As St George's Day approaches, the loyal and proud English among us are ready to celebrate our patron saint, as the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and many other nationalities of our community enthusiastically do with their patron saints.

I am disappointed to learn those who are rightly expected to help lead our patron saint's celebrations on behalf of the nation's Church feel it would be inappropriate or impractical to do so.

I speak of the vast majority of our Church of England bishops. Again the leaders of the nation's Church are showing lack of assertiveness and leadership.

It would appear they would rather fall back on the tiresome excuses of not wanting to insult other religions or too many problems in raising enough support to ring church bells as an example of their diluted authority.

At a time when our religion and culture is under pressure, those who attend church look toward our religion being invigorated by those who carry the authority's vocal high ground; instead we see weakness, not strength, subservience, not ownership.

The problems facing our church are of course not all of the bishops' making but I fear that until our church leaders start being assertive and committed leaders, our church shall remain in decline, eventually to the point of insignificance.

Consider, had Jesus not been committed, assertive and passionate about his beliefs, there would be no Christianity, no bishops, no Church of England. As a supporter of the English culture for all to enjoy, I am more than content to see other religions openly (and loudly!) celebrating their festivals and I cannot really believe they feel any different about us Christians enjoying our festivals.

So I reject the premise other religions would be upset or offended at seeing Christians openly enjoying themselves on the day of our countries patron saint.

Stephen A Warden, Wigston.