Anglicans Online
 News
 Resources
 Basics
 Worldwide Anglicanism    Anglican Dioceses and Parishes
Home News Centre A to Z Start Here The Anglican Communion Africa Australia Canada England
New this Week News Archives Events Anglicans Believe... In Full Communion Europe Ireland Japan New Zealand
Awards, Staff Newspapers Online B The Prayer Book Not in the Communion Scotland USA Wales World
Search Official Publications B The Bible B B B B B
This page last updated 24 December 2007
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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.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 Canadian 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 10 to 16 December 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.

Jam on podcasts?

You write of the prospect of an Anglican children's periodical: "it's probably best for it to be the sort of thing modern-day children could fold, roll, carry and smudge with jam" You think it would fare better than do the weekly children's bulletin inserts and the weekly Sunday School leaflets which many parishes spend considerable money on, but which largely end up on the floor of the nave or the parish hall? :-)

Seriously, are you at all familiar with the multitude of published Christian formation materials (electronic and paper) that are in use in our parishes, which may not be 'periodicals' but which do attempt to help form and educate children in our tradition? It would be interesting to know what, if any,'secular' paper periodicals children read these days. It would also be interesting to know what the state of children's religious education was in 1853, how and where it happened, facilitated by whom, and what printed matter supported it. What other recreational materials and activities were available to children in those days — and which of them were permitted on the Sabbath? In other words, how much 'competition' did The Standard Bearer have for children's time and interest?

While the essentials of the Anglican faith may not have changed much from 1853 to 2008 ( contra the now-schismatic Bishop of San Joaquin) I think the way children spend their time and interact with the Church has. Any publication, in any format, seeking to reach them needs to take that into account. And nowadays even children are accustomed to being content creators as well as content consumers. For older youth and adults, at least in middle class America, podcasts seem to be one of the most popular formats for periodic commentary pieces, along with blogs.

Gillian Barr
St Paul's Cathedral, San Diego
Del Mar, California, USA
10 December 2007

Avatars instead of Augustine?

Loved your article on Second Life. I agree with the premise that in the modern age, new means of reaching people and propagating the Gospel should be tried, but virtual communities? One might as well have written letters to the unconverted tribes in the nineteenth century instead of sending out missionaries.

We all know John 3 v 16, but are we all familiar with 1st John 3 v 16, which says we should be ready to give our lives for fellow believers as Jesus gave His for us. How can you give your life for someone you have not even seen?

Obi Udeariry
St. Andrews Church, Aladinma, Owerri
Owerri, Imo State, NIGERIA
netwalker55@yahoo.es
11 December 2007

Horizontal rule
Earlier letters

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

Top


This web site is independent. It is not official in any way. Our editorial staff is private and unaffiliated. Please contact ao-editor@anglicansonline.org about information on this page. ©2007 Society of Archbishop Justus