I AM grateful for the interest which Pastor Kevin Mills has taken in the way in which I fulfil my duties as a priest (LT, Sept 12).

I would be interested to hear what you have to say for yourself, Canon Chivers" he says.

Despite the aggressive tone of his letter, which might appear to suggest he isn't the slightest bit interested in what I might have to say - he seems to have deduced an enormous amount about what I believe from one letter!

On what evidence, does he base his assertion that Anjum Anwar's Understanding Islam' project - an article about which began this correspondence - is propaganda' for advancement of Islam in our fading country?

He can't have attended any of Mrs Anwar's classes as they are designed for schoolchildren. Has he actually seen the coursework? Not according to Mrs Anwar. I suggest he asks to see it.

Mrs Anwar will be only too pleased to show him what she does, which is all about understanding, not promoting her faith.

As to the incompatibility of Christianity with Islam, or with any faith or religion for that matter,' as the Pastor neatly puts it, does he see Christ's command love one, love another as I have loved you' as incompatible with friendship with people of all faiths or none?

Did Jesus in fact intend this command simply to pertain to love between Christians?

Did he make it that restrictive and say they weren't to love those who were not Christians (bearing in mind, of course, that during Jesus's lifetime there were no Christians' as such: they came after his resurrection)?

I don't recall such an injunction in the Gospels which the Pastor correctly reminds me that I am to preach' and promote.' The command to love is indeed my primary vocation.

In this, the Pastor is absolutely right. Which is why he is so wrong to say that having dialogues with other faiths and religions does not advance our Christian faith.' The opposite is true.

I never seek to compromise my faith in Jesus Christ as the Pastor erroneously suggests.

Rather, I see, in the words of a great evangelical Christian, Max Warren, to recognise that whenever I talk with another human being, whatever their religious beliefs, I am already on holy ground' since God will have been there long before I might mistakenly have supposed that I was taking him into such an encounter.

Will the Pastor's negative - and judging - use of the word denial' achieve what he wants it to achieve?

Will the aggressively defensive and doctrinaire tone of his letter show our sisters and brothers of other faiths traditions what we Christians believe?

I fear, in this regard, that it is, sadly, the Pastor who may lack the courage he is so keen to see as a missing component in my ministry.

Since he seems to lack the courage simply to love, preferring, it would seem, to hector and harass people into a faith which is not about coercion but about co-operation, compassion and companionship.

Regretfully, it is such distastefully coercive religion - rather than religion that is respectful of other beliefs - that lies at the roots of so many of our contemporary problems.

I nonetheless extend a hand to the Pastor to come and debate the issues with myself and with Mrs Anwar.

CANON CHRIS CHIVERS, Canon Chancellor (with responsibility for inter-faith relations), Blackburn Cathedral.