Your recent editorial … mentioned a radical departure taken by the most recent General Assembly in its vote that ordination candidates no longer will need to be able to read Biblical Hebrew or Greek. According to the newly approved approach, "The demonstration of a working knowledge or Hebrew and/or Greek will no longer be required in order to complete the examination successfully" and a "faithful interpretation" rather than "the principal meaning" will now be sufficient.

Now that the Biblical exegesis ordination examination will no longer require knowledge of the original languages, many seminary students who go on to serve congregations may not even study Hebrew or Greek. It is a serious loss to the people we seek to serve when our clergy cannot read, study, and teach the Bible in its original languages.

For centuries we have prided ourselves in the Reformed tradition on being "people of the Book," but now perhaps we should refer to ourselves as "people of the paraphrase" or "people of the Cliffs Notes."

Nelle McCorkle Bordeaux

Savannah, Ga.