As an ecumenist who served for ten years as senior RC teacher at a joint Roman Catholic and Church of England London secondary school I was saddened to read Fr Gabriel Daly’s attack on Catholic curial authorities for upholding teaching on the Eucharist (Letters, 7 January).

Our school was very strong in its worship and prayer life. When we came together for Liturgies of the Word and other prayer occasions, we recognised and celebrated all that united us in Christ. When we celebrated the Eucharist we went to our separate Communion tables. We were not united in our understanding of Eucharist and “real presence” and we acknowledged our differences. We respected each other and avoided blame games that implied that outside ecclesiastical authorities prevented us from sharing Communion.
While I share Fr Daly’s concern about the scandal of disunity, I cannot accept that we should disregard core Church teaching as “a needless irritation to members of other churches”.