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This page last updated 19 July 2010
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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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.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 5 to 11 July 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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We suspected as much

We in Europe have made very profitable use of the Vacancy Center. None of our clergy are the usual suspects.

Thank you again for all you do.

PS: Yes, we do run an ad in the Church Times as well. One. Which costs GBP 150.00.

Pierre Whalon
Bishop, Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe
Paris, FRANCE
bishop@tec-europe.org
12 July 2010

“Malay is one of the major languages of South East Asia....”

Well indeed. And the ministry of religious affairs in Malaysia recently ordered that churches destroy all Bahasa Melayu Bibles, service books and hymnals that refer to Allah as “Allah.” The courts overturned that decision and it occasioned bombing of churches by Islamist Malays: only Muslims in their view are allowed to call God "God."

(Muslim Malays are, mind you, only slightly better than half of the population of Malaysia).

Malay-speaking Christians had been wondering in that case just what they should call him: one is minded of “Our father who art in heaven, Harold be thy name.” (Is that James Joyce? Or was that "Hail Mary, full of grease, the lard is with thee"? One never knows with irreverent Irish efforts at shocking the faithful: we most of us have a pretty good sense of humour and are quite unshockable, are we not?)

Arabic-speaking Christians are bemused-to-outraged when they hear of it: “Well, excuse me! We were calling Allah ‘Allah’ before Islam was even thought of!”

A broad-minded Saudi friend asks, "Just what god do the Jews worship? (And come to think of it, why do so many Israelis look just like us?)" (Well, Allah, actually,...and think about it....) "Really?! What about the Christians?" (Allah too, in point of fact.) "I am astounded!" (Well, think about it further....)

There is no god but The God, they say, and all very well: we can certainly easily go along with that. But I with greatest respect believe we go them one better: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God...and thy neighbour as thyself."

Mac Robb
Holy Trinity Fortitude Valley
Brisbane, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
mac.robb@gmail.com
12 July 2010

No one Older Need Apply?

It was with more than normal interest that I read about the vacancies in your Vacancies Center. As a priest who is currently employed as a RN, which was my first vocation brought to fruition, I have apparently made the unpardonable sin of working outside the parish for too long now that I feel God's call, quite strongly, I might add, to return to full time priestly ministry. I find this situation more than ironic since we live, thankfully, in a time when the ministry of the laity is taken with all the seriousness that it most certainly deserves. However, it does seem that when a priest takes it perhaps a bit too seriously, doors are closed... no, never opened. The noise is deafening from this side.

What I perceive as an unwillingness to consider seriously someone in my position may be an indication that the emergent church movement is right on target when it says that we simply must stop doing the same old things the same old way. There is a sound piece of advice from the addiction and mental health field in which I work... "If you do the things you've always done, you'll always get the things you've got." Certainly our beloved church is continuing to get more of the same; to wit, fewer disciples in love with Jesus, fewer lives striving for holy discipline who are thus equipped to make a real difference in someone else's life and, if God wills, many other lives, and fewer people who understand the central fact of everyone's existence - that God is love - written in bold and capitalized letters on the Cross.

I do believe that we may have misplaced our emphasis. Priesthood is not a profession among many in competition for status, recognition and expertise, but it is a wonderful vocation that calls forth the best in many, many people who are privileged to preach, teach, counsel, guide, pray and celebrate the sacraments of our redemption for those we are called to serve according to the gifts we have been given. As priests, we are called to assist others in opening up new worlds of truth, meaning, and love in the myriad ways that is possible. As Fr. Robert Hovda put it, we are to be "strong, loving and wise."

Well, it seems that I have said more than I started out to say and have rambled on about something that wasn't directly expressed in your lead article. In any case, thank you for the opportunity. You are always a welcome guest on Sunday night.

Fr. Carlton Kelley
The Episcopal Church
Richmond, Indiana, USA
cfkblh@yahoo.com
13 July 2010

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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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