Dear Chris,

Thank-you kindly for the articles you sent me. It was very enlightening to read Bishop Spong's interview/sermon from Australia. It made me feel very normal, although in truth, I have had absolutely no difficulty in recent times in being comfortable in my decision to leave the R.C. church. The anger and frustration that I felt as a woman and a separated one at that was at its most destructive when I was practising.

Now with the anger left me, I am free to love my sons, extended family, and friends with the emotional health and physical energy that it requires. It makes each day a pleasure to wake up to (no matter how tough it can be at times!).

I continue to be amazed at the people I have come in contact with both in my professional and personal life since the awful "guilt" that I lived with has left me. Having given myself permission to live life again I had thought that the faith that I had so lovingly and desperately clung to had in some way abandoned me just as I had abandoned the Church. Reading Bishop Spong’s words has planted a new seed of thought in my mind. I'm glad that Bishop Spong acknowledges women priests; he's a fair judge as they say over here. What if the God that I loved for so long was just as stifled as I was in that so-called exclusive club we belonged to?  Is there a chance that HE/SHE is allowing me to grow at the speed that I need to? I have always sensed that I don't walk this path alone, for too many times I have been bailed out by the skin of my teeth trying to put Christopher and Phillip through university with a sound outlook in life that will stand to them. So far all the effort has been worth it as I look at their open faces so eager to live in their millennium to the best of their abilities. I am old enough to know that my world is not their world, and still young enough to be "invited in" sometimes when needed or needing to.

Liz