Happy birthday, nuclear prophet: Letter

Sir: The Obituaries/Gazette page for 12 October is alone worth the cover price of The Independent. Not only does the telling of three, very different, enriching lives add a little to our common humanity, but the editor of the Church Times, in one easy lesson, teaches the stronger sex how to resist all 26 seductive wiles of love-starved clergymen.

Moreover, the birthday column is good material for intercessory prayer. Baroness Thatcher, I learn, is 71. We are told to forgive not seven, but seventy times seven.

An unexpected name follows hers: Mordecai Vanunu, nuclear technician, 42; now in the 10th year of solitary confinement in Ashkelon Prison for telling the world in The Sunday Times of the nuclear weapons to which Israel still will not officially admit. The land of Jeremiah and Micah should know better than to kidnap and persecute a prophet.

Mordecai Vanunu deserves our solidarity, needs our prayers and well deserves a place in your gazette. Thank you.

Canon PAUL OESTREICHER

Coventry Cathedral