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Letters from 28 January to 3 February 2008

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.

Crisis? Pressing political issues? Yawn.

I teach a church school class for middle school and high school people at our church. Five people were present Sunday. Three of the five are in honors class, 3 seniors, a sophomoe and a freshman. All of them sing in the adult choir and play or sing in solos or ensembles at church and at school. This Sunday we talked about the church. I asked them what if any differences were there between our parish and churches they might visit and ours. I also asked them what they liked about the Episcopal Church and what frustrated them. Their answers reflected little knowledge of our current strife. The main difference they observed was in preaching. They loved the Episcopal Church because it was open, accepting and liberal. I was quite surprised when I asked if anything frustrated them, they had no reply. I love the internet for the information I can gather, but sometimes it magnifies our difficulties.

Judy Fleener
St. Paul's Muskegon
New Era Michigan.
jfleener@charter.net
28 January 2008

Gone missing

Having discovered that his martyrdom brought about his canonization by acclamation of the people of his time and that today (Wednesday) is his "day," we celebrated the life of King Charles at our morning Eucharist.

I read with great interest the material on the Society of King Charles I Martyr site and used much of it in our service to educate our congregation about Charles.

In the "Liturgical Manual Sample" reference is made to another king who was canonized "neither by tradition nor by Rome." I have tried to find out who this was. My first thought was Edward the Confessor but I could not verify that – he appeared to have been canonized by Rome, at least he is recognized by Rome as a saint.

I tried to contact the society but the address seems to be invalid so I'm writing to you and hoping that someone will have the answer for me.

Sonia Stevenson
Good Shepherd, Acton, MA
Carlisle, MA USA
soniagoodshephrd@aol.com
31 January 2008

(Ed: The Diocese of London 'Person Information' for Fr Card-Reynolds lists a newer email address, and also a telephone number.)

Pike's pique

Question: Who was the Bishop that served the dioceses in central California (SanFrancisco bay area and Grace Cathed)ral)sometime in the 50s--60s and who perished in an Israel desert trying to relive the 40 days and nights ordeal.

William A. Hamilton
St. Michael/San Miguel
Newberg, Oregon.
4 February 2008

(Ed: We believe that you must be asking about Bishop James Albert Pike, Fifth Bishop of California. While his story does not match your quest exactly, he is the only US Episcopal bishop to have died in the desert in Israel.)

Earlier letters

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