow society". It's good that homophobia and not homosexuality is the sin that taxes him. And yet "new" Anglicanism is a creature that seeks to placate all, while pleasing none. For example, by sanctioning the embrace of "two integrities" - of priesting women while acceding to a minority who oppose women's ordination; of allowing individual clergy the discretion whether or not to re-marry divorcees, creating a lottery of winners and losers; and of subscribing to a finance-driven church, whereby there will be fewer paid clergy in the future, Dr Carey is the architect of a church which is itself shallow and nondescript.

Britain's moral decline has, I would suggest, a clear parallel to the moral decline of her church.

The Rev ANDREW P de BERRY

Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire