From the Revd Ian Falconer
Sir, - Canon David Winter wrote (Televison, 24
August) of declining audiences for the soaps and production
teams' attempts to win them back. He mentioned Coronation
Street and EastEnders. But what of Emmerdale? It is
the only village in England with just a couple of hundred souls to
have a full-time vicar all to itself.
And, when the Revd Ashley Thomas
bashes his dad, upsets his kids, and Laurel calls it a day (he
hasn't had much luck with wives), he tells his flock that he's
resigning, goes to sleep rough, fails at working in a takeaway,
then ends up taken in by Marlon - who's now getting off with
Laurel. It is well over three months, she and the kids are still in
the Vicarage, and not a peep from the diocese. Where's the Bishop?
That's what I want to know.
Not far back, he suspended Ashley over
lies from another priest's wife, and waded in for no reason and
with no authority to close the church down, and the villagers had
to fight to save it. Now there is something serious, he's nowhere
to be seen. No hint of
the Clergy Discipline procedure or any
attempt at pastoral care for Ashley, let alone repossessing the
vicarage.
And young, trendy Revd Jude has
reappeared from nowhere to run the church, seemingly with no
licence. By the time you read this, he's probably off with someone
he met in the Woolpack. But then I suppose parish profiles, section
11 meetings, and archdeacons would be too much for the writers.
Thank goodness The Archers
and Rev generally get church stuff right.
IAN FALCONER
70 Lowgates, Staveley, Chesterfield S43 3TU