2nd of Easter 18 April 2004

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

18^th April 2004

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Princess Diana used to claim that her favourite poem was “Ye Wearie Wayfarer” by Adam Lindsay Gordon, four lines of this harmonial Victorian rubbish go as follows:

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone.

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.

For fun, Kingsley (Amis) had recently rewritten “Ye Wearie Wayfarer”, imbuing it with something of the spirit of the times:

Life is mainly grief and labour.

Two things get you through.

Chortling when it hits your neighbour,

Whingeing when it's you.

Martin Amis “Experience”

SOME OF LIFE’S

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Can atheists get insurance against acts of God?

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they make it stick to the pan?

When it rains, why don’t sheep shrink?

After eating, do amphibians have to wait an hour to get out of the water?

Why is “abbreviation” such a long word?

How do “Don’t Walk on the Grass” signs get there?

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

Why do they lock petrol station toilets? Are they afraid someone will clean them?

What keeps glue from sticking to the inside of the bottle?

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

How can you tell when you run out of invisible ink?

What’s the speed of dark?

Despite the cost of living, why does living remain so popular?

THIS AND THAT

Fr Andrew

Holy Week and Easter Day are over and I immersed myself in them with joy. They proved the culmination of a good Lent for me. One of the minor Lenten disciplines I undertook was to stop eating between meals. Like all good disciplines it needs now to be made permanent, not least because it added immeasurably to my enjoyment of meals. The ultimate aim of fasting is positive, not negative, is to enhance rather than to deny. Delight in what is good is height-ened by depriving oneself of it temporarily. Giving up what is bad during Lent is not at all the point. We should be striving to give up what is bad throughout the year and all the time. During Lent we give up what is good to show not only that we are serious about our Faith and God, but also to enhance our appreciation of God’s good gifts to us. In a society as affluent as ours, in which the titillation of jaded appetites by more and more food and cooking programs on television has reached the point of absurdity, and in which obesity is not only a problem to health professionals and sufferers, but actually assaults us all aesthetically as we walk about our city, the Christian and indeed religious tradition of fasting appears more and more attractive and wholesome and should not be limited to Lent or Ramadan. One of the great ironies that has fascinated me for years is that the ancient Epicureans, whose philosophy made Pleasure to be the whole point and purpose of existence, were noted for the austerity of their lives. Eating simply and little, living far from the lime light and cultivating lives of unutterable simplicity, they proved that although happiness, pleasure and enjoyment are usually pursued by striving to attain all we want and desire, namely riches, love, possessions, praise, honour, security and so on, that in fact this approach never works. The more we get, the more we want. It is a hopeless quest and there is as much if not more happiness among the poor as there is among the rich. If pleasure, enjoyment and happiness are to be achievable goals, then the best path is not to indulge our desires and wants, but to curb them. So they cultivated an extreme simplicity of life. In our disgustingly affluent society, where alleluias are now burps, saints tacky celebrities, and heaven is to be interviewed by “Parkie”, the Epicureans, although atheistic, can call us back to a Christian simplicity of life that Lent reminds us of and to which the Beatitudes commend us.

The crux

I awoke on Easter Monday feeling foul after a night with a headache. It was a sort of bilious attack, the result, I suppose, of tiredness, too much sweet and rich food and a bit, but only a bit, of wine. Lent really had been abstemious. The Holy Week services are draining but also exhilarating for a parish priest. The Maundy Thursday Eucharist that commemorates the Last Supper, incorporates a “footwashing” and culminates in the procession to the unutterably beautiful Altar of Repose, followed by the altar stripping, which went well this year, though we did have difficulty with the turning off of the lights as someone had interfered with the switches after they had been set! The Good Friday service went flawlessly, with proper Veneration of the Cross, it began with that most moving expression of desolation, a silent procession and full prostration. My talk was an interpretation of Jesus’ Passion that portrays him as expecting God’s intervention and the inauguration of the Kingdom before he dies, and so builds up to a cry of dereliction that is most emphatically derelict, “My God my God, why have you, (i.e. even you) forsaken me”. All this propounded not as a theory, but told as narrative, the story as if from the mind of Christ himself. It is dependent upon an understanding of the Incarnation as so complete that our Lord is unaware of his divinity, pace St John’s Gospel. Good Friday always horrifies me by its poor attendance. The day that marks the literal crux of our Faith is ignored even by apparently devout Christians. This was so at Wodonga, but more so here in Shepparton with a mere seventy five or seventy six folk present.

Saturday night

At the Saturday night service, which started at eleven in the evening, our numbers were good, not least because swollen by our Macedonian friends. It also went off without a hitch and with plenty of incense, beginning, as usual with the fire outside and the dramatic entry into a dark church, heavily scented with lilies and great flower arrangements. I cut the series of Old Testament lessons and psalms down to an absolute minimum, and during the singing of the Gloria, when the lights are turned on, all the servers rang bells in cacophonous jubilation. Some of the Macedonians joined us at Communion and at the end we all tucked into a nog of the ante doran, the loaf pulled apart with gusto by me after a blessing that owed less to any Orthodox Liturgy than to a poem on bread by an Anglican priest/poet whose name I can’t recall and whose two slim volumes I can’t locate on my new rectory’s bookshelves, no book nowadays being as familiarly placed as was the case at the end of eight years in Wodonga Rectory. We ended with painted, hard-boiled eggs in the narthex, the bits of shell hoovered up by two Rolls Royce vacuum cleaners brought along by the Macedonians, gleaming brutes with a headlight apiece.

