Tim Wyatt concluded his appraisal of the Church of England (Special Report, 29 August) with questions focused on modernisation, tradition, innovation, the parish system, finance, local leadership, internal strife and the nation. Having recently stepped aside from three decades of working in Church of England parishes, I would argue that the trickier and more pressing question concerns our understanding of God.
If what people come across in the average church in 2025 still sounds pretty similar to what their great-grandparents were hearing in 1925, that may well indicate that we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Among the decline, dysfunction and toxicity at different levels of the CofE, there is no shortage of goodness, grit and grace. But if God is still understood as a remote and distant force, though somehow in charge, then the Church will be out of step with the increasing complexity of an interconnected and changing world, as well as new generations trying to make sense of their own identities.
Keith Griffin, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
In hot water
The deputy editor is “staggered” by how many subscribers “read the magazine while in the bath” (Editor’s Note, 29 August). Well, I’ve never tried that – I never take a bath. I do shower, but the magazine would get wet. The question is: would reading in the bath increase the quality, humour and decency of my (not often published) letters?
David Clarke, Oxford
Nature vs nurture
Kate Mossman’s article “Sparing the rod” (Cover Story, 29 August) is interesting and helpful but omits one very important dimension: temperamentally; how easy or difficult is your child? All parents with more than one child will tell you that, even though they have brought their children up the same, they differ, often substantially, in how easy or difficult they are. Some children are so easy anyone could bring them up; some so testing they need child experts. It is difficult not to lose your temper with a difficult child. Some children bring up their parents a great deal better than others!
Philip Graham, emeritus professor of child psychiatry, University College London
I read “Sparing the rod” with interest and more than a little guilt. My four children grew up in the Seventies and Eighties. I didn’t parent particularly well by today’s standards, but all four of my children grew into good, caring adults who love each other and me, and are very successful, stable people. This, despite occasional slapped legs, raised voice and naughty step! Maybe babies and children are more resilient than we realise?
Sue Barwell, Aberdeenshire
Desert storms
Lamorna Ash helps to map out the multiple ethnicities of those residing in pre-1948 Palestine and the ways in which the Bedouin in particular have been and continue to be dispossessed (Contact, 29 August). Readers may be interested in Fazal Sheikh’s book Desert Bloom. With the use of a plane and the help of the Bedouin community, Sheikh documents the changes of the past 70 years, through the designs in the Negev desert left by demolished villages and new settlements. I highly recommend it as a haunting visual representation of the displacement Ash describes.
Ed Freeman, London N8
Nothing to lose but their Prets
Finn McRedmond is worth my subscription alone (Silver Spoon, 30 August). Linking the Marxist theory of false consciousness to the sandwich choices of young professionals had me spluttering into my homemade muesli. The thought of all those benighted youngsters traipsing across London in a desperate, incoherent attempt to shake off their chains! I stand in solidarity with them. Starbucks and Costa have been dead to me for many years. Next it’s Pret. But perhaps we can make an exception for Greggs?
Hilary Patrick, Glasgow
Text on the beach
As a former Brighton resident, a member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and a former lifeguard, I was intrigued by Nicholas Lezard’s story about the idiot diving off the West Pier (Down and Out, 29 August). But I was equally fascinated by the slang word he used for the idiot, “viz dinlo”, which I remember from growing up in the 1950s – except I remember it as “dimlow”. However, the etymology seems to root “dinlo” in Romani, so I think Nicholas has got it right. I look forward to more adventures on beaches and in words…
Trevor Cherrett, Devizes, Wiltshire
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This article appears in the 03 Sep 2025 issue of the New Statesman, The Age of Deportation
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