Bishop for dinner

Your correspondent John Ryan (Letters, 26 April) pictures a scene where someone is invited to sit down and have a conversation with the bishop. In some places this may be a rare occurrence. However I have known of a few groups of lay people who have invited their bishop to meet them informally, even to have supper, and have received positive replies. Perhaps this is one way forward of promoting the spirit of Evangelii Gaudium: "The bishop will have to encourage...forms of pastoral dialogue, out of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply those who would tell him what he would like to hear.
Kevin Dean, Blackburn, Lancs