6
LETTERS AND TWEETS
Letters
and tweets
Time for a rebrand?
Judge not
As a Methodist local preacher, I do
wonder if in our contemporary world
‘preaching’ it is a term we should still be
using? To the world outside of church
‘preaching’ and ‘sermon’ have very
negative connotations. Has anyone any
suggestions for alternatives? And what
about the title of this magazine?
Christine Gibson, Billeticay
After time as a circuit minister,
followed by nine years as a
school chaplain and 15 years as a
headmaster, I was elected by the
100 members of Guernsey’s States
of Election to sit in judgement for
12 years as a jurat of our Royal
Court. This permanent and elected
jury determines not only the verdict
in criminal trials, but also the
appropriate sentences to be applied.
A challenge to square this with Jesus’
instruction ‘Thou shalt not judge’.
Jurat Revd Peter Lane, Guernsey
Comfort and affliction
Revd Jeff Walker wrote in the Spring
edition of Preach (letters, page 7) about
whether a sermon should comfort or
challenge. In my early days of preaching,
in the 1960s, I read somewhere that
‘sermons should comfort the afflicted
and afflict the comfortable’. It is a
principle that I have used as a basis for
my sermons ever since.
Tony Service, North Yorkshire
Another pulpit fan
A particular thank you to Preach
for more articles about preparing
and delivering sermons and use of
a pulpit. I am mentoring a young
woman at present and she is
delighted with advice offered on this
subject. So am I because it confirms
everything I advise too! Pulpit use
is not approved of by some of our
ministers, although all our older
preachers are rebels in this matter!
Cynthia Tudor, via email
Happy to be a man
I hope that in centuries to come, I
don’t have to don a white sheet and
return to haunt anyone who quotes
me but writes ‘sic’ after any of my
carefully chosen words. To save
Messrs Barth and Sangster (‘The late
greats’, Preach, Summer 2016) the
trouble of doing so, let me take up this
issue on their behalf.
For a start, ‘sic’ should be reserved
for malapropisms or obviously wrong
grammar and spelling. This was not
the case with Barth and Sangster