Welby’s kindness
I didn’t recognise your description of Archbishop Welby as a transactionalist: “‘Welby’s style is [...]: you support this and I’ll give you something else” (“Just about managing”, 18 March).

Two issues I’ve taken to him. When nobody wanted to back the initial work of MPs and peers on Feeding Britain, he gave our group a grant so that we could begin the first major inquiry and report on this national disgrace. Far from looking for a payback, he has been a constant protector of our work.

On Bishop Bell he has acted far beyond what I thought any Archbishop would, particularly as Lambeth had appeared to be involved in the original judgement on Bell as a child abuser. A plea for a wider review of the Anglican Church’s machinery for judging child abuse cases, in which Bishop Bell’s position might be swept up, was the best I thought we could get. Archbishop Welby has gone for a single review, by an outstanding lawyer, to concentrate on the Bell judgement alone, without asking for anything in return.

To make the Archbishop’s politics one-dimensional – do what I ask and I will reward you – ignores the subtlety and kindness with which he has in my experience played a more than difficult hand.