Letters
New words for old
Sir: I have only just seen your 'Notebook' article (30 October) about Hymns for Today's Church of which I am the Words Editor. May I make three points? First, the `silly season' fuss about the National An- them most certainly did not bring us `universal contempt'. I have had a great many letters, telephone calls and com- ments, full of praise, chiefly from life-long Conservatives.
Secondly, whether you like it or not, modern Bibles and liturgies sell like hot cakes. The 'Good News' Bible is outselling every other translation and has reached 2 million in Britain (14 million round the world) while the Alternative Service Book has sold three-quarters of a million. I am delighted that you should link our hymn book to them — it is a great compliment!
Your innuendoes about 'sexism' and `blackness' are well off target. The average Libber would gleefully call me an MCP (some have) because I refused to go to idiot extremes. In my Preface I said that `moderation seems the wisest course' (sure- ly a very Anglican attitude?) and that we should not carry it to 'the point of fatuity'. As to 'blackness', it is never linked with sin, death, or hell in the Bible (the only colour- coding there is sin and scarlet), so why should we hurt people — many who wor- ship with us — by fostering a colour-linked prejudice? What is sinister about that?
Lastly, could you get it into your head that we are not trendy, radical, Marxist, unilateralist pacifists? My friends howl with laughter at the very idea that I am some kind of bogey-man held over good Tory children to make them go to sleep at nights. It is plain fact that I have voted consistently (if often reluctantly) for your lot for 30 years.
Revd Michael Saward
Ealing Vicarage, 11 Church Place, London W5
Previous page
