I was disappointed to read the Viewpoint articles by Bishop David Reed and the Rev. Seamus Doyle regarding the Blessed Sacrament and the questionable use of bread and wine.

These are another attempt by "New Age" mentality to de-sanctify one of the last remaining items sacred to Anglican worship and common use. Both of these clergy expound scripture and documents of Vatican II, but nowhere do they address the importance of the Anglican Communion, historically and theologically, having restored the communion in both kinds to the laity. It was the beauty and wisdom of the Anglican understanding of the importance and sacramental focus of an "outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace" that made sense out of all of the old arguments, of communion practice and theology, by Rome and the Reformation. Must we now give this up as well?

It was the gift of God's grace and the focus of bread and wine that brought me to the Episcopal Church. I have watched this age of blossoming secular religion, the so-called personal rights of every majority and minority cause and issue, the destruction of the importance of "orders" for both men and women and now this, erode the fabric of our church. These two articles are the penultimate examples of the "deceiver" working in the leadership of the church.

(The Rev.) Keith A. Gentry

St. James' Church

Columbus, Ohio