Positive thinking
Your news story about the closure of churches in northeast Essex (“Parishioners ask for their money back”, 3 September) raises difficult issues and I have great sympathy for those who have to make these tough decisions and for the families impacted by them. As former principal of St Benedict’s, Colchester, the area’s Catholic secondary school, I am very aware of the excessive workload borne by Clacton’s late Fr Jim McCormack.

Because of Essex Education Authority’s withdrawal of school transport I have heard of ever-declining numbers of Catholic students from Clacton and other rural areas attending my former school. Catholic families from Jaywick, England’s most economically deprived area, find it almost impossible to pay the transport costs.