SECOND SUNDAY after PENTECOST (11)
13th June 2004
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
New Scientist argues that chimps and humans sharing 98.4 per cent of genes is not the point. "Genomes are not recipes. A creature that shares 98.4 per cent of DNA with humans is not 98.4 per cent human any more than a fish that shares, say, 40 per cent is 40 per cent human." It adds that language that allows thinking about thinking should be the test of similarity to humans. "If a creature does not possess this capacity - and there is no evidence that chimps and the like do - it is hard to see how it would be able to modify its behaviour and act as a true ethical and moral agent."
The ever present phenomenon ceases to exist for our senses. It was a city dweller, or a prisoner, or a blind man suddenly given his sight, who first noted natural beauty. Remy de Gourmont
A PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
A prayer written by an unknown prisoner in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp and left by the body of a dead child......O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering -- our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgement let all the fruits which we have borne be their forgiveness.
IN MEMORY OF A BLACKSMITH
My Sledge and Hammer lie Reclined,
My Bellows too have lost their Wind.
My Fire is out, and Forge decayed,
And in the Dust my Vice is laid.
RECOLLECTION
An elephant was drinking from the Murray River when he noticed a turtle asleep on a log. He ambled over and kicked it clear across the river. "What did you do that for?" asked a passing wombat. "Because I recognised it as the same turtle that took a nip out of my trunk fifty three years ago." "What a memory," said the wombat. "Yes," said the elephant, "turtle recall."
WORSHIP AND APPLAUSE
Fr Andrew Neaum
Many years ago a fellow who was studying theology with me told me that one of the reasons he had swapped Methodism for Anglicanism was because he had walked in to an Anglican service one day and seen them all kneeling. "Good grief," he thought, "these people must take God seriously."
Transport of delight
Anglicans have developed over the years, I think, a genius for worship, though that genius today is little appreciated by the hoi polloi, especially the young, who demand to be entertained, and for whom bowing the knee to anything, except perhaps themselves in a mirror, is abhorrent. Choral Evensong in a great Cathedral is one of life's most fulfilling experiences, in that it transports a worshipper, takes him out of himself, focussing him on God. A sung Eucharist in a High Anglican Church, the sanctuary wreathed and enveloped in smoke, the servers and choir perfect, is also an out-of-bodying experience. The old rite Eucharist on a week-day, in a beautiful little country church with only one or two worshippers present, birds calling and cattle lowing outside, likewise transports the heart to heaven.
Kill-joy
Last Sunday, at the 10.30am Eucharist, I had the temerity to express displeasure at applause for choral items by our visiting Sudanese choir. It was charitably suggested to me afterwards, that to do so was "stuffy", "kill-joy" and "old-fashioned", though in expressing my displeasure I had given my reason for being less than enamoured by applause for acts of worship. Namely, that such acts of worship are offered to God on behalf of the congregation, not to the congregation, and so it is God's not the congregation's prerogative to applaud!
Indeed , I don't think I have ever been stuffy or kill-joy in church. Humour and lightness can creatively coincide with solemnity and seriousness of purpose, and often does in our worship. Dullness and stuffiness I abhor. The amount of trouble taken in preparation for our worship is enormous. The intercessions are not dragged from some book, they are composed, the sermons likewise are labours of love, sometimes the result of hours of cogitation, the liturgical matter in the pew sheet doesn't simply appear there effortlessly, it is gathered, garnered, put there with diligent effort in order to aid worship so that even if we are deaf, or if a particular reader makes a hash of a reading, we can follow the lesson. Even the hymns are judiciously picked, usually after much consideration. Why? Because we honour and love God and so cannot allow ourselves to be ham-fisted, ill-prepared, maundering, meandering, long-winded, vapid, ad hoc, wise-cracking or stupid at worship.
Paying God his worth
The point of the exercise, though, is worship. That is, "paying God his worth", honouring him, expressing our love of him as we obey his command to break the bread and bless the wine in "remembrance" of his great sacrifice of love. We are certainly not at worship to be entertained! We are there to join in and offer our worship, sometimes with our own voices, sometimes vicariously, that is, through the voices and actions of others, be it the priest's, the choir's or the reader's. It is God we are focussed on. The priest is not a performer, he is a representative, our representative, our voice, likewise the choir, the servers, the readers. We don't applaud them, we applaud God. If you began to applaud my sermons, not only might it swell my already large enough head, far worse, it would tempt me to preach for applause instead of "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit".
Confusion
We are much more confused than we used to be about to whom exactly we are talking in church. In the bad old liturgical days, which were not such bad old days in many ways, it was far clearer. When the priest faced the people he was talking to them. When he turned his back on them to face the altar with them, he was talking to God, on their behalf. A simple little matter of orientation made all clear. Nowadays, listen carefully to the intercessions, not in St Augustine's, but when on holiday elsewhere. As often as not you will notice that the intercessor has no clear idea of to whom he is talking, sometimes it seems to be to the people and sometimes to God. Even when at the altar the priest, not least because facing the people, seems more focussed on them than on God, though in fact he is supposed to be addressing God. How annoying for God! We've all experienced this in conversation, someone speaking to us with only a quarter of his attention, his eye on someone whom he considers to be more important a little further off!
