Letters
from 7 to 13 February 2005
Like
all letters to the editor everywhere, these letters are
the opinions of the letter writers and not Anglicans
Online. We publish letters that we think will be of interest
to our readers, whether we agree with them or not. If
you'd like to
write a letter of your own, click here.
Going
Dutch...
I
enjoyed reading Brian Reid's pancakes article. I
would, however, like to suggest that he further his
education by visiting a pancake restaurant in the
Netherlands. The Dutch eat pancakes for lunch or
dinner. Their version, a thin, egg-rich batter, is
available plain or with the addition of bacon, almond
paste, apple, banana, pineapple, berries, or ginger
to name a few options. They use thick syrup, similar
to molasses. One pancake, served on a large plate
dedicated to this fare, is a meal.
Is
it lunch time yet?
F.
William Voetberg
voet47@att.net
Grand Rapids, Michigan
voet47@att.net
7 February 2005
Mothering
Sunday: in Lent, with Simnel cakes still in place
I
always enjoy your columns and information. Brian's
column on pancakes was wonderful. I like the pancakes
I make, though they are nowhere as "extreme" as his!
I like to make mine with part buckwheat flour.
About
Anglican food traditions -- whatever happened to
Mothering Sunday and Simnel cakes? I liked the Simnel
cakes when we had them in my childhood, attending
a very British-influenced parish outside of Boston.
Of course, as I approach senility... I cannot remember
if Mothering Sunday is near the end of Lent or Advent!
Louise
Boling
St Andrew's Episcopal Church
Toledo, Ohio, USA
hlboling@toast.net
7 February 2005
More
Sim
Your
essay about pancakes was delightful. And as usual
a helpful thought about its simplicity to encourage
us to take an 'antient custom' and make it real today.
I
wonder if the eating of some sort of cake on the
Fourth Sunday in Lent is a wider custom throughout
the Communion. I have experienced this in a number
of culturally different provinces (Asia, the sub-continent,
England and Australia) and there is a sense continuity
about this tradition. I say "some sort of cake" because
although the term 'Simnel Cake' is used to describe
this traditional Mothering or Refreshment Sunday
delight it varies enormously. It is amusing to turn
to church cook books and find the authentic recipe...it
differs quite radically, particularly the placement
of marzipan... if indeed it is there at all!
The
Reverend Stephen Clark
Coromandel Valley Anglican Parish-Diocese of Adelaide
Blackwood, South Australia, AUSTRALIA
coro35@bigpond.net.au
7 February 2005
Giving
up pancakes as Lenten discipline?
As
an Englishman married to an American, I have sampled
both kinds of pancake, and enjoy them both. However,
I wonder how many Americans will give up pancakes
for Lent? My wife (a Southern Methodist until she
moved to England) had always thought of Lent as something
just for Roman Catholics, and thus not getting in
the way of tradition American pancake eating by protestants.
Brian Reid's excellent article didn't recognise that
the English pancake has its origins in giving up
the rich ingredients (eggs, butter and oil) as part
of Lenten preparation (that's largely why we only
eat them on Shrove Tuesday).
Edward
Bunting
Saint Vedast-alias-Foster
London, UNITED KINGDOM
edward@descartes.demon.co.uk
8 February 2005
'The fire
and the rose are one'
A
remark cited on your front page inspired the following
paragraphs I wrote to the secretary of an international
seafarers' organization.
'At
Anglicans Online they shared a comment they received
that alleged there was no preparation for Lent
as there are for other days in the ecclesiastical
calendar. However, two thoughts occur to me:
(1)
in the past there used to be a pre-Lenten season,
and
(2)
with such a short Epiphany Season this year preceding
Lent, I was struck with the connection of the
Last Sunday after the Epiphany having the theme
of the Transfiguration, occurring three days
before Ash Wednesday.
The
Reverend Harold J. McSherry, a Canadian MIssionary
who was at the Church of the Transfiguration
in Hiroshima told me that the Japanese word for "transfiguration" is
the same word (or ideograph) that is used to
translate the word, "disfiguration". On the Feast
of the Transfiguration, August 6, 1945, the first
atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima.
Three days later, on August 9, another nuclear
blast of searing, burning, bright light and deadly
radioactivity produced a mushroom cloud over
the city of Nagasaki where Christianity had been
introduced by the Portuguese Jesuit, Francis
Xavier, about 400 years before, in 1549, the
year Archbishop Cranmer prepared the first English
Prayer Book in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace in
London. It is an irony that so many of the Japanese
Christian minority concentrated in Nagasaki died
in the same city where Japan's first Christian
converts had been martyred centuries before (whom
we commemorated on February 5.)
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki occurred 3 days apart; Last Epiphany
and Ash Wednesday are 3 days apart. In a curious
way Transfiguration-Ash Wednesday and Hiroshima-Nagasaki
are both in 3-day orbits, as we begin Lent to
prepare for the Paschal Feast.
And
so, as I write, my intercessions include an international
sojourn to pray for the seafarers' ministries
in these two great port cities on the other side
of the Pacific'.
The
Reverend Timothy Makoto Nakayama
St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle
Seattle, Washington, USA
frtim@yahoo.com
Middle-income
families out of luck?
Having
been raised an Episcopalian, I wanted my children
to feel the same feeling of community that I felt
growing up. Our church was nothing more then an extended
part of our family. We cut down Christmas trees together,
we went apple picking, we played after church with
each other.
I
did a lot of searching for schools and found a wonderful
Episcopal school in Brewster New York. The community
is just as strong at Melrose as it is at my church,
it stands for everything that I was looking for.
But the cost of Episcopal schools are out of reach
for middle-income people. The school doesn't have
a very big financial aid plan and the tuition has
doubled in the last five years.
I
have searched on the Internet for hours on end to
find some organization that funds Episcopal education
and have come up with nothing. I guess I am hoping
that some where someone might have information on
an organization that might provide financial assistance
to help pay for Episcopal education.
Valerie
Foran
St Barnabas
Mahopac, New York, USA
vjforan@aol.com
11 February 2005
Royal
contradiction?
I
really hate to sound like I have a burr under my
saddle blanket, but I have to ask some questions.
I have written before about the situation Prince
Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles created when she
moved into Clarence House with him. I did not claim
that they were "living in sin". But I complained
about the 'appearance' given to the world. It bothered
me that the future 'Supreme Governor of the Church
of England' was living openly with his lover without
benefit of marriage.
I
am even more bothered by today's news release that
they will be married but in a civil ceremony. I realize
that civil ceremonies are commonplace in Europe.
But does anyone have any consternation over the fact
that the future Supreme Governor of the Church of
England has sidestepped the Church?
It
certainly warms the cockles of my heart to know that
the Archbishop of Canterbury will be pleased to bless
the union! Is this not the same Archbishop who forced
Jeffry John to renounce his call to the Episcopacy "for
Church Unity"? I am certainly glad I do not belong
to the C of E. I will be interested to hear the rantings
of Archbishop Akinola over this.
Br.
Robert James McLaughlin, BSG
The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany
Ventnor City, New Jersey, USA
Gregorian@Comcast.net
12 February 2005
Earlier
letters
We launched
our 'Letters to AO' section on 11 May 2003. All of our
letters are in our
archives.
|
