To the editor

I congratulate you and your team on the variety of reading in the May 2022 edition of Touchstone. I should like to comment on three.

With empathy, I rejoiced in the Spirituality expressed by the Rev. Dr. Mary Caygill.

In these days brought on us by the Covid-19 virus, I attend worship locally by Zoom and throughout NZ online. After reading Rob Ferguson's challenge “Aging Church no need for lament” I took particular note of the predominantly white haired heads in the congregations. My days of serving on the committees of the Parish are over but I encourage those whom we do elect to these positions to consider what maybe a Spirituality for “a smaller, older Church than we once were” (to quote Rob) might be. I believe that now is the time for such consideration.

Then there was the contribution passionately expressed by the President, Rev. Andrew Doubleday.

My following comment may be inadequate, but respond I must.

It is possible that I misunderstood his intention with regard to the statement that healing of souls had been left to “mind doctors … glorified social workers … In my recent experience it was the intervention of a professional counsellor allocated to me under the Primary Mental Health Department who brought me back into connection/communion with God. I suggest that God is very capable of working through whomever God choses.

My 'Aldersgate experiences' have, I suspect, been different in form to those experienced by the President. I believe that my Spirituality is real and valid. I also believe that Methodism has room to embrace both. Thanks be to God!

Heather Kelly, Invercargill