AMONGST the apparent joy with which your newspaper reported the tenth anniversary of the Anglican Church in England deciding that women could be ordained as priests, I thought you would give a voice to the large number of Christians who can only say that it was and remains a terrible mistake and are still grieving for what has been lost.

The ordination of women can only be described as "specious" i.e. apparently correct or true, but actually wrong or false and deceptively attractive in appearance.

The Church holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons.

These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church.

I'm sure that there are many of my brother priests out there in the Anglican Church who now keep quiet about their discomfort purely for reasons of keeping the peace.

The Church does not have the authority to ordain women, so any such ordinations are invalid.

The Very Revd Fr Anthony Shaw,

Rector, The Oratory of Our Lady & St Francis of Assisi, Damaskfield, Worcester.