Word: clergyman
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...believe that the original version of that poem, in the Religion article "What to Call the Preacher?" [Nov. 30], is from a novel about an Episcopal clergyman entitled The Chain. I recall its verses as follows...
Laymen who feel uneasy in the presence of a Protestant clergyman feel particularly uneasy when it comes time to introduce him, capture his attention, or ask him to pass the gravy. Says Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the Lutheran Church in America: "They often say to me, 'What should I call you?' And I answer right back, 'Why, call me Mister.' But they never think that term is quite adequate, and if anything, they become even more embarrassed...
...safe, nondenominational way to be wrong is to call a churchman "reverend" -which is an adjective rather than a noun, and is likely to bring a shudder from even the kindliest clergyman when used as a title in direct address. "Calling a minister 'reverend,'" says the Right Rev. John Boyd Bentley of the Protestant Episcopal National Council, "is like meeting Churchill and saying, 'Good morning, honorable.' " The plain-talking Presbyterians of New Mexico's Rio Grande Presbytery (33 congregations from Tucumcari to Las Cruces) recently resolved "that all members, friends and enemies of the Presbytery...
...resolution went on to contend that it is ''blasphemous and idolatrous" to apply the word reverend to a clergyman even when it is used grammatically, as in the common form of indirect address or written reference: "The Reverend John Smith." Most churchmen would disagree...
...next five years, they may not leave their homes from dusk to dawn; four of them may not go out even during the day. None may receive callers, except a doctor or clergyman. Those permitted to leave their homes during the day must report regularly to police. It was enough to make South Africans wonder, said Johannesburg's Sunday Times, "whether they live in a civilized country or a land of nightmarish fantasy...