Letters
received during the week of 4 January 2004
Gifts
of metal and glass
THANKS
FOR YOUR EPIPHANY message. About the recyclables: In my neighborhood at least,
there's another side to that story.
Last
week, I went to work an hour late, and that was enough to see
a (homeless?) man carefully picking through my curbside cleaned
bottles and cans picking out the best stuff to take to get a
bit of change. Young with longish hair he carefully returned
unpicked items to the bin.
I
was startled at first and said 'What are you doing?' Twice. (I,
hanging out the front window.)
'Picking
up the recycle,' he finally said. ('As any fool can plainly see.',
he might have added.)
I
let it go. I could hardly be angry. After all it was nearly the
Eve of the Epiphany. Many themes there — gifts of metal
and glass, maybe even a glimpse of the Holy One embodied, manifest....
pretty heady stuff for an early Friday morning.
Dave
Vanderah
Vallejo, California, USA
dvanderah@cs.com
6 January 2004
And
to you!
I
REALLY LIKE YOUR SITE. It's a place I come several times a week
because I can get what I
feel is accurate Anglican / Episcopal
/ Christian, etc. news. I also like your site because it's balanced!
You seem to have a moderate-to-liberal editorial viewpoint, with
a plain-spoken, non-judgmental attitude to the fringes on either
side of center. Keep up the good work. And, as John Ciardi used
to say: Good words to you.
Katherine
McEwen
Seattle, Washington, USA
5 January 2004
'If
I want Magisterium I know where to get it'.
I
JOINED THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 35
years ago because I was interested in theology, not as dogma
to be believed but as a theory to be
investigated. When I joined I resolved to 'bracket the God question':
on theological matters I'm agnostic and I've never paid any attention
to the Church's official views on ethical issues. Traditionally
it wasn't the Church's business to make windows into men's souls
which was fine with me. But now, as the Anglican Church splinters,
both liberals and conservatives are busily defining dogma on
matters of faith and morals. I teach at a Catholic college and
if I want Magisterium I know where to get it.
I
joined the Episcopal Church because I was a romantic and wanted
to be part of that grand historical tradition of high art, music,
architecture and literature. Over the years, in misguided attempts
to be 'relevant' and appeal to a wider constituency the Church
jettisoned the liturgy I loved and effectively killed to romance
that drew me in.
I
didn't belong to the Church to receive its teachings on sexual
ethics or any other matters, to work for a better society or
to participate in the 'community' of a "parish family." I have
my husband, children, friends and colleagues; I work for a better
society by volunteering for the Democratic Party and contributing
to civil rights organizations. I can figure out how to deal with
ethical issues on my own, I teach students to do the same, and
I have no interest in the half-baked views of clergy.
Would
it have been so bad if the Church had simply conducted business
as usual--maintaining buildings, churning out Elizabethan liturgy,
visiting the sick, comforting the dying and conducting rites
of passage rather than attempting to formulate positions on
controversial ethical issues and to promulgate them? Would it
have been so bad if the Church has just kept its collective mouth
shut? 'Whereof we cannot speak, thereof must we remain silent'.
This
is Epiphany, my 54th birthday: I'm old enough to be a curmudgeon.
I deserve a(nother) drink and I deserve to have this letter published.
H
E Baber
University of San Diego
San Diego, California, USA
baber@sandiego.edu
6 January 2004
The
end comes only when we cease to love.
LIKE
MANY BEFORE ME, allow
me to say that I appreciate your ministry in the church and I
enjoy the contribution of those who write
to you online. This
week, I have been grateful to Kili [see Letters,
4 January 2004] in California (and there have been others) who
is wearied by the controversy over the role of homosexuals in
the church, when there are so many other more urgent needs which
we are failing to address adequately.
But
I must point out to Kili that, even if we were to take our full
responsibility to those in need, it would not resolve a situation
that is causing great trauma in the lives of many individual
Christians.
And
so I turn to a second letter from David Brown [see Letters,
4 January 2004], who lives at
the rainy end of Vancouver Island where we both rejoice to live,
and who, at the age of 72, is a youngster compared to my 82.
David
has, what I am bold to say, the only answer: 'I am not leaving,
let's work it out, with the love of Jesus Christ."
I
went through this exercise when the Anglican Church of Canada
decided to ordain women. I tore up the telephone number of the
local Roman Catholic bishop, and today I rejoice that I have
the friendship of many women priests. It was one of the several
significant intrusions of God into my life. I
cherish the love and friendship of many homosexuals both clergy
and lay. They have strengthened my ministry down many years.
This
is not the end of the Anglican Communion unless, despite our
hurting, we cease to love.
(Fr)
Peter Lucas
Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA
pmlucas@telus.net
9 January 2004
Earlier
letters
We launched our
'Letters to AO' section on 11 May 2003. All of our letters are
in our archives.
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