Re Back Cover, March
If the back cover is meant as a joke or as an imaginative description of a typical inner city church, it is in extremely bad taste. The person who authorized its inclusion has no legitimate place on the staff of a reputable Christian magazine. If it were true, it would surely hasten the demise of a discouraged congregation.
Illustrating the statement is a picture of St. Andrew’s King Street, Toronto. The damage done to that church by juxtaposing this statement and this picture may well be irreparable. Yet, the statement is simply not true.
I have been a Christian since the age of 11. I am now a senior citizen. Throughout the intervening years, I have regularly attended church. For the past seven years I have been a member of St. Andrew’s.
It is one of the most vibrant and forward-looking congregations in which I have ever been a participant. Jesus Christ is faithfully preached and we are consistently called to examine and profess our calling in him in our daily lives. We are reminded that we are being built up within the congregation to reach outside the congregation. God is clearly blessing us as seen both in our own spiritual growth and in the numbers of neighbours who come to investigate and stay to join with us.
Of course we are not perfect and never will be in this life. But we are consciously “reaching toward the mark” and would value the support and not the thoughtless denigration of our denominational magazine.
The editor replies:
We apologize to the congregation of St. Andrew’s for this embarrassing error. It was not our intention to pair the provocative quotation intended to nudge conversation with a photograph of St. Andrew’s. But we managed it regardless. Please see Pop Christianity for a reflection on how this error occurred.
