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Our Letters page was started in July 2004. All letters that have been sent to us prior to the update of the site will be posted here on our Archive page with the date on which they were published.
November 2006 Issue Despite Threat Of Eviction, Your Prayers Helped DEAR EDITOR: It is difficult for me to put into words all my thoughts and feelings that I would wish to convey, but I would hope between these lines you would understand a little of what is really in my heart. I thank God for the miracle of returning me to life and to an adequate degree of health; and I thank all of you, my dear fellow Anglicans, for being the vehicle through which God worked to bring me to this point of recovery. You know, it is only now that I have had more time to begin to reflect over my entire experience that I have come to appreciate what is meant by a Corporate Anglican Communion; by the Anglican community as a fellowship of believers; and of the positive action and energy which flowed out of good people praying and supporting one another. I cannot fully express how I have felt about the support the bishops, past and present; the clergy; the lay ministers; and parishioners; who, not only came to visit me and pray with me, but who, in separate groups, offered up prayers continuously for my recovery. So overwhelming was the support for me spiritually and physically, that one Sunday when parishioners from [Holy] Trinity [Cathedral] decided to hold their Evensong in the ward at Mt Hope, they were physically threatened of being removed because too many people had assembled at one time around one bed. However, by the time the threat was to be effected, the prayers had already ended successfully. And so, all during the past months, many visitors and friends from several parishes came to add their bit of caring. More than ever, I have realized what is meant by the faith of an Anglican and what action that faith can generate, and what good can come. Healing and recovery are both a physical as well as a spiritual act. I wish to thank publicly the whole Anglican community; all the doctors and nurses of both the Mt Hope and Port-of-Spain General Hospitals; and those who came privately – my family and all of you wonderful members of our Church – for the kindness shown to me in many different ways. May my work now be one in which I, too, may bring to others the faith, hope and assurance of God’s love.
Yours in Christ, THE REVD FATHER TITUS ACKBARALI
SEPTEMBER ISSUE TSTT Core Values Jigsaw Good Model For Us
While waiting to pay my monthly phone bills at the TSTT Office on Wilson Road, in Scarborough, I noticed a framed picture hanging on the wall entitled, “Core Values of TSTT”. The picture in traditional TSTT colours is in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. All the jigsaw pieces except one, each named Openness, Mutual Respect, Team Work, Integrity and Fairness, Empowerment, Customer Caring, Result Orientated, are interlocked in place with one another. But the central value of Love depicted by a jigsaw piece imprinted with a red heart waits to be put in place to hold the whole picture together. We as Christians say that God is Love. We have something to learn from this business model we see on a monthly basis when we go to pay our telephone bill! Yours faithfully, THE REVD DAVID A. HARRISON, Pembroke, Tobago EDITOR’S NOTE: The Revd Dr Harrison has since asked us to note three verses from the readings for July 25 which he feels would be an appropriate reference to his letter. They are verses 12–14 from Chapter 2 of Colossians.
OCTOBER ISSUE Face Storms Of Life With Jesus DEAR EDITOR: Storms are a fact of life. The knowledge of how to weather these storms is critically important, not only such storms as Hurricane Ivan which we faced last September 7, but also the storms of life – serious illnesses; disease; accidents; unemployment; hardships; personal problems; to mention only some. From Jesus and his disciples we learn to weather the storms of life through prayer and faith. These storms we encounter are often what makes or what breaks us. We should, therefore, develop a better understanding of how to face them. Many storms come without much warning, but we were forewarned of Ivan’s impending visit by the Meteorological Office and the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA). At 8 a-m, eastern time on Tuesday September 7, Hurricane Ivan, a Category 3 storm, was about 80 miles east-northeast of our sister isle, Tobago, racing west at 22 miles-per-hour, threatening households, businesses and livestock with it 115mph winds. In preparation for its arrival we were asked to stay indoors and families in Tobago were asked to make use of the shelters provided, to brace themselves, fearing the worst. The winds and the rains came, the sky darkened around us and the visibility of life as we knew it started looking dim as the black clouds surrounded our islands, but we kept our eyes focused on Jesus; we stood strong and were there for each other, as we needed to be in this crisis. In Matthew 7, Jesus says that those who act upon His words "may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock" (Matthew 7:24-25). We certainly acted upon both God and NEMA’s words. Fortunately, even as Ivan ripped through Tobago, the trail of destruction he left behind was minimal compared to what he eventually did to Grenada. It seems we did as the psalmist said in Psalm 50:15 – we called upon God in the day of trouble; and He delivered us. For this we need to be so thankful, remembering, though things may be peaceful in our lives right now, we should be assured that at some time, a storm will hit that God may choose to let us suffer through for some period of time to mature us spiritually and to draw us even closer to Himself. So in all the storms of our lives, let us continue to rely on Jesus to carry us through them, and if it is His will, He will deliver us from them by putting an end to them. This requires our continued faith in Him and His promises. This is what we need to have in the storms of our life. “This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.” (I John 5:4). The strong winds of adversity are only for our benefit. Christine Herbert
DECEMBER ISSUE Nothing Has Changed, So… Let The ‘Prince Of Peace’ Still The Raging Heart Of Our Times It seems like only yesterday, but, here we are at another Christmastide. What has changed? To be honest: nothing. If anything, some things have worsened. Crime certainly has; what with a murder rate in our homeland that crossed 233 at the time of writing. Anger seems to be intensifying. So, too, is people-hatred, especially along the racial divide. HIV/AIDS marches on unabated: not very much to create sense of comfort within the human person. But, it is to this very world that God sent His Son, Jesus, to be for us light and peace. It is only the light of Jesus that can penetrate the gloom and the despair that characterizes life today. It is only the Prince of Peace who can still the raging hearts of our times. I pray that, as a nation, we would all, at this time, spend some moments in quiet reflection on the One whom God sent into the world and that we may be courageous enough to accept His way and enjoy the light and peace He brings. God bless our nation and may you have a very Happy and Holy Christmas. +Calvin Trinidad and Tobago |
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