Letters: The joy of balconies

The closing of churches

Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however the issue is now more fundamental. Recent weeks have demonstrated a crisis of leadership in almost every aspect of national life, excluding the Queen, who has exercised a spiritual leadership made necessary by the failure of bishops. The closing of churches may be seen as a defining moment in the life of the Church of England. As the Archbishop of Canterbury broadcast from his kitchen on Easter Day, impervious to the damage his ‘leadership’ has caused, many Anglican clergy and people I know looked to the image of the Pope in an almost empty St Peter’s, and saw the true image of Christian service.

In the meantime the 75th anniversary of VE Day falls next month. It should be unthinkable that the war memorials of England should remain unvisited in locked churches. To celebrate our freedom, the issue of closed churches is now more than what Justin Welby suggests.
The Revd David Ackerman
The Parish of St John the Evangelist at Kensal Green, London W10

A tiny patch

Sir: In response to Melanie McDonagh’s article about the have-gardens and the have-nots (‘Lie of the land’, 18 April), I would like to raise a defiant flag for us supposedly poor souls locking down in tower blocks. I write this from a one-bedroom flat on a council estate in south London, which I share with my partner. It is a squeeze (the emergency tins are stacked in the coat cupboard). But I have never relished my balcony garden more. Five metres long, one-and-a-half across and surrounded by those of my neighbours, it has become a green oasis over the years.

I am lucky: not all flats come with balconies. Some don’t even have window boxes. But this lockdown has encouraged those without outdoor space to bring in what nature they can: microgreens and even lettuce can be grown on a kitchen windowsill.