Dear Archbishop,
I feel impelled to write to you regarding your response today to the letter from my academic colleagues on the matter of Bishop George Bell. Your letter to them is sadly lacking in coherence, not least in its linking of the accusation made against Bishop Bell and the case of Bishop Peter Ball. Peter Ball was found guilty by the due processes of law. Lord Carlile’s report makes it perfectly clear that such processes would be utterly unable to bring any case against Bishop Bell. It was not Lord Carlile’s brief to state whether Bishop Bell was innocent or guilty. His task was different from that.
You seem unable to distinguish such difference or to sustain a coherent argument. I quite understand the responsibilities that you bear, but the result of your incoherent thinking is that you continue to place an individual who cannot defend himself in a dark place without any clear evidence. This is intolerable. I have been an ordained Anglican priest for forty years and in my retirement from academic life I am privileged to hold pastoral responsibility for a small church in the diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. I am simply appalled that I can no longer trust the spiritual or intellectual leadership of one who bears the highest office in the Anglican Communion.
Yours is sincerely,
The Revd Canon Professor David Jasper MA. BD. PhD. DD. DTeol. FRSE. FRSA.
Scotland
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Anne A Dawson | Click to open this page |
| Alan Gadd | Click to open this page |
| Vasantha Gnanadoss | Click to open this page |
| Yvonne Graham | Click to open this page |
| Ruth Hildebrandt Grayson | Click to open this page |
| Christopher Hoare | Click to open this page |
| David Jasper | Click to open this page |
| David Jasper & Ann Loades | Click to open this page |