Letter: No votes for the retired

Sir: On 11 November, the General Synod of the Church of England will vote on a motion purporting to make it possible for women to be ordained to the priesthood. Your readers ought to know that excluded from membership, and from election of members of Synod, and from any vote and voice in synodical business at every level are the dozens of retired bishops and hundreds of retired priests, most of whom have spent their lives in devoted service of the Church, and who have had compulsory retirement imposed upon them by the said General Synod.

Lay people, on the other hand, can vote and be voted for until tardy death takes them off.

Yours faithfully,

D. R. FEAVER

Bruton, Somerset

12 October