Mailbox, Fall 2005

New letters policy, grateful prison pen pals, and chocolate chalices.
By Jane Greer
Fall 2005 8.15.05

One of the advantages of UU World’s new quarterly publishing schedule is that readers will have more time to respond to stories appearing in the latest issue. In the past, we had to hold letters for one issue to give people sufficient time to react. With the new publishing schedule we will be able to print your responses in the next issue. We do ask, however, that you send your letters within five weeks of receiving the magazine. Because of limited space, we can only print letters from the most recent issue.

Another policy change is a request for all letter writers to indicate their UU congregation along with the other information they provide. We are doing this because we expect an increase in letters from a broader audience with the new Web site and would like to give preference to UU writers in the print edition of the magazine.

The combined March/April and May/June issues drew a total of ninety-six letters. The article drawing the most responses, with twenty-six letters, was Jon R. Luoma’s cover story on global warming in the May/June issue. Warren Ross’s story on prison ministry came second with six letters, among them two from incarcerated UUs who testified to the value of the Church of the Larger Fellowship’s pen pal program. Writes Joseph W. Salvatore from Cranston, Rhode Island, “Please continue to help those incarcerated, for so many lives can and will be changed. I know from experience as I am one of them.”

By far the most entertaining lot were the five letters reacting to the Rev. Edward Frost’s withering commentary on the sale of chocolate chalices in the UUA bookstore (Letters, May/June) in which he said that one would be hard-pressed to find Christians eating chocolate crosses. This inspired several readers to write challenging that claim. Foster Bass of Nyack, New York, even included a photo of three chocolate crosses, reporting that the candy’s religious significance totally escaped his 4-year-old son, who said, “Look Daddy! Chocolate Ts!”