27th October 2002
TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Hippocratic medicine marked one of the great turning points in the history of man. For the first time in our tradition there was a complete separation between curing and killing... Throughout the primitive world the doctor and the sorcerer tended to be the same person....He with the power to kill would necessarily also be able to cure..... to Hippocratic physicians, the circumstances of a person's life were irrelevant. Whether the patient was a slave, a foreigner, a disabled infant, or the emperor, all were viewed as equals in the physician's dedication to healing and sustaining life.... If this moral centre collapses, if physicians become killers or are merely licensed to kill, the profession, and therewith each physician, will never again be worthy of trust and respect as a healer, comforter and protector of life in all its frailty." Margaret Mead
PRAYER OF THE WEEK
O Lord give me strength to refrain from the unkind silence that is born of hardness of heart; the unkind silence that clouds the serenity of understanding and is the enemy of peace. Give me strength to be the first to tender the healing word and the renewal of friendship, that the bonds of amity and the flow of charity and love may be strengthened for the good of my fellows and the furthering of your eternal, loving purpose.
WHAT IS LIFE
Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another. Isaac Pennington
OUT OF THE MOUTHS
A salesman telephoned a household, and a four year old boy answered. The conversation went as follows:
Salesman: "May I speak to your mother?"
Boy: "No, she's not here."
Salesman:: "Well, is anyone else there?"
Boy: "My sister."
Salesman: "OK, fine. May I speak to her?"
Boy: "I guess so." (At this point there is a very long silence on the phone. Then:
Boy: "Hello?"
Salesman: "It's you. I thought you were going to find your sister."
Boy: "I did. The trouble is, I can't get her out of the playpen."
BY CANDLELIGHT
Fr Andrew Neaum
The following comments and reflections arise from a question popped into the Question Box in St John's Narthex: Do each of the candles in the Sanctuary have a special significance.....?
Candles, to my mind, are very, very beautiful and their light is among the softest and loveliest of all lights, fragile, flickering, warm and gentle. In previous generations they had a happy association with bees and honey as well as with tallow, this last not so sweet in its associations, of course, tallow being animal fat, but the word "tallow" is a lovely sounding word for all that, and animal fat, in the hard days of yore, was treasured not despised as it is today. Functional and symbolic use
The use of candles in Christian worship, to begin with, was probably entirely functional. In the early church vigil services were held on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and so light was needed and candles and oil lamps provided it. Like with so much in the church, functional use soon led into symbolic and ornamental use. A good example of this tendency is to be noticed on my cassock, which is the long black garment I often wear about the Church. Most cassocks have a row of buttons down the front, and over the years the number of these buttons has been granted a symbolic significance. There are thirty three of them to signify the probable number of the years of our Lord's life. Or, for those of a more Protestant disposition, thirty nine for the Thirty Nine Articles. In the 20th century, however, an ornamental significance came to be added to the symbolic significance. Underneath all those buttons on my cassock, there resides a highly efficient zip which has taken away from the buttons their function of holding the two sides of the cassock together. The buttons remain, however, because not only are they symbolic, they also look good.
Something similar has happened with candles. At first purely functional they began to be invested with symbolic and ornamental significance. However, the Church has always had its quota of wowsers and killjoys and so even way back then there were those who deplored the "unnecessary" use of candles and lamps in daylight. Tertullian (about AD 200), for example, inveighs against "the useless lighting of lamps at noonday", possibly because this was associated with pagan worship. However, protests were in vain and by the 4th century both lamps and candles were very much a part of normal worship in the Church.
Symbolic meanings
Much of the symbolism with which candles are invested is fairly obvious. For example, it is very easy to see that the flame of a candle can well signify the Holy Spirit in the form with which he descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Candles are also symbols of God's presence in the manner of the Burning Bush to Moses, or the Pillar of Flame to the Israelites. They also symbolize, especially those on the altar, our Lord as the Light of the World, like him, dying to give their light. A rather less obvious but beautiful meaning attached to candles in general when used in worship is that wax symbolizes Our Lord's body, born of the Virgin Mary, the wick his soul and the flame his divinity, thus setting forth the mystery of the Incarnation. St Jerome says of candles that: "apart from honouring the relics of martyrs, it is the custom, through all the Churches of the East, that when the gospels are to be read, lights are kindled, though the sun is already shining, not, indeed, to dispel darkness, but to exhibit a token of joy . . . and that, under the figure of bodily light, that light may be set forth of which we read in the psalter 'thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths'"
It was not until the 12th century that it began to become customary for candles to be placed upon the altar itself and it was only in the 13th century that it became important for a parish clerk, or an assistant minister, to hold up a lighted torch or candle at the elevation of the Host. It eventually grew to be accepted that there be six candles on the altar at high mass and seven when a bishop sang such a mass. Some of the clergy in this diocese pop an extra candle on the altar whenever the bishop celebrates, but I can see little symbolic or utilitarian justification for this and so don't bother.
