Church apologises to Charles Darwin over theory of evolution

THE Church of England will make an official apology to naturalist Charles Darwin for criticising his famous theory of evolution

Coming126 years after his death, the church's apology will focus on how wrongit was for senior bishops in the past to misunderstand and attack Darwin's theory about man being descended from apes.

"CharlesDarwin, 200 years from your birth (in 1809), the Church of England owesyou an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our firstreaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still,'' thearticle says, according to extracts printed by The Mail on Sundaynewspaper.

Butthe apology by Dr Brown, who is the director of mission and publicaffairs of the Archbishops' Council, has been dismissed as "pointless''by Darwin's great great grandson Andrew Darwin.

Seniorchurch officials will post the apology in the form of an articlewritten by the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown on the church's websitetomorrow.