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This page last updated 20 November 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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.

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 13 to 19 November 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.

Marching orders from one Episcopalian in Dallas

If we aspire to be orthodox Anglicans, then we must be orthodox Anglicans.

We need to be worshipping and praying from one Book of Common Prayer, this being a contemporary American/English edition of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, in its theological and doctrinal entirety.

We need to be hearing and reading from one legitimate, authoritative version of the Holy Bible, preferably in contemporary American/English. The English Standard Version with Apocrypha suggests itself.

We need to be singing hymns of faith and great spirituality and beauty, from one Hymnal, this being the 1940 or 1982 Hymnal or some combination of the two.

We need to worship as one, communally pray as one, and sing the worship and praises of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ, as one. This means using one Book of Prayer, one version of the Holy Bible, and one Hymnal.

A major contributing factor in the spiritual, liturgical and organizational anarchy we have now is accepting the notion that "local variations in minor things is ok." We ignored the fact that big things are made up only of many little things. If we compromise on enough little things, then sooner or later the big things fail and the great structure of Anglican Christianity is completely undermined. We opted for anarchy – and now we have anarchy!

We who call ourselves faithful, orthodox Anglicans need now to be about reclaiming and reasserting the foundations of our orthodoxy. Unless we do so, Anglican Christianity—a magnificent expression of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ—will continue to wither away.

We need to be mature about this effort and set aside some of our personal preferences and eccentricities and come together, seeking the greater good of being unified again as true Anglican Christians.

For myself, for too long I went along. Raised Presbyterian, I came to the Episcopal Church in 1960. I worshiped through the Trial Rites and accepted the 1979 prayer book as being far more than it was and is, because its modern language was a relief.

Our faithful Bishops in America need to come together as true pastors of Anglican Christianity in the USA, solidify themselves and begin with a clear and resonant voice to lead us out of this wilderness. They can do so if they will do so.

As we stand again on the foundation stones of Anglican Christianity, the heresies and apostasies that so painfully beset us will dwindle to nothingness.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.

Stanley F. Nelson
Church of the Holy Trinity
Dallas, Texas, USA
stan2345@peoplepc.com
14 November 2006

Questions from Japan

Is it okay for Anglicans to cross themselves? Do you have confession with a priest? Is it necessary to obtain forgiveness of sins? I think I would like to start the process of becoming an Anglican. Is there any way I can do it from Japan, though I don`t have a car and there is no Anglican church nearby. Thank you,

[Name withheld]
Not yet Anglican
Yokohama, JAPAN
19 November 2006

[Ed. note: If any reader would care to assist this potential Anglican in Japan, we'll be glad to forward your email and put this enquirer in touch with you.]

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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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