Letters
from 31 July to 7 August 2005
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Global
cleansing?
I
was at once amused, saddened, and struck by your "Anglican
Risk" analogy of the current goings on in the Anglican
Communion. As someone who grew up playing Risk, I
know that the object of the game involves making
sure that the entire world is uniform--united under
one color which had better be yours. One starts the
game with many colors (players), sometimes scattered
around the world map that is the game board. Yet
by dint of stretegy, alliences, luck, and even treachery,
a gloriously uniform world emerges.
I
hesistate to join the conspiracy theorists on either
the liberal or conservative side of this debate,
but it seems that we are less and less able and willing
to go into the world and preach the Gospel and more
and more able and willing to expend huge amounts
of energy "cleansing" the church -- which, of course
means making it all the correct color of theology
-- mine. I don't think that people are leaving the
church (or not joining) because of our theology or
lack thereof. I think they are asking the question: "Do
I really want to be part of a church that is having
this fight?"
God
save us from such inward-looking and spiritually
poisonous ecclesiastical civil war so that we might
once again look outward and combat the Enemy that
can destroy both soul and body and who delights in
a divided, distracted, and defensive church.
The
Rev. Tom Sramek, Jr.
St. Alban's Episcopal Church
Albany, Oregon, USA
frtom@peak.org
7 August 2005
Dog
is God spelled backwards
I'm
sure someone out there, wherever that may be, will know the answer
to the following:
There
was a saint who was venerated for some four hundred years and then
it was discovered that the bones the people thought were human
were those of a dog. Who was he?
Sonia
Stevenson
St. George's, Maynard, MA
Carlisle, MA USA
3 August 2005
(Ed:
We can forward a reply to Ms Stevenson)
Help
me find my relative
I'm
attempting to trace my cousin - John Leslie Cooper who I last knew
had a parish in Birmingham in the mid-eighties. I know he is a
'Rev Dr' and did work at one time at Brixton Prison before going
to Birmingham. He was born mid-thirties and lived in East Molesey
Surry as a child. I was recommended to Anglicansonline by the wife
of a vicar here in Stroud NSW Australia - have you any idea how
I may contact either him or his family - I'm just interested in
getting in touch with him and his brother Tony - the whim of an
old lady I suppose!!!
Maureen
Kelly
Australia
covenews@exemail.com.au
5 August 2005
(Ed:
Anglicans Online has no such records, but we do have a copy of
Crockford's Clergy Directory. He was born in 1933 and served in
the diocese of Birmingham from 1973 to 1997. We'll send you his
contact information privately)
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