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In the hot midsummer

I am just thinking about what is going to happen next Sunday, January 5. I think (in anticipation ) we will be keeping Epiphany

I have been listening to the wonderful Annie Lennox Carols, deeply confronting interpretations. Certainly as I think about the gifts we bring, I always draw back to Christina Rossetti. There is a certain irony about this "In the bleak midwinter" but here in South Australia, it is warm, colourful and beautiful 29 C, and indeed summer! This is of course not Christina Rossetti's point. It is is a very great poem. Deceptive because of the simplicity; very profound.

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ

What can I give him poor as I am (I am crying as I write this)
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb!

if I were a wise man I would play my part
but what can can I give him
give him my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDLvClhSQ8

Think this next Sunday's sermon!

Stephen Clark
Coromandel Valley Parish, South Australia
Adelaide, SOUTH AUSTRALIA (definitely NOT bleak midwinter)
coro35@tpg.com.au
30 December 2013

'How different, how very different, from the home life of our own dear Queen!'*

I'm sure most persons in the world of whatever relgious persuasion could find the address attributed to the Queen to be a salutary one. But a bit painfully, I must ask whether a) Anyone thinks the Queen actually wrote it, and b) Anyone thinks it's based on any semblance of reality existing in the Royal Household.

I'm sorry, but can anyone of a sensible mind recommend the Royal Family as a beacon of hope in the world? Does anyone hold the idea that this Family represents the kinds of behavior we would like to imitate and adopt for ourselves and our children? I don't think so, and perhaps you don't, either.

So, Good Heavens, if not Good God, perhaps AO could lessen its gusto about a Queen who, while perhaps a good person, is hanging on for dear life in fear of whichever of her spawn might succeed her.

No one presumes to know, but my guess is that after QEII, it's all over. Or as we say in Argentina (it rhymes, "Chau for Now".

Peter Winterble
Don't I Wish
Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
peter@winterble.com
30 December 2013

'One man's uplift is another man's sentimental hooey'**

Your Christmas editorial strikes me as sentimental. Get a grip!

Hugh Valentine
CofE
ENGLAND
31 December 2013

 

* Anonymous c.1892 Overheard from a member of the audience when Sarah Bernhardt appeared in the role of Cleopatra
** Josh Radnor

Earlier letters

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