Appropriate applause
There is method, thought and good sense behind what we do in church. There are times when applause is appropriate. For example I sometimes invite applause when worship is suspended and we are about some other business, such as during the notices last Sunday and we thanked with applause our visiting choir, as at baptism services when I hand out the certificates and so on. I don't personally much like clapping during hymn singing, but I cannot reasonably complain about this, if it is a heartfelt part of the offering of worship on an individual's part. Applauding "performers" is an altogether different matter, however. It goes against everything that worship is about. It suggests that we are before an auditorium rather than an altar, are an audience, not a congregation, are focussed upon the goodness of human beings rather than upon God's, are worshipping human artistry and genius instead of God and his.
WHY BELIEVE
The following extracts from C S Lewis' children's book, "The Silver Chair" is one of the most stirring illustrations of why we believe and of the good sense in doing so. The two children, Jill and Eustace, with Prince Rilian and Puddleglum the marshwiggle, are imprisoned in the sunless Underland by the Queen of that place who is, of course, a witch. She asserts, until the weary brains of the children very nearly assent to the assertion, that "there is no other world but mine". She accepts the existence of her little lamp, but she laughs to scorn the idea that there is such a thing as the sun. She believes that there are cats, but she mocks at their belief in lions. Aslan, a lion, is a representation of Christ.
You have seen lamps, and so you imagined a bigger and better lamp and called it the sun. You've seen cats, and now you want a bigger and better cat, and it's called a lion. Well, ‘tis a pretty make believe, though, to say truth, it would suit you all better if you were younger. And look how you can put nothing in your make-believe world without copying it from the real world, this world of mine, which is the only world. But.....put away these childish tricks. I have work for you all in the real world. There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan.....
It does not take much perception to see in the witch's speech the pure distillation of modern secular belief. Versions of the speech are heard every day on the lips not only of atheist philosophers, but also of modern churchmen, politicians, and public benefactors of all kinds who seem convinced that this world is the only world. Equally, we can be sure that Lewis speaks through Puddleglum, the pessimistic, rather gloomy marshwiggle, when he makes his heroic reply to the witch:
"One word, Ma'am," he said, coming back from the fire, limping because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always likes to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side, even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, and if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland."
Anyone who has not read Lewis' "Narnia" children's books has a treat waiting for them. The above commentary on a passage from one of them is largely pinched from somewhere in my reading. I can't acknowledge from where because I have forgotten - so it is attributed to "Anon"AN
KNEELING
I like the idea of kneeling before God and am astonished that people should want to stand during the most solemn and momentous of the prayers during the liturgy, "The Great Thanksgiving", that is "The Prayer of Consecration". However, what is good about our worship these days is that posture is not prescribed. We adopt the one with which we are most comfortable. I came across the following passage in Ronald Blythe's lovely book "The Circling Year"
When did hassocks go out and kneelers come in? Hassocks came in all heights and were often amazingly heavy. Saintly folk with creaking joints lugged them into their pews by their furry ears. They tended to smell like small animals and were stuffed so tight with straw that a lifetime's prayer barely dented them. But now - kneelers. Embroidered works of art, and no two alike. Kneeling has a chequered history. In our three churches we are all genuflectentes (‘those who kneel') and are not standers or crouchers. I am often touched by the way in which young and old seem to fall into Tudor attitudes at the altar-rail. It was not always so. George Herbert had to teach his Bemerton flock to kneel and Jane Austen's brother was known as ‘the officer who knelt in church' - being the only one to do so. Before hassocks went out and kneelers came in, I used to balance on a coconut-matting stool which marked me with small ridges. Now we sink in heraldry, botany, into Auriol and Pip's masterpieces.
Christ, Stephen, Peter and Paul, each kneel down but once in the New Testament, the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, Stephen in the stoning-pit, Peter before raising Dorcas the needlewoman from the dead, and Paul before setting out to Jerusalem, where he thought he would be killed. So at the beginning kneeling was when one was in extremis, in danger, in acceptance of God's will.
The liturgy allows us - or demands of us - an interesting variety of kneeling. ‘All kneeling', ‘still kneeling', ‘kneeling humbly', ‘meekly kneeling', etc. Down we go on to a million fine stitches and the inspiration of the Royal School of Needlework. A few folk cling to their family hassocks and the cosy whiff of mice. In one sanctuary I kneel on marble and it is not unpleasant.
PEACE
Peace comes not by establishing a calm outward setting so much as by inwardly surrendering to whatever the setting. Hubert van Zeller
WORSHIP, EATING AND STUDY
Beginning in July, on Wednesday evenings, we intend to begin a series of Studies that would begin with an act of worship, of one sort or another, go on to a meal together and then to read and discuss a booklet called "This Is Our Faith". Anyone interested should sign up on the list in the Narthex.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Eileen Quaife who celebrates her birthday on Tuesday the 15th June.
