How about Nicky Gumbel, pioneer of Alpha, a tool that has been used for evangelism across the world? I am not a fan of Alpha. But Gumbel's church has grown to one of the largest in London, with a vision for planting new churches.

SUGDEN: Given that the conflict in Syria is becoming Iran versus Israel, with Syria as a platform for Iran, what did you gain of the views of the churches about the struggle in and for Syria?

LANGRISH: It's more than a struggle between Iran and Israel. There's a world war going on in Syria at present with so many parties using proxies. There's Iran, Israel, UK, France, USA, USSR and Turkey.

But the proposals have received support from elsewhere in the English church, with more than 300 members including Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, signing an open letter distancing themselves from Mr Nye's statements.

His letter, which emerged earlier this month, threatened to cut ties with the US church, which is a fellow member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, if it introduces the new service as standard, replacing the current wording in its Book of Common Prayer.

It isn't that there is no truth: Aaronovitch is too brilliant to slander with total falsehood. It is that partial and potential truths are glued together with a stream of malignant ad hom. Giles Fraser goes to Syria, and by association he is murdering children and torturing dissidents; he is kissing Stalin and hugging Mussolini. Instead of gobbing on a framed portrait of Assad which hangs on the wall, he gazes out of the window and tweets pictures of detention centres and death camps.