In this issue:

• CONFESSIONAL LETTER TO BISHOP HARRY HACKLE TO FATHER FELIM McALLISTER
• A RESPONSE FROM BISHOP HARRY HACKLE
• SELECTED POETRY
• THE BAIT CASTER'S BLEND
• EXPERIENCE OF A FIRST TIME BAMBOO OWNER
• Websites of Interest
  

THE CHURCHWARDEN is being published a little later than usual this month, but I have a pretty decent excuse which any dyed-in-the-wool fly fisherman should find perfectly acceptable--to wit, the trout are biting. The Scantic River is usually fished out by now, but for some reason that doesn't seem to be the case this year. The trout aren't exactly plentiful, but there are enough to keep things interesting and they are slamming parachute dries rather consistently. This evening I caught six, last Thursday I picked up five. Several other evenings have netted me a surprising amount of success as well. So there you have it, your eccentric editor has been spending his spare time prospecting for trout instead of pounding the keyboard. Procrastination always requires a plausible excuse, and I have a real good one, don't you think?

THE CHURCHWARDEN has risen to a new level of cultural respectability. Poetry fills it pages! Yes, my friends, theological themes, pipe smoking and trout fishing have all been given a unique poetic cast in this edition. So, load up your pipe, pour a shot of that fine single malt Scotch whisky you've been saving for some momentous occasion, sit down and enjoy the most edifying literature you will ever have the pleasure of reading.

The living contributors to the June issue are a motley crew. First there is the Reverend William D. Brown, a neurotic pastor and pipe smoker from Minnesota. He is my best friend, and the guy responsible for my continuous interest in the spiritual writers of every Christian tradition from Catholicism to Calvinism. There is me, the guy once accused of trying to be a radical because I have a periodical tendency to place the Gospel in the same context with fishing and smoking. Reed Monson is a Lutheran, an excellent fly tier, and a man with the audacity to occasionally use a spinning rod in the pursuit of smallmouths. Finally, there is Richard Lovelace, the only sane guy in the whole bunch. Mr. Lovelace is an exceptional evangelical theologian, a fellow fly fisherman, and a grand encouragement to the continuance of THE CHURCHWARDEN. The dead contributors are, well, dead...but they include Horatius Bonar, Isaac Watts and King David.

I almost forgot to mention the infamous letter writer, Father Felim McAllister--the once Catholic, now Episcopal priest. This poor guy thinks he is a figment of my imagination. Pray for him, would you?