WITH his usual precision, Mr Nash's analysis of the dilemma facing the Church of England over the marriage of same-sex couples, is superb (Nash's Notes, WWN June 20).

As a sixty-year-old gay man myself, I share with Mr Nash the "hope that most gay or lesbian couples would not ask to be married in the church which does not want them."

The Church of England assumes that modern 'marriage' is a tidy, perfectly defined and unified, concept. In fact, for heterosexual people, the Church of England has moved the goalposts considerably over my lifetime.

Couples today wed with their own children in attendance. Couples frequently divorce at the drop of a hat, knowing that they can repeat their 'wedding-day' as divorcees. And I seriously wonder whether any virgins are married in churches today. From my experience they certainly will not be marrying any virgins if they start marrying people of the same sex.

It is because of this lack of consistency and integrity in the modern version of marriage that I will not be seeking the blessing of any priest on the relationship I have been privileged to enjoy for the past 30 years.

That is not to say that I do not, as a Christian, ask God's blessing for my religiously- sceptical partner. I am able to ask for that blessing myself because God exists, not because priests do. What is amazing in this process is the way the Holy Spirit would appear to be making the clergy look ridiculous before the modern world, removing the reins of the Church from the clergy, and returning them to the laity, where they rightfully belong.