I was interested to read the articles in the January 2005 issue of the Presbyterian Record that were dedicated to problems confronted by people and ministers in the rural areas. At Melita Presbyterian Church we especially appreciated the article, A Cow Is Calving…Thy Kingdom Come written by our own minister, Rev. Barb Alston. Ranchers In Crisis also accurately portrays the problems facing farmers. I hope articles like these will help communicate to the urban population the crisis that rural people and churches are facing. Please continue to publish articles from rural communities.

Re. the sexual assault charge reported in the March issue, I have two questions:

It was most inappropriate for the Presbyterian Record to write an article about allegations against Glenview's Senior Minister, Dr. Robert Fourney (March, 2005). Very successful changes to our governance structure under his leadership were completed in May, 2003. This information could have been very helpful to other churches, but the Record didn't print it until October, 2004. The Record was very quick to publish the current article — before Dr. Fourney had any opportunity to clear his name.

There is a God in heaven! With three children in university and a late start into the pension plan, it was such an unexpected boon for my future! When it was reported to my congregation that the management team at 50 Wynford had all now received a significant boost in salary (or stipend), they near unanimously decided that I was as valuable to them as anyone at church offices, and should receive equal compensation, and boosted my stipend to match theirs! Regrettably the only way such an increase could be made was by a reduction [BIG] in the congregation's accepted Presbyterian Sharing allocation.

May I please vent a little and make a few suggestions about our Presbyterian denomination.

It is reassuring to glean from the January Record that the financial health of the denomination is now in the capable hands of a born (and canny?) Scot by name of Margaret Bucknole. But if she has not already reported the error, please note that her birthplace was FraserBURGH not FraserBOROUGH — known locally in Buchan as "The Broch". As a Macduff loon, born twenty-five miles west of Margaret, I congratulate her on her appointment and wish her well in implementing the proverb that "Mony a mickle maks a muckle"!

For those of us not fortunate enough to have the Western Wood-Pewee singing it's Lenten and spring song in our woods, we love our first sighting of that round ball of fur on the snow, which indicates the ground hog has declared spring. I am sure you thought you were being funny, but I object to your juvenile, derogatory remarks in the first paragraph of your First Signs of Spring in February's Record. Punxsutawney Phil and Wiarton Willie bring pleasure to a great many Canadians who also don't have Wood-Peewes or even Robins to look at.

Thank you David Webber for your column in the February Record. As it happens, I was struggling to find a way of getting at the theme of Lent and Ash Wednesday, and your thoughts came along at precisely the right time.

Thank you for the article and for the pictures concerning the artistic work of Kirk Dunn.

Re.: Suicide in the Crystal Cathedral, February

Loved the Phil Callaway article in February. Falling on your knees is a great way to get through teenagers. It has worked for me. The Lord has now given us two hard working sons-in-law and a beautiful grandaughter. Phil's article is so true!

I was very disappointed that the cartoon in the February issue would be put in a Christian publication. Do you honestly think it is funny to hit someone over the head with a baseball bat? That is anything but humorous. Recently a crime was committed causing death by exactly the same thing. Please use more discretion in future. Christians don't purposely hurt others, and then laugh it off. Not the Christians I know anyhow.

Re: January's edtiorial Child Poverty Truly Threatens The Family.

A recent news story reported that the Vatican is so concerned about attacks upon Christianity that it has appealed to the United Nations organization for some form of protection for Christianity. "The Vatican is pressing the United Nations to recognize 'Christianophobia' as an evil equal to that of anti-Semitism or 'Islamophobia.'"

You finally have been successful at my house.

I just read Andrew Faiz's article in the January Presbyterian Record on moral issues and the Christian Right.

After the recent U.S. election, there were some serious doubts regarding some of the counting methods. Michael Coren refers to it as "the game of democracy". Surely he jests. He says "the very nature of free speech and political expression was challenged". Exactly my impression of his writing. Does he really believe that the Canadian Democrats lost? What did they lose? He also criticizes the quote "half of the United States wants to be like Canada, the other half like Iran". But that is jumping on a statement written by a fool. "In Canada", he says, "this is accepted as intelligent analysis". To use his statement, I've never seen such flummery and nonsense in my life. "A toxin of ignorance and bitterness flowed into the media bloodstream and poisoned the body politic."

My blood was boiling after reading Michael Coren's sanctimonious column The Secular Left Blames The Christian Right. We are either in agreement with the platform of U.S. conservatives (which seems to be God's side) or, if we don't agree with that philosophy, we are part of the secular left, and are totally out of sync with God's teachings and are intolerant to boot.

I read Ty Ragan's article in the December Record with interest. I too have faced the challenge of how to open up the doors and chip away at the mortar of our churches so that young people can fit in. Here's my suggestion for Ty: treat yourself to a copy of the Book of Forms for Valentine's Day (get the "romancing the laity" edition). You're worth it! Then read the handy guide to how our church tries to get things done from cover to cover; learn to love it. Embrace this peculiar Presbyterian passion even if the dour prose makes your tattooed flesh crawl. As daunting (perhaps ludicrous) as it may sound, your long-term task is to clear a path for some of these multi-pierced, hell-bound, hormone-driven, not-necessarily-all-that-reformed whippersnappers about whom you write to one day get onto the Board of Managers (or the Session) in your church. Then they'll be given the keys to the church and they can open the doors personally. In my experience, you have to take the first step toward the "institutional" church — it won't come knocking on your wi-fi laptop at Starbucks. Of course, this will take time and a lot of running back and forth between coffee shops and big stone buildings. A decade or more of perspiration may be required before you see any results. But I'm sure you didn't become a leader in this whole Jesus thing expecting to beam anyone on board. Let this be your mantra: "By 2015 there will be at least one member of my church's Board of Managers with a tattoo." John Calvin took a similar approach in Geneva and look where that got us.

I was shocked, disappointed, stunned, angry (lots of feelings) when I read the last three letters in the December issue of the Record — grouped and entitled "Readers Support PWS&D". I too support PWS&D through prayers, the mission work which I do at our church, sometimes through direct donations when there is a special appeal. However, I do not seem to share the feelings of the letter writers who deemed the insert from World Vision to be "inappropriate, insulting, horrifying, and very disappointing". WOW — so now mission and the sharing of the tremendous wealth of the first world, is only appropriate if carried out through PWS&D? How insulting to our denomination! How narrow minded and parochial!