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Letters from 23 to 29 November 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.

Calendars, Christ the King, and synchronicity

Sunday Next before Advent it may have been, or as posted in our neck of the woods, Christ the King Sunday. As for Advent, I personally have fond memories of "doing" an Advent calendar, though it wasn't called that in our house, good Presbyterians that my folks were. It was a "Christmas" calendar, a piece of large red felt, that had a Christmas tree of green felt glued on, with 24 pockets on the bottom which held small ornaments to decorate the tree. I believe there was sometimes (not always) a mint or candy of some sort in the pocket. We'd pin the ornament du jour on the tree to decorate it a bit more each day.

Here's something that may have slipped under your radar, and I wouldn't have thought much of it if I hadn't seen this key phrase in your essay about Advent calendars: "They teach us gently how to be surprised by joy; . . ."

That last Sunday in Ordinary time was also the 46th anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis, the last bit of your phrase being the title of one of my favorite books he wrote. (Also, the same anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a martyr, of sorts, in his own right.) Not a glaring omission, but we overlooked them both in our spoken prayers for the dead yesterday as well. I missed them myself until I got home and was thumbing through one of Lewis's books and remembered.

R. Frederick
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
Panama City, Florida, USA
23 November 2009

Letters about our front-page letter

We asked two weekS AGO for your thoughts about our decades-long tradition of a front-page letter and its worth in a world of tweets. Many of you took the time to write and tell us to carry on. Below you'll find two late comers. Thanks to all for writing and giving our front-page letter a thumbs-up. We'll continue, God willing, as long as we're able!

From Owerri, NIGERIA

Dear Sir,

Please, please, please, do not even think of scrapping the front page essay. I read it every Monday morning, and for me it's a week starting tonic. If you do scrap it ... I'll ... SUE!!

Obi Udeariry
St. Andrew's, Aladinma, Owerri
Owerri, NIGERIA
netwalker55@yahoo.es
23 November 2009

From Missouri, USA

I enjoy your weekly "mega-tweets" - They help me realize that I am not alone in being liturgically sensitive, in love with the Church (universal and Anglican), and what seems to be thought of as very old-fashioned. they help me remember that there is room for "tradition" even as it becomes part of new traditions.

Christine Gilson
Trinity Church
Missouri, USA
23 November 2009

Earlier letters

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