Letters, 2.
Dear Colin,
Before I start proper, I thought I should perhaps apologise for being overly harsh in my last email; I said that I knew about 300,000,000 more words than you, actually though, to be fair, it's probably only about 250,000,000. So sorry to have maligned you.
To continue; I was wondering if you could tell me exactly why you and the admin team seem to think that a congregant wanting to celebrate Christmas by worshipping on Christmas Day is so strange? After all, thanks to the Romans, who were already celebrating Mithras Day, we celebrate Christ's birthday on the 25th of December, do we not? Why is actually opening the church on said morning such an odd concept to you? What really bothers me about the episode is that several of us offered to run a worship gathering ourselves and we were denied the chance to do so. I am wondering whether you are actually trying to bring people into our church or get rid of them. If indeed you are attempting the latter, may I say what an absolutely stunning mastermind of a plan it is that you have. You say that you discussed the issue with the "admin" and the Worship and Music elder. Well, since the "admin" have now returned from their thrice annual, seemingly interminable trips back home, I am sure they will be able to provide me with a sensible answer since you seemed to find it difficult. As for the Worship and Music elder having taken part in this discussion, since he is in attendance at weekly worship about as often as I am absent, which is to say hardly ever, I have to tell you that I find that fact oddly uncomforting.
Secondly, you kindly let me know that you hope if a congregant has an issue that you hope they would raise it in a constructive way. Well, perhaps someone could explain exactly how one is supposed to do that? Granted, I could have written you a 70 page epistle of epic poetry to convey my point, but frankly since only Ms Fuller would have truly appreciated it and she has gone right down in my estimation of late, I did not really see the point and in any case, I did not have the time. Also short of emailing the admin team, I wonder what it is you are expecting us to do? If you consistently ignore polite emails, you can hardly be surprised when they become terse now, can you?
Lastly, you generously informed me that threats to leave the church are unhelpful, I would never have guessed. But for the record, I did not threaten to leave the church; I pointed out that if forced to attend St Albans, there might be those of us who did not return. This is called sarcasm, the English use it a lot. The fact that Americans are not, as a rule well versed in its use, can hardly be considered my fault, you should have worked out by now that you work at Tokyo UNION church, not the American church in Tokyo. It is up to you to understand and appreciate other cultures, I know all I need to know about yours, having been bombarded with it through the media practically since birth.
Until my next missive,
Yours etc etc
Terri
Before I start proper, I thought I should perhaps apologise for being overly harsh in my last email; I said that I knew about 300,000,000 more words than you, actually though, to be fair, it's probably only about 250,000,000. So sorry to have maligned you.
To continue; I was wondering if you could tell me exactly why you and the admin team seem to think that a congregant wanting to celebrate Christmas by worshipping on Christmas Day is so strange? After all, thanks to the Romans, who were already celebrating Mithras Day, we celebrate Christ's birthday on the 25th of December, do we not? Why is actually opening the church on said morning such an odd concept to you? What really bothers me about the episode is that several of us offered to run a worship gathering ourselves and we were denied the chance to do so. I am wondering whether you are actually trying to bring people into our church or get rid of them. If indeed you are attempting the latter, may I say what an absolutely stunning mastermind of a plan it is that you have. You say that you discussed the issue with the "admin" and the Worship and Music elder. Well, since the "admin" have now returned from their thrice annual, seemingly interminable trips back home, I am sure they will be able to provide me with a sensible answer since you seemed to find it difficult. As for the Worship and Music elder having taken part in this discussion, since he is in attendance at weekly worship about as often as I am absent, which is to say hardly ever, I have to tell you that I find that fact oddly uncomforting.
Secondly, you kindly let me know that you hope if a congregant has an issue that you hope they would raise it in a constructive way. Well, perhaps someone could explain exactly how one is supposed to do that? Granted, I could have written you a 70 page epistle of epic poetry to convey my point, but frankly since only Ms Fuller would have truly appreciated it and she has gone right down in my estimation of late, I did not really see the point and in any case, I did not have the time. Also short of emailing the admin team, I wonder what it is you are expecting us to do? If you consistently ignore polite emails, you can hardly be surprised when they become terse now, can you?
Lastly, you generously informed me that threats to leave the church are unhelpful, I would never have guessed. But for the record, I did not threaten to leave the church; I pointed out that if forced to attend St Albans, there might be those of us who did not return. This is called sarcasm, the English use it a lot. The fact that Americans are not, as a rule well versed in its use, can hardly be considered my fault, you should have worked out by now that you work at Tokyo UNION church, not the American church in Tokyo. It is up to you to understand and appreciate other cultures, I know all I need to know about yours, having been bombarded with it through the media practically since birth.
Until my next missive,
Yours etc etc
Terri
Labels: Letters to Boy Wonder, TUC
posted by OrientBird | 10:14 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home