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Letters from 4 to 11 July 2004

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IN YOUR ARTICLE OF 4 JULY, you say 'the fourth of July is a day of significance within the wider Anglican Communion, for it was the beginning of the separation of the Church of England. And what a messy separation it was.'

Those currently embroiled in the sexuality controversey may not see it this way, but are we not again at a point where we are being forced to ask what our identity as a church is? Before it was identified with loyalty to a crown; now I fear it is increasingly identified as whether one agrees with same-sex blessings, ordination of homosexual persons, or other issue-specific things or not. Have we not learned from our past that such outward distinctions and distractions often obscure the deeper, systemic work that must be done if the church is to be more than the world's sideshow? I fear we have not.

I would much rather see a vigorous debate about the centrality of the Nicene and Apostles creeds to our identity, the interpretation of scripture such that it may be applied to current events without compromising essential meanings, the role of the geographical diocese and the episcopate in an increasingly non-geographic, non-hierarchical, and networked world, and a clear truth-telling about where the [Episcopal Church in the USA] 20/20 initiative is succeeding in local parishes and where parishes are ignoring it.

However, I think people would rather talk about sex, which is why I'm less and less interested in the discussion.

The Reverend Tom Sramek, Jr
St Alban's Episcopal Church
Albany, Oregon, USA
frtom@peak.org
6 July 2004

Feel free to use our letters; just credit AO.

AS ALWAYS AN EXCELLENT column last week, about the separation of the Episcopal Church in the US from the Church of England, and the beginning of what has become the Anglican Communion. May I copy it, appropriately credited, for our parish newsletter?

Helen-Louise Boling
St Andrew's Episcopal Church
Toledo, Ohio, USA
hlboling@toast.net
6 July 2004

Parcels for Bolivia?

MY SON TRENT, AGE 15, IS HEADED to Bolivia to work with South American Mission (SAM) aviation for ten weeks. He's leaving August 6 from Atlanta [Georgia, USA] and he's willing to carry a greeting or gift in the name of specific churches or individuals.

One of the problems currently facing SAM is the difficulty in changing US dollars to Columbian currency. If, for example, you wanted to find out what specific items churches might need that Trent could carry from the US for them, southamericamission.org would be a source of information. Trent would willingly carry what he could. We receive snail-mail at 51 Main Street, Jackson, South Carolina, 29831.

Melody Badger
Church of the Good Shepherd, Augusta, Georgia
Aiken County, South Carolina
melodyb@email.com
7 July 2004

Earlier letters

We launched our 'Letters to AO' section on 11 May 2003. All of our letters are in our archives.