Peter Preston (The capital's melting pot, 9 January) provides an interesting picture of life in south London today. It's a picture which I recognise as Bishop of Southwark. But I simply do not recognise his comment that "fervent belief [is] marching on as the C of E makes its excuses and slinks away". Faith is alive and well in south London and so is the Church of England. In Eltham alone, in the parish in which Stephen Lawrence died, the local Anglican clergy have been much involved in helping to challenge racist behaviour and in building new and vibrant communities. In Walworth, which Mr Preston highlights, the InSpire project at St Peter's is one example of our churches being deeply involved in community projects which seek to help individuals to build self-confidence through developing new skills and discovering the dignity and worth of each person, starting with themselves. Our church schools educate thousands of children from both church and non-church background, as well as from across the spectrum of world faiths. They are often over-subscribed and through their distinct Christian ethos help to instil values which build friendly and open communities of trust and goodwill.

The Church of England, as the established church, is committed to staying in those places where other denominations are not able to sustain ministry and where local authority provision is often being cut. Every single person lives in a C of E parish served by parish priests. South London is no exception to this; indeed our churches are vibrant, growing and full of people from all across the globe.
The church is often the only place in a community where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can meet as friends and where every nation can be seen to work together. Like Peter Preston, my clergy and I would wish to celebrate the diversity and life of communities in South London; communities of which the Church of England is very much a part.

Rt Rev Christopher Chessun
Bishop of Southwark

• I enjoyed Peter Preston's thoughtful piece on south London and the generalised, crime-ridden light that it always seems to be cast in the media. Of course crimes must be reported, but the distorted glass through which many view the area leads to a highly misleading account. There are fantastic amenities and fascinating lives being enjoyed by people of all classes, races and incomes south of the Thames, but a fallback on stereotypes leaves them unreported or unacknowledged.
Cllr Liam Curran
London Borough of Lewisham

• Peter Preston misses the point about the media's attitude to south London. Most (north) Londoners regard south London as an unknown entity, to the extent that, in my youth there were stories of, possibly apocryphal, maps showing London south of Tooley Street blank, with the legend "Here Live Dragons". Given that London south of the Thames is largely a 19th-century suburb of London proper and that, for many years, the only significance of the area was that the roads to Dover and Portsmouth passed through it, it is not surprising that many still regard south London as a homogenous mass with no identifying features.
Leslie Paterson
Reepham, Norwich