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This page last updated 21 September 2009
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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.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 14 to 20 September 2009

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.

Dear clergyones?

Dear Ones at Anglicans on Line:

I truly value your site because it is honest, positive, and intelligent. I look forward to reading it as I am sure thousands of others do, as well. But,I would like to ask a favor... Would you please not refer to bishops, priests or deacons as "clergypersons?" It seems to me somehow dehumanizing. I realize that "persons" has a long and honorable history in the church but, when coupled with "clergy," it strikes me a bit off the mark.

I realize this is a very small issue particularly in light of all the pressing issues the church is facing. Perhaps you will need to excuse my increasing egocentricity?

Fr. Carlton Kelley
Non parochial
Richmond, Indiana, USA
Carlton.Kelley@FSSA.IN.gov
14 September 2009

(Editor: Thank you for your note and for your kind words. We used the term 'clergypersons' because 'clergymen' was obviously not right in that context, and we couldn't think of any other inclusive term that worked any better. From the greeting of your letter we could derive the term 'clergyones', which we suspect that you also would not like. Should we just call them 'clergy'? If so, then what might have once been the difference between 'clergy' and 'clergymen' back when it was appropriate to say 'clergymen'? By the way, we think of ourselves as 'Anglicans Online'.)

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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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