DR David Hope, "our own churchly figure-head" as Julian Cole sneeringly refers to him, stands head and shoulders above most of his ecclesiastical contemporaries and many senior politicians (April 5).
When he "thought fit to stick in his mitre", he was only voicing public concern (about the foot and mouth crisis) - in other words, taking a lead and speaking out, when leadership was badly needed.
Isn't that what one expects church leaders to do (or any other leaders, for that matter)? But then they are damned if they do and damned if they don't, especially by minor journalists of the calibre of Julian Cole.
This is not the first time Dr Hope has spoken out or taken a lead in a crisis, even before his colleague at Canterbury. Long may he continue.
Mrs L Woodfield,
Railway Terrace, York.
Updated: 10:23 Monday, April 23, 2001
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