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 We usually do not publish letters written in response to other letters.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.

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.

The Post Office will remain open

Excellent article last week, an example of how the new media age, out of the telegraph, works for good. Well written, as always, and inspiring. Thank you.

As to your occasional malaise over no letters, or only letters not fit to print, causing a rethink on having the letters option, I hope that this option will always be here. It's part of how we communicate, and even not communicating or badly communicating is valuable. Again, thank you all.

Lois Keen
Grace Episcopal, Norwalk
Norwalk, Connecticut, USA
17 October 2011

Man of Harlech

I am prepared to overlook your gaffe in referring to the ABC as an Englishman (although I'm sure Mr. Mugabe would resent a Welshman dressing him down as much as he'd resent an Englishman doing it), because you told a good news story about the beleaguered Archbishop.

Dr. Williams has come in for a lot of flak during his archepiscopacy and much of it comes from parts of the Communion which believe that he is not addressing their personal bete noires in a timely, amidst prognostications from doomsayers who, unfairly in my opinion, hold him responsible for the fractures in the Communion. My sense is that it is largely due to Archbishop Williams' expert stick-handling (that's a Canadian expression meaning finesse and diplomacy) that the Communion remains intact and that the fissures have not widened into crevasses!

Dr. Williams' courage — let's not underestimate that!— in making the trip to Zimbabwe shows him to be a man of conviction, commitment and profound faith, and shows up Konunga for being the complete opposite. At the risk of inciting further uproar, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Konunga is not alone among too many 'leaders' of the Anglican Church in other parts of the world, men who have personal agendas that conflict with the Anglican ethos and with the mandate of Christ.

Thank you, Archbishop Williams and thank you, Anglicans Online, for bringing us this important news.

Rene Jamieson
St. John's Cathedral
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA
17 October 2011

Times two

Good article, thoughtful, on African politics and the church. However, even with an informative footnote explaining why you call Rowan Williams, a Welshman, English, it's a bit like calling a Kiwi an Aussie. Not on. Wales, for that matter, is surely not the same as England in rugby, our other religion here in the antipodes!

Nancy+
Anglican Church in New Zealand
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
19 October 2011

(Editor: In press interviews in African newspapers during September, Nolbert Kunonga frequently referred to Rowan Williams as 'an Englishman' or 'a homosexual Englishman'. This is probably because for many decades, Robert Mugabe's bête noire has been "The English". We assumed that Mr Kunonga and Mr Mugabe were in sufficiently close contact that they shared the same misconception.)

Earlier letters

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