From the Revd Patrick Morrow

Sir, — The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the horrors of Paris caused him to doubt God, noting his own stay there and love of the place. So he allows the impression that the manifold violence in the Middle East raised no such problem.

In one sense, this is fair enough. After all, the Book of Psalms might be called a meditation on (a) how irrational it is to draw conclusions about God from circumstance and, especially, others’ behaviour; (b) how that irrationality typically takes the form of selfish concern (the people we know); and (c) how yet most of us still slip back into it, even as we “progress” spiritually.

But, as such, his comments should have been for his spiritual journal or a meeting with his own pastors. As a public statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury, they can — unintentionally — convey the message that European lives, lives like ours, matter most to us and to God.

PATRICK MORROW
3 Toronto Avenue
London E12 5JF