Yale University

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Reply to Wally Winter "Reflections on Bill Coffin"

John Hanold

May 25, 2014

Category: Philosophy and Religion > Belief Systems


I spent a year, as part of the Battell Chapel Choir, seated behind the clerics who prayed and preached, and Coffin's "rolling thunder" was a stirring summons to act on one's principles.  Even the liturgy of confession, drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, came alive in his voice: "... spare Thou those who confess their faults, restore Thou those who are penitent ... " if I recall.  Indeed, to be denied peace but given glory was a charge to accept, from a minister to remember.