New Church Life September/October 2016 | Page 15

    honors the Creator and helps others that’s more important than their sexual identity or even their gender.  I loved Bruce Henderson’s focus on love being the only way to overcome hate. That is why I believe in most cases wars have caused more problems than they solved. The only way things will improve in this world is when more and more people embrace the Divine and know that the right way to live is to serve others. Rev. Julie Conaron Willow Grove, Pennsylvania Clarification To The Editors: In response to my letter (May/June New Church Life 2016) it was written that the argument I used is still being touted with no evidence to back it up. My letter was edited and parts were left out. I wrote that, “I am going from my memory,” and this got edited out. This may not be a big thing because after this I wrote, “It seems that I have seen statistics,” not that there were. This sentence was also edited out of my letter: “Perhaps it would be good if someone would look at what I have written and check some of the actual numbers to see if this is true.” I have to admit that right before I sent the letter in someone had mentioned to me either that some more conservative churches that allowed women in the ministry were not losing members or were growing. I did not rewrite my letter to mention this. Maybe I should have. But I thought most churches that have women in the ministry might be losing members. I thought it would be a good idea if someone got interested in checking the statistics to see what the actual numbers are. I made some assertions but there are also a lot of places where I wrote “it seems” and not that “it was” or “there were.” The response to my letter also mentioned that the Catholic Church does not ordain women and is not growing. The Catholic Church is referred to in the Bible as: “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of whoredoms and abominations of the earth.” (Revelation 17:5) The Catholic Church has had a problem with sexually perverted priests and believes that priests should be celibate and that the Pope is infallible. Catholics invoke saints. The Pope should not be looked to for inspiration in the New Church. Edward (Ned) Cole Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 421