At the time of the Reformation there was a great turning away from medieval liturgical practice, for reasons both good and bad. Many Protestant churches did away with candles altogether, after the manner of the early Church's killjoys and wowsers. In the Church of England in the nineteenth century there was considerable litigation and dispute as to the legality of the use of lights or candles at the Eucharist, but since the Restoration under Charles II there is continuous evidence for their use, and some English cathedrals and greater churches possess altar candlesticks belonging to the seventeenth century. However, in many of the Anglican churches in the very protestant diocese of Sydney there are no candles to be seen anywhere even today.
The Paschal Candle
The great Paschal Candle originates very early in the history of the Church and fully to appreciate all of its rich symbolism, which points towards the triumph of Resurrection over the darkness of death and sin, demands one's presence at the wonderful Easter Eve Vigil. That service begins with the lighting of the new fire outside the church, in the dark, then there is a procession into the dark church behind the great lit candle and everyone's own little candle is lit. This is one of the most richly symbolic and moving moments in the whole liturgical year. Interestingly, in late English Medieval rites monstrous Paschal candles were displayed, in Salisbury one thirty six feet high, in Westminster Abbey one that weighed three hundredweight (740kilograms)!
At last an answer
Finally, to answer directly the question that prompted these reflections (Do each of the candles in the Sanctuary have a special significance....) No! Each candle does not have a special significance peculiar to itself, only one does. If you note carefully how our servers light the candles in the sanctuary, you will observe that the candle on the St John's altar's south side is extinguished first and lit last. This is because it is the "Gospel candle", having assumed a symbolic preeminence that it has retained, although now, unlike in days gone by, we do not generally read the Gospel from that side of the altar anymore.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations and thanks to the St John's Catering Team who brilliantly organised and delivered a sumptuous array of foods to the hundreds at the School for Seniors Celebr-ation, a positive day of festivities. M Andrews
IMPORTANT DATES
Nov 20th Pastoral Care Committee Meeting
Nov 27th Pastoral Care Meeting
Nov 30th Concert & Book Launch Wangaratta
Dec 15th Children's Church and Nativity Play
Dec 21st Carol Service
Feb 7th Meeting Place Opening and Dinner
Feb 9th Meeting Place Opening Service
DUTIES up to & including 3rd November
Cleaning & Tea Team 5
Vestry Dave Gillard
Mowing Jim Hislop
Narthex Rosemary Cadman
Linen Jean Taylor
Welcome Table Betty Caldow, Sarah Joy Haddad
Door Joan Redman, Gail Watson, Elaine Coombe
Readers Gaye Petzke, Jenny Schubert, Sylvia Gillard
Euch Assistant Margaret Andrews, Wilma Drummond
Intercessor Celebrant
Servers Jess, Ryan, Travis, Tabitha, Howard, Angela
FOR PRAYER
The Sick
Ed Baumgarten, Maimee Haines, Joyce Hall, Julie Howe, Audrey Kennedy, Robert Jones, Gail Mahney, Anja Mosse, Janet Murray, Peter Nugent, Christopher Pearson, Thora Pyke, Val Saunders, Grant Savage, Ray Schmidt, Jack Skilton, Mellissa Walsch, William, John Willoughby.
Anniversary of Death:
Albert Board, Desmond Sutcliffe 28th, Granville Lawrence 29th , Claude Street, Violet Clarke, Merle Pilkington, Vera Barry Kenneth Benson 30th, Walter Cottrell 31st, Jean Elkington, Bradley Waite 1st, Elsie Butler 2nd.
BARBECUE NEXT SUNDAY
Weather permitting there is a BBQ next Sunday at the Lookout off Whytes Road
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 28th October St Simon & St Jude
Fr Andrew's Day off
7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's
5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's
Tuesday 29th October
7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's
9.00am Pastoral Care Meeting - Parish Office
9.30am Clergy Hospital Visits
5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's
Wednesday 30th October
7.15am Mattins only - Emmanuel
9/00am Christian Meditation - Narthex
10.00am Eucharist - St John's
11.00am Eucharist - Vermont Court
5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's
7.30pm Baranduda School Meeting - Narthex
Thursday 31st October
7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's
11.00am Eucharist - Westlands
1.30pm Eucharist - Osburn Lodge
3.30pm Children for Christ - Narthex
5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's
7.30pm Choir Practice - St John's
Friday 1st November All Saints Day
Fr Ellis' Day off
7.15am Mattins & Trad Rite Eucharist - St John's
5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's
7.30pm Scottish Country Dancing - Narthex
Saturday 2nd November All Soul's Day
7.45am Mattins & Requiem for the Departed- St John's
4.00pm Wedding - Towonga
5.30pm Evening Prayer - St John's
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist - St John's
27th October 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
7.30am Said Eucharist - St John's
9.00am Eucharist - Emmanuel
9.30am Sung Eucharist - St John's
12.00 Parish Barbecue - Lookout , Whytes Road
11.00am Eucharist - Talgarno
7.00pm Evening Prayer (said) - St John's