Sir, - When the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, she held a handkerchief to her nose as she drove through the streets of London. Her sister Queen Mary, keen to restore the country to Catholicism, had advocated the stake as a deterrent to those who disagreed, and the smell of burning human flesh still caused a pall to hang over the city.
Recognising that at the heart of the Protestant/Catholic discourse was whether Communion was to be taken in remembrance of Jesus Christ or was to be a new sacrificial act each time, Queen Elizabeth apparently wrote this poem that some say helped heal the tormented land:
"His were the hands that brake it,
His were the words that spake it,
And whatever that so doth make it,
I do believe and take it."
Why can't all Christians who believe that Jesus died for our sins simply do the same? Why must we add man-made rules which only serve to divide us and cause pain to the One who made the sacrifice in the first place? - Yours, etc.,
Susan Philips, Ballinacoola, Glenealy, Co Wicklow.