MADAM – My Christian beliefs and values have been sorely tested of late and I doubt I am alone in thinking left-wing bishops have stepped just a bit too far into the world of politics.

In reply to my complaint to Justin Welby The Archbishop of Canterbury in a stereotyped missive, he denied that he had apologised to the people of Dresden for the WW2 bombing by expressing ‘profound regret and deep sorrow’.

Welby has a clever way with words which allow him to wriggle out of controversy although no evasive ecclesiastic language shielded him with the hypocrisy of paying many of his staff below the legal minimum wage when he had recently told employers that it was their duty.

His bishops will deny that their 52-page letter circulated to the clergy and their parishioners advising them to vote Labour, was indeed a political manifesto.

Although it vilified the government’s austerity measures and attacked Thatcherism etc etc. they will claim impartiality, a cynical ruse that achieves their objective and cleverly frustrates debate. Archbishops and bishops traditionally come out of the cloisters when a Tory government are seeking re-election and spout left-wing rhetoric.

I wonder if Welby ever will apologise to the Iraqi people for Tony Blair’s excursion into their country where 100,000 innocent civilians died in that illegal war?

This was a war that we did start and apart from achieving absolutely nothing militarily they managed to light the touch paper that triggered the worst massacres in that country and the Middle East that have ever been known and making this country a considerably more dangerous place than hitherto.

Alienating Tory voting churchgoers is no way to fill empty church pews (I recall just nine souls attending Evensong, not enough on the offertory plate to pay the organist) I would venture that without the dedication and financial help of Tory voting congregations many rural churches would be forced to close.

B Coates

Rodborough