About once a year I usually write a column which consists of nothing but questions [TLC, July 29]. No answers are provided, just questions about various church matters. Invariably, two or three people write the answers to all 40 or so questions and send them to me. Thankfully, that didn't happen this year. Instead, people wrote or called or e-mailed with several answers, or even one. Some of them are worth sharing.

Lots of people responded about whether a 30-minute (or more) sermon is really necessary. Labyrinths and cell phones and the AMiA drew some attention, as did the questions on "open" baptism and Accokeek. Some folks sent in a few questions of their own to be included next time. The strangest remarks were the ones in response to my question whether clergy wore maniples anymore.

A priest from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, long known as an evangelical and low-church stronghold, mentioned that the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, gives maniples to every newly ordained deacon in the diocese. He pointed out that some priests, showing solidarity with the diocesan, have bought maniples. It all seems a bit odd to me, especially why this occurs in a diocese like Pittsburgh.

One wag, a priest from Central Florida, answered three of my questions by saying he preached a 30-minute sermon to the North American Missionary Society while wearing a maniple. For the uninitiated, a maniple is a band, usually of silk, which matches the color of the vestments and is worn on the left wrist by the sacred ministers of the Eucharist. It is believed its origin was as a handkerchief.

As for long sermons, one correspondent was miffed that the question had to be asked. He said the sermons in his church in South Carolina are "always 40-45 minutes" and sometimes longer. He didn't say whether he attends an Episcopal church. An e-mailer who didn't identify her location wondered whether a sermon needed to go longer than 10 minutes, and another cited the fact that at his church an elderly man "lets us know when a sermon goes beyond 15 minutes, because that's when he starts to snore."

I was chewed out by a woman in Minneapolis who said cell phones are a good thing and shouldn't be turned off, because "people like doctors and firefighters and other emergency personnel may be in the congregation and may need to be contacted." She asked how I'd like it if someone died as a result of my hinting that cell phones should be turned off. Another letter writer thought I'd enjoy the fact that someone's cell phone rang to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Prayers of the People.

Announcements during the liturgy were equally distracting to two others, one lay and one ordained, and one rector defended the practice, stating "in a parish like ours, it's absolutely necessary." I do not know what that remark means and I'm certainly not going to guess.

Even a mention of the AMiA or Accokeek will bring negative feedback, such as the reader in the Diocese of Washington who reminded us that it is our duty to report good news, "not tragedies like this one." And another person told us not to bother to tell readers what the AMiA is doing "because those people are no longer Episcopalians."

And on those cheerful notes, I close with a response to my question, "is anything homelier than those tan albs? An acquaintance from the Diocese of Albany said his parish had bought those albs "for all our acolytes to wear," and that the people there "just love them."

David Kalvelage, executive editor