Your answers

It has been customary for Orthodox bishops to be invited to participate in the consecration of Church of England bishops. Will this be appropriate when female bishops come to be consecrated?

The third guiding principle of the House of Bishops' Declaration on Women Bishops is rather forthright: "Since it [the Church of England] continues to share the historic episcopate with other Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and those provinces of the Anglican Communion which continue to ordain only men as priests or bishops, the Church of England acknowledges that its own clear decision on ministry and gender is set within a broader process of discernment within the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of God."

This repeated verbatim in the circular from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Pope and the Orthodox patriarchs, and comes rather close to telling them that we are the ones in step.

I, therefore, have no doubt whatsoever that such invitations will continue to be issued. The question is whether they will be accepted.

Neil Inkley
Walton-le-Dale, Preston

Your questions

Given that Jesus exhorted his followers to visit those in prison, why do so few senior clergy or bishops make regular visits to prison chaplaincies? Are those in prison not also part of a diocesan structure?  A. I.

A priest who regularly presides at requiem masses recently said that a requiem was not appropriate in relation to a dead baby. Why? G. S.

It is said that, in the 1930s, my great-uncle killed himself, and the C of E in Lincolnshire insisted he be buried in unconsecrated ground. But the law had been changed in 1823 to allow churchyard burial, with some restrictions, and then, without any restriction, by the Interments (Felo de se) Act 1882. What was the policy? Could there be any truth in the story? M. B.

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