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This page last updated 15 November 2007  

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.

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Letters from 5 to 11 November 2007

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.

Qu'elle est cette odeur agreable?

I read with interest your most wondrous weekly front page that drew a parallel between the 'Perfume and the Memory of War' that a blogger had written about, and 'perfume and the state of the church' that you observed.

Perfume is life. Here in Kannauj (where we also call it attar) we have made perfume for thousands of years; here we grow oakmoss and sugandh mantri and jatamansi and daru haldi, and we import other materials such as juniper berries, kewra, and sandal wood oil from other places. Countless Mugals and kings and wealthy men have sought out our perfumes, our attars, to use for offerings, ceremonies, and the ordinary pleasure of life. Our ancestors had been making perfume for thousands of years before Jesus was born, and still use the same formula.

I was intrigued by your suggestion that Jacques Guerlain's Djedi was the perfume that best symbolizes the Anglican church. It was sold in a green box that looked like a Hindu tomb, but upon opening that tomb, the cut-glass bottle inside radiated life risen from the tomb. The perfume in that bottle was more ambivalent, smelling of life, death, and then resurrection before drying down.

We had a bottle of Djedi here when I was a boy. My grandfather brought it back from London once. It's long gone. My father tried to copy it, but never succeeded in cracking its mysteries. I haven't smelled Djedi in decades, but I will never forget the unearthly progression of its vapours. Djedi has always for me been the Christian perfume, life passing through death to resurrection, so I was very pleased to read that you thought it would make a good symbol for the Anglican communion.

I found your publication by accident in a search engine, but I am intrigued and have made a bookmark of it. Grace upon you.

Manoj Harlalka
St Thomas, Church of South India
Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA
11 November 2007

(Ed. note: Thank you for this most interesting response to our Djedi letter. To link the scent to the Christian life makes this magical fragrance even more heart-rending.)

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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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