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Letters from 17 to 23 September 2007

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Shaken, not stirred

On the subject of parish names that delight and confound....
Many years ago in Toronto there were two United Church congregations, one called Bond Street United and the other dedicated to St. James. As the years went by, the congregations experienced decline and a decision was made to merge, the chosen name?

St. James - Bond United Church. I kid you not. The congregation was a strong, socially active parish for many years, recently they voted to close and to use their real eastate assets to build social housing.

It has to be one of the best of the odd parish names.

David Robinson
Synod Office
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
17 September 2007

God hates shrimp

At this time, when Anglican "traditionalists" are demanding Anglicans be more obedient to scripture, writer A.J. Jacobs tells (Newsweek) of his new book detailing his experience observing every rule in the bible for one year.

Rev. Peter H. Christiansen
South San Franciso, California, USA
smi2le@sbcglobal.net
22 September 2007

Perfect love casts out fear, not intelligence

Anger causes blood to boil, creating a red mist that obscures vision. Fear causes blood to freeze, creating ice that prevents movement. Resentment corrodes structures of the heart, replacing compassion and mercy with lack; an emptiness demanding to be filled.

Peter Akinola and his followers have converted layers of resentment – resentment over difference, and resentment of the challenges and difficulties of raising children – into fear and active anger. Heterosexual Anglicans have been persuaded to feel fear and anger that are justified neither by selective readings of Holy Scripture nor by appeals to “natural law” or, worse, metaphors equating same-sex persons with “animals”.

The pity is that those who have followed this power obsessed, homophobic bigot into reaction do not understand the costs of seeking to achieve “revenge” against different “Others.” It is really true that perfect love casts out fear – fear; not intelligence nor the ability to discern. This requires trust in God, not in idols of one’s own imagining.

Having stood in places where human beings were slaughtered in the name of “ethnic purity” I would add only this: long after the bodies have been buried or burn, one can smell the stench.

Davd H Fisher
St. James Cathedral
Naperville, Illinois, USA
dhfisher@noctrl.edu
22 September 2007

Earlier letters

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