GRANTING Dr Gavin White's correction (Letters, November 28) of the terminology of the Queen's relationship to the Church of England, Anne Thomson's substantive point remains (Letters, November 2).

There is something bizarre about the stance of those Anglicans who would deny women a leadership role in matters divine, when the Queen (literally, by her Anglican coronation service) became "the Lord's anointed", the only anointed monarch in the world today. Her religious leadership role is well exercised in her Christmas broadcasts, which reach millions more than those of any single bishop. The Anglican nay-sayers on the leadership of women bishops need to ask themselves how they square their stance with the broader implications of the coronation service.

Dr Ronald A Knox,

8, Queensborough Gardens, Glasgow.