SIR Sunbridge Road Mission holds a "Punk/Rock Worship event" (T&A, May 4), I know that Sunbridge Road has always been a church of lively Christian witness.

I am old enough to have listened to preaching by Fred Mitchell, one-time Darley Street chemist and Sunbridge Road stalwart who died in an early jet airliner accident as he returned from visiting a missionary enterprise in China.

Many young folk will gladly rock and roll in clubs and also, if encouraged, in church. But punk?

The weekly supplement of a provincial newspaper recently carried a nasty, sneering photograph of Johnny Rotten, punk pioneer. An article appreciative of the punk movement referred to a ground-breaking punk song Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.

I recall a 13-year-old lad whom I taught more than 25 years ago pleasant-natured, willing, though not very bright. He was persuaded, perhaps by an older punk enthusiast, to do as that song suggested.

His behaviour, his whole nature, changed. I hope that punk ideas and practices did not wreck his subsequent life.

Douglas Hartley, Irving Terrace, Clayton