An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Truro: I write as a confirmed Christian to commend the involvement of both senior church leaders and the Anglican Church in general in their high profile commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, a most evil business. I find it refreshing that previously hidden aspects of the historical past are being recognised for what they were - downright evil.

I believe it is now high time for a recognition by the Church of England of its role in the bloody enforcement of the Act of Uniformity upon the people of Cornwall during 1549 and immediately thereafter. During this disgraceful episode in history and one which still rides high in the Cornish consciousness, over 10 per cent of the population of Cornwall including many of the Duchy's clergy were slaughtered and an English language Book of Common Prayer forced upon the Cornish against their traditions and language.

The suppression of Glasney College near Penryn in Cornwall robbed us of our language and its status for generations. Fairly high profile figures of the time, including the much vaunted Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, were instrumental in this exercise in ethnic cleansing of my ancestors despite peaceful protest by those protecting their own heritage. Indeed, my great grandmother, who was born in 1869, and who I remember well as she lived to a great age, despite working for most of her life as a Bal Maiden in the surface workings of local tin mines, had a rhyme: Loathsome flag of blood red cross, Cause of many a Cornish loss.

And she would tell of "the time the English Church came to Cornwall."

Only in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has a Bible been produced in the Cornish language, and the Cornish language itself given the protection and recognition that it requires, and I fully support the growing number of individuals and Cornish and Celtic organisations not calling for an apology, but an expression of regret by the Church of England.

Such an expression of regret by the modern Church of England is well overdue and much needed.

I look forward to your response, please.

Michael John Chappell (address supplied)