Letter: Dumbing down?

Sir: I think Andreas Whittam Smith has got the wrong end of the stick when he criticises the Archbishop of Canterbury for using the phrase that the church is "one generation away from extinction" (Comment, 15 March).

I assumed the Archbishop was using it in the original sense that the Church - not just the C of E - is always one generation away from extinction. In other words, every generation has a responsibility for passing the faith on to the next. This is not the same thing as saying the church is about to disappear.

Canon ROGER CLIFTON

Corsham, Wiltshire