Letters from 7 March
to 13 April 2008
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to the editor everywhere, these letters are the opinions of the writers
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Prayerful
penning
Thank
you for the thought-provoking piece on prayerfully leaving
your house. Your comment in the article that, 'writing prayers
is hard' is
a reminder to all of us who regularly write prayers that we must
acknowledge the difficulty of the task and must give it our fullest
attention. 'Writing
prayers prayerfully’ is my way of describing
this task to those who undertake the task of writing prayers for
public worship in school chapel or parish church.
I
have copied your ‘house leaving prayer’ just in case
I am, or someone to whom I minister is, ever in need of it. I hope
you will not mind others using it.
I am one
of those who logs on to the Anglicans Online site every Monday
(it is usually lunchtime here in the Antipodes when the new week’s
material appears) and I am usually nourished by your words and often
more than nourished. Bless you all and may Christ enable to keep up
the good work for many years to come!
Father Richard
Murray
Chaplain, Overnewton Anglican Community College, Keilor
Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
7 April 2008
Moving on
I've
just read your front page, on moving. I can trace our
own story through yours. We have just spent the southern-hemisphere
summer watching and helping builders renovate. Your words
resonated!
So, too,
did the words of the New Zealand prayer book, and your use of
night prayer for your farewell blessing. That prayer is one of
the precious contributions that folks who crafted the prayer book
made. There, at the doorway, it worked.
Blessings
and joy in your new home.
Nancy Barnard
Starr
Anglican Church in New Zealand
Auckland , NEW ZEALAND (when not in the mountains)
rev.nancy@xtra.co.nz
10 April 2008
'Here we
have no continuing city'
On being
homeless for a short time, you have to take what G-d sends. This
has been my view over the years. I had to move from one place
to another in my travels. I am glad to have a roof over a bed
that is dry and warm and not like the outside of the tent at 2.43
am one Easter night on Mt Baw Baw. Cold — it was freezing!
But even that was from G-d.
Of course,
I'm lucky, I have Gypsy ancestry, so being away from home is not
the end of the world. We should make everywhere we go 'home' just
as we make every place we worship the Church. One of the most
comfortable nights I ever spent was in 1973 on the floor of a
church hall in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In 1997 a balcony
on Spy Hill, Cobh, Ireland became a place of prayer and thus a
Church.
Your
'House Leaving' prayer said it all, please make it official. Someone
has to write prayers in the first place! Well done on the Darfur
photo as an aide-memoire!
Peace and
Health to all at AO.
Steve Duke
Melbourne,Victoria, AUSTRALIA
redman.duke@gmail.com
10 April 2008
We didn't
publish Romanizing germs
Thank you
for publishing the 19th-century evangelical tract "Are there Romanizing
germs in the Prayer Book?" After reading all those tortured arguments
about how the church had changed since the Reformation, lost its
way, and become too this or that, I found myself answering the
tract's final question, "Men and Brethren, What Shall We Do?" with "Don't
Let the Door Hit Your Backside on the Way Out."
It was
obvious that those evangelicals, sincere in their beliefs, could
not in good conscience move forward with the Episcopal Church.
So they left, and the church survived — an instructive lesson
for our own times. That the work also ironically affirms the catholicity
of the Episcopal Church is just icing on the cake.
Clay O'Dell
Washington, DC, USA
7 April 2008
(Ed.
note: We didn't publish the tract, we linked to it.)
Er, we don't
Does anyone
know of a good Anglican chat room?
Bill Tegner
St Mary's, New Ross, IRELAND
billtegner@eircom.net
8 April 2008
(Ed.
note: Please note you can write Mr Tegner directly, if you have suggestions.)
Earlier letters
We launched our 'Letters
to AO' section on 11 May 2003. All published letters are in our
archives.
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