Letters
from 17 to 24 April 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
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Saddened
by your editorials
I'm
a keen viewer of the site, but have been saddened to see your editorials
continue to consider anyone with an understanding of the Faith
that doesn't appear "inclusive" to be somehow at fault, misguided,
or downright perverse.
"Monarchs
make and enforce rules; would-be monarchs have made their rules
and are itching to enforce them. We wonder sometimes if the real
reason for many objections to women bishops is from fear that they
might set a bad example by not having any desire to be monarchs
of all they survey."
This
seems a very obtuse view of those of us, who in conscience, do
not accept female orders in the sacrament of holy order. I do not
wish to denigrate female bishops, but I also do not want to be
forced to accept the concept either.
The
whole basis of priesthood is service not ruling by enforcement.
Who do you have in mind that wants to be a monarch of all they
survey? Is the conclave of cardinals heading for hell in a handbasket,
or are they fellow Christians wrestling with the demands of the
Faith?
Robert
Parkhouse
St. Agatha's, Sparkbrook, Birmingham
Solihull, UK
thera@tolner2.fsnet.co.uk
18 April 2005
Advice
for the new Pope
In Religion
in the Making, Alfred North Whitehead understood both the necessity
for dogma and its limitations. The newly elected Pope Benedict
XVI could do worse than consider the following comments from Whitehead.
A
dogma — in the sense of a precise statement — can never
be final; it can only be adequate in its adjustment of certain
abstract concepts. But the estimate of the status of these concepts
remains for determination.
Religions
commit suicide when they find their inspirations in their dogmas.
The inspiration of religion lies in the history of religion. By
this I mean that it is to be found in the primary expressions of
the intuitions of the finest types of religious lives. The sources
of religious belief are always growing, though some supreme expressions
may lie in the past. Records of these sources are not formulae.
They elicit in us intuitive response which pierces beyond dogma.
. .
. .though dogmas have their measure of truth, which is unalterable,
in their precise forms they are narrow, limitative, and alterable:
in effect untrue, when carried over beyond the proper scope of
their utility.
A
system of dogmas may be the ark within which the Church floats
safely down the flood-tide of history. But the Church will perish
unless it opens its window and lets out the dove to search for
an olive branch. Sometimes even it will do well to disembark
on Mount Ararat and build a new altar to the divine Spirit — an
altar not in Mount Gerizim nor yet at Jerusalem.
(the
Revd) David H. Fisher
Trinity, Wheaton
Naperville, Illinois, USA
dhfisher@noctrl.edu
20 April 2005
25
years as Bishop of the Lusitanian Church
I want
to note that the upcoming 1st of May is the 25th anniversary of
the consecration of the Rt Revd Fernando Soares as Bishop of the
Lusitanian Church.
The
Anniversary Service will be held at 05:00 p.m. at Paróquia
do Bom Pastor (The Good Shepherd Parish), Candal, Vila Nova de
Gaia Oporto.
I also
want to affirm his blessed episcopal ministry not only in Portugal,
but also in our Anglican Communion — and how important he
is for us.
José Sequeira
Parish of Saint John the Evangelist, Lusitanian Church
Vila Nova de Gaia, Oporto, PORTUGAL
20 April 2005
Guild
of the Iron Cross?
I am
interested to find out anything about an Anglican lay organization
known as The Guild of the Iron Cross. There was a chapter here
at St. Barnabas in the late 1800s and from what little information
I have it seems that the group may also have been active in, or
around, Buffalo, New York. It may have had its origins in the U.S.
or have originated in the United Kingdom. There was a special service
of initiation, a Guild Cross for member/brothers, and a publication
issued (perhaps) monthly. I have a well documented Minutes Book
of the meetings of the local chapter, but nothing else. Can you
help?
The
Reverend William H. Steinman
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
St. Catharines, Ontario, CANADA.
wsteinman@cogeco.ca
21 April 2005
(Ed:
We think you'll find what you are looking for in "Was
Father Field
a Christian Socialist?" by the Revd Robert Rea, under 'His
life and work'.)
Adjusting
to the new Pope
Among
the comments about
the newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI are that liberals are 'dismayed'
at Benedict's feared conservatism, despite the message that he
'will not be a polarizing pope.'
First,
I protest that the media is apt to divide us (even high-quality
media loves fruitless confrontation) by focussing on matters that
are not central to what I call the Christian miracle, that is,
the events leading up to Pentecost and into all our todays and
tomorrows — what Pope Benedict calls 'our anchorage to Christ.'
Second,
I believe that Pope Benedict is not a polarizing pope.
Third,
a criticism I can make (from within the faith) is best worded by
a favorite author, the late Robertson Davies*. An Episcopal priest
is speaking to his friend, a doctor, "You treat Christianity at
[their parish] the way pagans treated mythology — as a kind
of fancy wallpaper for the mind."
It is
important to see correctly what Pope Benedict means when he condemns
the "dictatorship of relativism." I believe that his opinion runs
like this (as quoted from Flannery O'Connor):
"One
of the effects of modern liberal Protestantism has been gradually
to turn religion into poetry and therapy — to make truth
vaguer and ... more relative...to banish intellectual distinctions,
to depend on feeling instead of thought and gradually to come
to believe that God has no power, that he cannot communicate
with us, cannot reveal himself to us, indeed has not done so,
and that religion is our own sweet invention...**"
As an
Episcopalian, I hope I'm not taking that wayward path; but I sure
can see evidence all over that this type of thought exists (not
just in Protestantism, either). I believe Pope Benedict is right
on target.
We all
agree that something astonishing began to happen once and for all,
2000 years ago in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The fear from the beginning
was that we would (in the temporal hubub then as now) lose what
Benedict calls our "anchorage to Christ."
Let's
keep our dialog open, as friends, in what the late Pope John Paul
II called "unity, not absorption." We need each other, agreeing
as we do on that central miracle at Pentecost and through all our
days on this earth.
Maggie
Hurll
St. David's-in-the-Pines Episcopal Church
Royal Palm Beach, Florida, USA
cwhmcb@msn.com
21 April 2005
*Davies,
Robertson, The Cunning Man. Penguin Books, NY. 1996. p.448
**Elie, Paul. The Life You Save May Be Your Own, an American Pilgrimage.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York. 2003. Quoted on pp. 340, 341.
Incredible
commentary
I
came across AO tonight for
the first time. I find this statement in your commentary rather
incredulous — not only because I don't believe it but also
because I've never seen anyone else make it: "We continue to
understand the squabbles in the Anglican Communion as being mostly
about power, and (despite the rhetoric) hardly at all about sex
or theology or scripture."
If the
squabbles were only about power, I would still be an Episcopalian.
I could deal with that. I renounced Anglicanism because I felt
I could no longer be a Christian and a member of the Episcopal
Church at the same time. The ruling bishops are running conservatives
like me out of the church. It's no longer safe for us. Look at
the Diocese of Connecticut.
David
E. Sumner, Ph.D.
St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
Anderson, Indiana, USA
dsumner@bsu.edu
22 April 2005
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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