Letters
from 9 October to 15 October 2006
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Thanks and
remembrance
I just write
to express my thanks for your weekly letter as well as for the various
links which keep me up to date on the goings-on within the Communion.
I turn to Anglicans Online first thing Monday mornings, whenever I am
at home. This week I was somewhat late. Our Thanksgiving was on this
past weekend and I was away at my son's farm with all the family, about
16 of us in total. It always seems quite appropriate to spend Thanksgiving
in a rural setting amidst the changing colours of the Fall, surrounded
by the animals of the farm--pigs, cows, sheep, goats and hens, and all
within the context of Thanksgiving to our Creator for all His/Her Blessings.
I am by birth
a Newfoundlander and was intrigued to see your reference to that Island
as a fourth country in North America in 1943. Of course you are correct.
One correction however I must make: in 1943, which I remember well, we
were under Commission Government-Three commissioners from England and
three from Newfoundland. As such there was no Prime minister at that
time. Admittedly, this is quite immaterial to your article.
Keep up the
good work. It starts my week off just right.
Fred Hall
St. James the Apostle, Brampton
Brampton, Otario, CANADA
13 October 2006
A Christian
vacuum
I
am at least a 3rd Generation Anglican, but
I have been going to a Pentecostal church of late because here in London
where I have been for 5 months now, I have grown to resent the Anglican
church for its lack of interests in people of European origin. Europe
is a Christian vacuum, where Buddhists and Moslems are converting people
who 100 years ago would never had dreamed of joining this faith of
untruthfulness as Jesus is the way the truth and the light, no one
gets to god the father other than through him. I have been traveling
through places in Europe and examples of Satan's work has been exhibited
with lives being destroyed through lack of maintenance by Christians
who want lovely photos of themselves on mission in Africa. Like the
bible says, when demons are cast off of a person these demons travel
around looking for other demons and tell them when there is a lovely
clean house to mess up as this is good fun for them. The evil that
is in lives of many in Europe with human trafficking and drug abuse
and that is just the start. I am ashamed of my home church, which I
was hoping would be a greater light for the lost to find the Lord and
enjoy eternal life.
I might not
be the greatest literate but I am not stupid and my passion for the Lord
extends to the obvious, because as a motor mechanic if I don't deal with
the obvious, the car wont go. To this I add my credentials that I
have to abstain from arty intellectual ideals to stick to logic and function.
I can see in Europe a very broken car through poor maintenance due
to the owner being fascinated by the car across the road.
Ian Campbell
Kotara, Australia
Currently London, UK
icampbellau@yahoo.co.uk
14 October 2006
Pennies and
yen and sen
Today about
100 American pennies amounts to about 115 Japanese Yen. Put another way,
one penny today is worth a fraction more than one yen! In comparison,
before WW II, 2 Japanese yen was worth 1 American dollar, and the denomination
below the "yen", was the "sen"! For many of the
post-WW II years, one American Dollar was worth 360 Japanese Yen!
In 1991, I
accepted the invitation of the Diocese of Okinawa of our Church in Japan,
to become the Priest in charge of All Souls’ Church, Okinawa, the
English-speaking congregation, serving many of the American Episcopalians
present among the military personnel and their family members.
The offerings
of this congregation were given to the Church in two denominations – the
American dollar, intermingled with the Japanese Yen. I believe this still
obtains today. In the years my wife and I were serving there, the value
of the American Dollar had suffered a significant decline and the Japanese
Yen had become more powerful in comparison. This had serious consequences
for the English-speaking congregation, because the offerings received
in American Dollars had to be exchanged for the Japanese Yen in order
to pay the domestic utitlities and other local bills. In addition the
funds that supported this American congregation which had been covering
the cost of the Priest sent from the US National Church since the early
1950’s, was being discontinued in the 1980’s. The congregation
had now to pick up the cost of their Priest, and also to face the declining
value of the American Dollar – a kind of double jeopardy.
During the
prior 30-plus years, this "off-base" military congregation
was provided clergy and financial support from the USA, thus much of
their surplus offerings were given by the English-language congregation
to the fledgling Diocese of Okinawa to support their missionary efforts
of evangelism and pastoral service among the ministries among the people
of Okinawa.
The activities
and offerings familiar to the congregations across the USA among our
Episcopal Churches – of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters brought
as offerings by the children to Sunday School and the Church, and the
coins and paper money that came each year in the boxes of the United
Thank Offering, as well as the weekly, monthly, and annual offerings
of the members and attendees of All Souls’ were loving offerings
to Christ and the Church.
Before we
went to Okinawa, the congregation had already been going through stewardship
education and programs to adjust to and respond positively to these drastic
changing conditions.
The regular
military deployment meant the congregation was facing continual personnel
changes – a turn-over of the congregation at the very least, every
four years. The congregation continues by word of mouth – All Souls’ cannot
officially publicize the existence of the parish within the bases. The
continuation of All Souls’ over the years has been a miracle!
Your delighttful
reference to the "penny" reminded me of American money in our "foreign" language "overseas" congregation.
Please pray regularly for this particular "overseas" ministry!
The Reverend
Timothy Makoto Nakayama
St. Mark's Cathedral, Diocese of Olympia
Seattle, Washington, USA
frtim@yahoo.com
9 October 2006
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