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This page last updated 25 January 2010
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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.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 18 to 24 January 2010

Like all letters to the editor everywhere, these letters express 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.

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Civilised conversation, vicar by vicar?

I read Catherine’s letters with a great deal of interest and sympathy. I would like to respond with a few suggestions of my own. Perhaps she could consider arranging her life story (and an evaluation of her experiences) in book form to acquaint a wider reading audience about the trials and tribulations she has encountered. People who sit in the pews need to know what and how SSA people think.

Discussion of gay issues or any matter related to them inevitably tends to polarise groups — and the Anglican Church across the Communion has proved no exception. This very confronting issue has a long way to run and won’t be easily resolved by any of us on either side of the Atlantic in the short term.

My second and other suggestion is that maybe it is time for people like Catherine (and me) to organize a group with a very clear mission statement: to inform church congregations about same sex attraction issues with a view to developing a better pastoral response. Maybe there is such a group already? Perhaps the best place to start is to offer to speak with parish councils and vestry meetings. Non-threatening letters to bishops, deans, vicars, rectors and church leaders asking for an appointment to discuss SSA issues might be a more useful way to go than informal confrontations on church property. Many of us are professional people well-versed in meeting procedures and used to addressing meetings regarding sensitive issues in the corporate world.

I also commend Paul Spencer for his good will.

Congratulations to Anglicans Online for being such a great website to visit. It is a veritable treasure trove of information, links etc. It has permitted me to visit diocesan websites around the world throughout this chilly winter which seems to go on forever!

P. S. In the interests of fairness I wish to state that I have been extremely well-received and encouraged in all parishes in which I have been involved both at home and abroad.

Imogen St Clair
Christ Church Cathedral
Oxford, Oxfordshire, UNITED KINGDOM
imogenstclair@gmail.com
18 January 2010

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Earlier letters

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

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