Church trap for women

Claire Phillips, in her letter of September 15, writes about "... the total exclusion of the feminine ..." I have just been to Mass in a church where over the altar is a large painting of the Assumption of Our Lady. We are taught to learn about God through our Lady. Let's see you back at Mass Claire Phillips!
G. D. Barton
Christchurch, Dorset.
Your correspondence on the roles of the sexes within the Church illustrates vividly the trap in which we women find ourselves. We keep quiet about our treatment, and are told we
obviously don't really mind; or we speak out and are told to stop complaining! But whatever witticisms are bandied about on the subject of "man embracing woman" (and maybe "brethren", as an archaism used exclusively of church congregations, has become unisex by usage) the words 'men', 'sons' and 'brothers' are exclusively masculine in meaning. Ask anyone to draw you a picture of a man or men and see what you get — or took in almost any book o 'Mankind' or 'Early Man and set who the pictures are of. I am not my mother's son. nor my sister's brother; It is as meaningless for me to call myself a "brother of Christ" or a "son of God" as it is to try to "love my fellow-man". When the liturgy requires me to do so, it is telling me as clear as anything: "You do not exist". To point out that feminine pronouns are used for personified ideals and items of property only underlines our case!
It has long been recognised that adaptations in custom have to be made by a European-dominated Church if other races are to identify
with it. Is it too much to ask a maledominated Church to do the same for us?
We are accused of nit-picking; but the Church should not have been allowed to get lousy! What else can we do in the circumstances? If the reforms we ask are such minor matters, surely it would harm no one to grant them?
As the song nearly said: "How many roads must a woman walk down before you stop calling her a man?"
J. E. Howard .Norfclik.
I was simply amazed at the letter from Claire Phillips (September 15) who was driven out of the Mass and out of the Catholic Church by our "Sexist liturgy". Most women don't seem to be unduly perturbed by it. How can it be enough to drive anyone out of the Church?
Anyone who drags a super neurotic feminist obsession along to Mass every Sunday is carrying much too heavy a burden. It would be better to put it down — and then come back to Mass.
A. G. Williams Gloucestershire.