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This page last updated 19 June 2006
Anglicans Online last updated 20 August 2000

Letters to AO

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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.

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Letters from 12 June to 17 June 2006

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.

Fear itself

As my usual Monday morning habit, I read your editorial of 12 June 2006. In the final paragraph you wrote about the US General Convention that some will mutter 'that isn't about religion, it's about power'. I would add to this sentence "and fear".

Some fear what the Church might become if we include or exclude some of humanity. Some fear for the future. Some for Christian orthodoxy. Fear can drive people to become aggressive, in their talk and behaviour, in their thoughts. We do something simple and profound as Christians and Anglicans: we pray together, we show up together at the communion rail. No fear in that, only joy. As we consider whether we'll continue together or go off to start separate churches, we might be wise to consider the words of George Herbert (1593-1633), "No sooner is a temple built to God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by". I hope we can pray together for wise exercise of power and for the comforting of our fears.

W.J. Arnold PhD
St Mark's
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA
12 June 2006

Episcopus imperator

The Bishop of Milwaukee did not ask "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" in so many words, but actions speak louder than words. He did seize the opportunity to try to rid himself of our wonderful, warm, human, funny, and loving priest by using the few complainants for his own purposes. Why their personality conflicts with her carried more weight than the experiences of the many of us who have either been brought to Christ or whose faith has been strengthened by her presence at Grace is beyond my understanding. Oh, wait a minute - the "investigation" forgot to ask us. Our police are not allowed to use excessive force in dealing with conflict, but apparently our bishop is.

Alison Bush
Grace Episcopal Church, Madison, WI
Blue Mounds, WI USA
kokopelli120@hotmail.com
14 June 2006

Martha Ann Englert was a different kind of newspaper reporter. She covered "cops 'n' courts" for the Portland, Maine, newspapers as well as any reporter I knew in 30 years in the newspaper business. She also reached out in love and compassion to many of the subjects she covered - to the "all sorts and conditions of men" she later would encounter in the priesthood.

Martha was a different kind of priest, as well. She not only was a faithful associate rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland. She lived her faith in a transitional neighborhood, sitting with and ministering to the "despised and rejected," not just preaching to them.

Her call to historic Grace Church in Madison, Wisconsin, was greeted by the cathedral's parishioners with elation for her mixed with great sadness for St. Luke's. Those parishioners are in a state of shock today at the recent news of Martha's being subjected to an archaic "Ecclesiastical Trail" by the Diocese of Milwaukee.

This loving priest is to be tried by her fellow churchmen in Milwaukee purely on the basis of hearsay, innuendo and vicious rumor. We all have said things we later wish we hadn't said; we all have been irreverent at times; we all have displayed flashes of anger - if indeed these are the things of which Martha stands accused. We weren't hauled before an Ecclesiastical Court as a result.

The nation is watching, inside and outside the Episcopal Church, as events unfold in Milwaukee. A church trying to appeal to "all sorts and conditions" in order to grow in love and maintain the unity that many now see as threatened does not need this distraction. Putting one of its best and brightest in the ecclesiastical dock on vague and unsubstantiated charges is hardly the way to appeal to the unchurched or fulfill the loving precepts of our Lord.

George Neavoll
Cathedral Church of St. Luke
Portland, Maine, USA
gneavoll@maine.rr.com
16 June 2006

Your 6/17 posting does an injustice to the Bishop of Milwaukee. One might agree with your concern and regret the use of any kind of force in the church. The great legacy of the "three-legged stool" of Scripture, Tradition and reason is at risk if we are unable to reason together on many issues. That being said it is also true that sometimes bishops must act on behalf of the church in difficult and even confrontational circumtances.

I write to complain about only one sentence. "It was the recent event of a bishop presnting a priest and specifying the bishop's chaplain to be the judge..." implies that a decision was made after the fact of presentment to name a specific individual as judge. In fact, judges are elected to 4 year terms at the annual convention and the members of the court elect their own chief. The presiding judge was chosen well before the presentment -- even before the rector in question was installed.

You also fail to mention the elected Standing Committee (4 clergy, 4 lay members) which functions as the canonically required review committee. The standing committee reviewed evidence and voted the presentment. The bishop issued the inhibition.

None of this is a comment on the merits of the case. But fundamental fairness should be the goal of both due process and of responsible and accurate reporting.

Mary Ann Cook
Episcopal
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
18 June 2006

(Editor's note: Ms Cook and her husband are two of the complainants in the bishop's presentment.)

Weak-kneed bigots

Congratulations. Your recent bigotry regarding gays has made it much easier for those of us who try to teach American Culture and Religion to Chinese students.

We can now use your church as a real life example of what it means to be weak kneed, and bigoted at the same time.

You apologize for doing the clearly right thing? WWJD?

Viva God! And all that

Jim Bishop
Baoding Teachers College
Baoding, Hebei, CHINA
jim.bishop@gmail.com
17 June 2006

(Editor's note: you might be right.)

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Earlier letters

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

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