HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest 

EASTER A.D. 2003

KOFI ANNAN, Secretary General of the United Nations, has been much in the public eye of late.  Smithsonian magazine carried a feature story on him; AARP's magazine carried an interview; PBS aired a special about him earlier this year.    Secretary Annan is from Ghana, and Ghanians are readers of THE ANGLICAN DIGEST and beneficiaries of Operation Pass Along.

    On a side wall of the office in the Twin Barns, pre-sided over by Cathy Fetty, our efficient and amiable secretary (whose voice you most often hear when you call SPEAK), are blow- ups of several TAD covers and above them is a stole/banner which reads GREETINGS FROM GHANA.  It is a gift from St. Cecilia's Anglican Church in Accra -- sort of a reverse pass along.

    In 2002 we sent 1,104 books, 253 audio tapes, fourteen vestment items, and five videocassettes to churches and individuals in Ghana.  All told, 3,615 books, 591 vestment items, 416 audio tapes, and nine videocassettes were sent to Third World countries during 2002.

    Statistics are one thing.  Quite another are the letters and prayers and benedictions that come to Hillspeak in response to the books and other items we send overseas.  There is no formal job description for the Trustees' Warden; fortunately by happenstance it includes overseeing Operation Pass Along.  The correspondence that has developed (an arch-deacon in Africa addresses me as "Grandpa"; the daughter of a priest in the Philippines invites me to her wedding; the daughter of a priest in India writes about her father's death and thanks me for the little we have done for him) makes whatever chore there might be in receiving, listing, shelving, and then selecting and sending items to these countries a very easy task indeed.