EVENING GUILD GARAGE SALE
The monthly Meeting of the Guild is on June 17th. Please note the early start at 1pm, which is followed by the setting-up of the Garage Sale
A WA RALLY
The speaker at the AWA Rally on Wednesday is Canon Ray Cleary, the head of Anglicare Victoria. The day begins with Morning Tea at 10.30am and includes lunch. The cost is $6. Anyone interested should have a word with Margaret Neaum or Carole Henderson today.
GOOD MUSIC
English Cathedral Music from the Melbourne Chorale Ensemble in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Wangaratta on June 20th at 3pm. See the notice board for more details
CONFIRMATION
Anyone interested in preparation for Confirmation this year should have a word with the Rector. Those being prepared are required to attend a relaxed weekly discussion session as well as church each week. To facilitate church attendance we will soon be putting on a Saturday night Vigil Eucharist at 6.00pm which will include Sunday's readings and sermon, but no music.
IMPORTANT DATES
June 15th Afternoon Guild 2pm
June 15th Playgroup 10am
June 16th A.W.A. Annual Rally/Luncheon
June 16th Vestry 7.30
June 17th Evening Guild 1 pm
Jun 18 - 19th Evening Guild Garage Sale
Jun 20th Ecumenical Service Dookie
Jun 21st Prayer Support First Meeting
Jun 26th Wedding
June 27th Baptism
Sept 11th Wedding
Sept 17 -18th Synod
Oct 3rd St Francistide Pet Blessing
Oct 16th Wedding 3.00pm
Oct 23rd Wedding 3.00pm
Nov 6th Wedding 3.30pm
Nov 13th Wedding 2.30pm
Nov 13th Parish Fair
Nov 21st Bishop's Visit
Nov 27th Wedding 1.30pm
Dec 18th Wedding 1.30pm
DUTIES FOR THE 13th June 2004
Readers 8.30 Norm Weaver,Jeanette Smith
Readers 10.30 Andrea Fisher, Joan McCann
Servers 8,30 Michelle, Stephen Debbie
Servers 10.30 Zebedee, Tiana
Euc. Assts 8.30 Carole Henderson, Heather Fitzgerald
Euc. Assts 10.30 B Condon substitute, Maureen Cormican
Intercessors Heather Carlyon, Children
Welcoming 8.30 Pat Griffin, Edna Wilson
Welcomers 10.30 John Pleming, Jennifer Pleming
Sidespeople 8.30 Trevor Batey,Victoria Heenan
Sidespeople 10.30 Alan Akers, Adrian Evans
Tea 8.30 Bev Reither
Mowing nil
DUTIES FOR THE 20th June 2004
Readers 8.30 Heather Pearson, Frank Harder
Readers 10.30 Lionel Waterson, Maureen Cormican
Servers 8,30 Beth, Kate, James
Servers 10.30 Joan McCann, Jennifer Pleming
Euch. Assists 8.30 John Griffin, Carole Henderson
Euch. Assists 10.30 Bev Condon, Maureen Cormican
Intercessors Pat Griffin, Jennifer Pleming
Welcoming 8.30 Eileen Quaife, Jeanette Berry
Welcomers 10.30 Jill Waterson, Nola Brewer
Sidespeople 8.30 Bob Galt, Joe Pearson
Sidespeople 10.30 Charlotte Brewer, Nola Brewer
Tea 8.30 Shirley Dean
Mowing Norm Mitchelmore, Lawrie Tinning
VESTRY MEETING
There is a Vestry Meeting at 7.30pm on Wednesday.
FOR PRAYER
Liam Bognar, Ashely Close, Neil Feldtman, Richard Goodfellow, David Green, Iris Grant, Ron Hall, Jean Hastie, Thelma Irwin, Fr Wayne Ireland, Millee Jeffery, Marie Law, Joyce Maloney, Betty Mercer, Ann Mills, Marj Millerick, Margaret Noble, Richard Pearson, Ray Prosser, Margaret Robinson, Rodger Saville, Peter and Eva Swindells, May Wallace, Brian Ward, Malcolm Waterson, Glenda, Graham, Geoff, Jenny & Daryl, Elizabeth, Faith, Michael, Ruby.
Anniversary of Death
Len Robertson, Ella Davis 13th, Aubrey Goodfellow 18th, Ken McRae 19th.
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday June 14th Queens Birthday holiday
(Fr Andrew's day off)
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Tuesday June 15th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Wednesday June 16th
7.45am Mattins - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am A.W.A. Rally/Luncheon
11.00am Banksia Lodge
4.00pm Patronage Board Yarrawonga - Wangaratta
1.30pm Hakea Lodge
7.30pm Vestry
Thursday June 17th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
1.00pm Evening Guild
5.30pm Evening Prayer
7.30pm Choir Practice
Friday June 18th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
11am Ave Maria
10am-4pm Garage Sale
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Saturday June 19th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
9am-12 Garage Sale
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Sunday June 20th
8.00am Mattins - Lady Chapel
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
9.00am Ecumenical Service St Luke's Dookie
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.45am Eucharist - St Mary's Katandra
5.30pm Ecumenical Service - Dookie