EVERY WEEK WE PUBLISH a selection of letters we receive in response to something you've read at Anglicans Online. Stop by and have a look at what other AO readers are thinking.

Alas, we cannot publish every letter we receive. And we won't publish letters that are anonymous, hateful, illiterate, or otherwise in our judgment do not benefit the readers of Anglicans Online. We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.

We edit letters to conform with standard AO house style for punctuation, but we do not change, for example, American spelling to conform to English orthography. On occasion we'll gently edit letters that are too verbose in their original form. Email addresses are included when the authors give permission to do so.

If you'd like to respond to a letter whose author does not list an email, you can send your response to Anglicans Online and we'll forward it to the writer.

Letters from 5 June to 12 June 2005

Like all letters to the editor everywhere, these letters are the opinions of the 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.

What about the un-young and un-fashionable?

Hey, I have no objection to hip-hop masses. But how about something for me? I can't stand Rite II--why can't I get the Elizabethan liturgy that turns me on with music at a reasonable hour instead of the grudging provision a few parishes make "for the old people" at early services? I love Benediction--I've just been to the annual meeting of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (http://www.sandiego.edu/~baber/CBS where they did it: it's spooky, magical, mystical and knocks your socks off. Why can't I get that on a regular basis?

When it comes to hip-hop masses, celebrations of the Goddess, or anything outre that's supposed to appeal to the young and the fashionable, the Church spares no effort or expense. But where unfashionable pieties are involved the Church niggles, does cost-benefit analyses, tells us that there aren't enough people who want what we want to make doing it worthwhile and exhorts us to sacrifice our preferences for the greater good. Most churches don't have daily services because clergy reckon too few people would come to make it worth their while; most are locked up during the week because they calculate that it's not worth the expense or risk to keep them open. But when it comes to labyrinth-treading or "renewal ministries" the Church doesn't count costs.

I don't think many people seriously object to hip-hop masses or other novelties as such, however boring or silly: what they object to is not getting the stuff that speaks to their souls.

H. E. Baber
Chula Vista, California, USA
baber@sandiego.edu
6 June 2005

It certainly is working here

In regard to your mention of the Hip Hop E-Mass that is being done in a Bronx parish. I had the opportunity to experience the Hip Hop mass at the Province II Synod this spring. Members of the parish which sponsors it came to Albany to share with the Province what they are doing to reach into their local neighborhoods to share the Gospel. We heard from several young people as they shared what the Hip Hop Mass means to them and how God is changing their lives. While, for most of us attending, it was a most unusual and non-traditional way to worship , it certainly is working in that place and for this time. I applaud the efforts of the Rector and parish members along with Bishop Roskam of New York for using this as a means of sharing Jesus.

Richard Angelo
St Andrew's Church
Albany, New York, USA
6 June 2005

Pains of the parents visited on the children?

We're going through some parish controversy at the moment over a similar question, how to translate our beautiful liturgy for an audience that is very put-off by it: young children. The traditionalists seem to feel that as they were forced to sit though a childhood of 1928 BCP services, today's children should should be able to handle Rite II. I was personaly getting rather down over this controvery. Our Family Service has brought so many new families into the parish. I want to thank you for the pep-talk. The issue is not "watering down" or abusing our liturgy, its about evangelism in the old fashioned sense, and "opening doors".

Jay Dean
Holy Trinity (Trinity Parish)
Menlo Park, California, USA
9 June 2005

North-side Communion?

I would very much like information about the practice of North Side Communion. Just out of curiosity, not for publication. I know the historical background and the theological justification for this, and that it was (I think) practiced in the Church of England as late as the 1940's or 1950's, and was still a matter of debate in the 1960's. Are there still churches where there is a communion table set up to an east-west orientation? Or where communion is celebrated at the North End. When did this practice actually stop (if it did)? Was it ever expressly forbidden? No theological discussion, please. If you don't know what I am talking about, here is a helpful link.

Sarah Porter
Christ Church
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
portersh@vt.edu
6 June 2005

You have my back

I can't believe I'm writing AO two weeks in a row. I just couldn't resist saying that I was disappointed that you made Arthur Hugh Clough's poem avaiable in its entirety but didn't do the same for the updated 23 psalm

David T. Brown
St. Peter's Anglican Church
Campbell River, British Columbia, CANADA
diggerb@telus.net
8 June 2005

Er, sorry. Our mistake. Here it is: hiphopemass.dioceseny.org/prayers.php

Earlier letters

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