New bishop - very old ideas

The new Bishop of Durham arrived on Tuesday with old, old views on the well-roasted chestnut of homosexuality. Canon Tom Wright said he would not ordain practising homosexuals - even though practising homosexuals are already ordained, and well respected, within his own diocese. He said practising homosexuals were no better than adulterers whom he accused of having "capitulated to the morals of the street".

Today's world does not especially like homosexuality, but increasingly it tolerates and is slowly respecting minorities of all backgrounds and inclinations - including homosexuals.

Unforgiving and old-fashioned discrimination will not open new ears and new hearts, but it will ensure that the general impression of the Church as an inward-looking and out-dated organisation will persist.

THE heads of the cricketing community say that the reason the World Cup was given to southern Africa was to increase the size of the cricketing family.

This commendable desire has seen the competition distracted, if not destroyed, by disputes over cricketers who do not wish to play in Zimbabwe - where about seven million people are being deliberately starved by their own leader - or in Kenya - where al Qaida suicide bombers blow up hotels.

What about those of us who already belong to the cricketing family? How are we being treated?

In this country, a large proportion of the family is being denied access to the World Cup because it is being screened solely on satellite television because the heads of the family have sold their souls to the highest bidder.

The World Cup, the showpiece of cricket, will do nothing to enhance the game's appeal in this country. And on Monday, the only sport we will be talking about at work is this lunchtime's eagerly anticipated FA Cup tie between Arsenal and Manchester United - which is being shown on the BBC.

YESTERDAY was St Valentine's Day when love conquered all. Except in the US where a woman was convicted of murdering her unfaithful husband by running him over.

During the trial, the dead man "was depicted as an unfaithful skunk who flirted so outrageously with his receptionist that some of his employees were physically ill".

The prosecutor said: "You can't help but feel sympathy (for his wife), but you know the solution is to get a divorce - you don't get to kill him."

To restore my faith in love, I turned to the Valentine messages that appeared on page five of The Northern Echo yesterday.

The Times was lamenting how the childish element had disappeared from Valentine messages. Twenty-five years ago, they were from Sponglet, Snuglet, Pizziwig, Chuchy-Face and Snookie Pumps. Today people just signed their messages with their everyday, boring name like John, Belinda or Marianne.

But romance is still alive and well among readers of The Northern Echo, for among our messages was this most perfect little poem written for Anne by someone known only as Ju:

"Twenty years and it's been brill.

Twenty more and I'll be over the hill."