Sir - I once heard the new Bishop of Oxford's Church of England referred to ironically as a "phenomenon". It sure is, for one of the purposes of this English treasure is to preserve a show of national unity at all costs, because Church and state need one another to keep us all on side as subjects and deny us our collective power as free citizens.

That is why, for instance, if he is gay, your vicar can share a bed with his partner, so long as he keeps it dark and it's not in the vicarage. However, such cant about a specious "tolerance" hides the jockeyings for power within the church, particularly at a time when the number of fundamentalist "crusaders" in it is growing. This may account too for the fact that not long ago, in my hearing, the new bishop, although an ostensible follower of Jesus, refused to condemn the slaughter in Iraq at its outset. Then there's that front page photograph (December 15) of a man grasping a stick, and in the background a flock of Cotswold sheep - firmly penned . . .

Paul Green, Bicester