Demythologising the secular

Easter Day itself, after the three complicated services that precede it, is always a doddle. There was a comfortably full church at 8.30, though no one hanging from the rafters as in days gone by. The 10.30, fortuitously being “Children’s Church” day, was well up in numbers and there were at least thirty kids sitting before me in the sanctuary as I attempted an oblique demythologising of the sad, self-indulgent, idle and gluttonous secular Easter, by avoiding any mention of all those poor quality, chocolate-gooey eggs and bunnies, and instead attempting a lively account of the whole Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Day narrative and of God’s costly love being total and indestructible.

Theologising by phone

Later we had a good chat to David on the phone from Germany. His girl friend, like him, has now been accepted as an ordination candidate for the diocese of Ely, she hopes to be a priest/doctor. They both intend studying at Westcott House in Cambridge where they will attempt a Cambridge degree in theology. David is interesting to discuss theology with because he is enthused by the “Radical Orthodox” movement of John Millbank and Catherine Pickstock and which is associated also with Rowan Williams. Behind its all but impenetrable philosophising it appears to make an impressive case for disengaging from the discussion of God and Faith in terms and on conditions that are defined by those outside of the Faith, and provides a trenchant and convincing critique of modernism, turning a disdainful back on the Enlightenment, the arguably logical conclusion of which being the godless horror of Auschwitz, the Gulag, and Pol Pot. It makes me realise just how much a "modernist" I am, obsessed by historicity, defending the faith and the faith’s narrative in the terms and on the conditions of secularists and scientists who are constantly nibbling away at what I defend. The Radical Orthodox mob would say that this is futile and that to do so means ending up in the arms of Don Cupitt and “Christian Atheism”, God forbid. I have always refused to take the Cupitt route though, in part probably because I am too dull to see that the road leads in that direction, but also because of my encounter with John Austin Baker’s writing who makes the best of all modernist cases for an objectively real God and Incarnation. Even so, talking to my son I feel that I am a relic from a bygone theological age, a tiny chip of driftwood left on the beach by the receding tide of modernism. Beached along-side more impressive logs like John Robinson, Dennis Nineham, Maurice Wiles et al.

CHARADE SENTENCES

The following two sentences have exactly the same sequence of letters, but different words and therefore meaning. They are known as "charade sentences"

Flamingo pale, scenting a latent shark

Flaming opalescent in gala tents - hark!

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Claire Fisher who celebrates her birthday on Tuesday the 20^th of April. Also to Andrew and Margaret Neaum and Katrina and Simon Robinson who celebrate their Wedding Anniversary on Monday the 19^th and to Elaine and Daniel McMullen who celebrate theirs on Saturday the 24^th. Congratulations too to Sydney Anne Midgley, baptised today at the 10.30am Eucharist.

PASTORAL CARERS

There will be a meeting of those who visit the hospital and those who take Communion to folk in their homes after the 10.00am Eucharist on Wednesday 28^th April, in the Library

CONFIRMATION

I have been underwhelmed by requests for confirmation this year. Anyone interested in being confirmed should give me their name and address as soon as possible to either the Parish Office or Fr Andrew . Confirmation preparation sessions occur weekly during term time and are usually not at all onerous, indeed they are good fun. However, candidates are expected to be in attendance at church every week. If I remain underwhelmed I shall be contacting the bishop to inform him that there will be no confirmation this year in this parish. The date as set at present is July 18^th.

MASS FOR AFRICA

On June the 6^th, which is the Sunday that follows the ecumenical service and Breakfast in honour of the Ugandan Martyrs, we are holding a “Mass for Africa”. I have asked a Sudanese Church Choir from an Anglican Church in Footscray to come and sing for us and we will need billets on the Saturday night for about sixteen people. On the Sunday we will be holding a luncheon with an African flavour! Do book the date and so make sure you are present for this occasion.

BILLETS - YOUTH FOR CHRIST

Youth for Christ will be putting on concerts at local high schools next month, Accommodation is needed from Sunday the 2^nd until Sunday the 9^th of May. The team will have their own transport and a full agenda during the day. Billets will need breakfast, a packed lunch and an evening meal. Please pray for this Youth for Christ Tour in Shepparton. So many of our young people will have the opportunity to hear about Jesus. It is exciting. If you share a passion to pray I am keen to hear from you. It would be great to have a prayer team in action for the Friday night outreach concert. Thank you Katrina Robinson 0409246519

G.V. Health Extended Care Auxiliary

Film & Basket Luncheon

"Calendar Girl"

A great English comedy, a laugh a minute!

Thursday 13th May

Adm. $15.00

Tickets Lolene 58 219182

Mimma's Hairdressing

THOSE NEEDING PRAYER

We have a very long list of people who need prayer. This is a good sign of our concern for folk in need and of our belief in the efficacy of prayer. However, do please cross off the list in the narthex any names no longer needing prayer. Next week we shall be starting a new list from scratch.

FAIR RAFFLE

A meeting will be held on Wednesday 28th April at 7.30pm in the Narthex to bring together ideas for the Fair Raffle. Input is required to make this a success. All are welcome. Adrian Evans

EVENING GUILD GARAGE SALE

Do not forget the Garage Sale. All donations of goods will be greatly appreciated

DIOCESAN LAY RETREATS

The Lay Retreats, conducted by Fr Philip Thirlwell take place from Friday 30^th April to Sunday 2^nd May and from Sunday 2^nd May to Tuesday 4^th May. Registration forms are in the Narthex or can be obtained from the office.

IMPORTANT DATES

April 21^st. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vestry 7.30

April 20^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Afternoon Guild

April 22^nd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evening Guild

April 24^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.30pm

April 25^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.00pm

April 25^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Baptisms

April 28^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fair Raffle meeting

May 5^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Council at Dookie

May 7^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dookie Guild

May 8^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 1.30pm

May 10^th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ladies Guild Coffee Morning

May 18^th - 21^st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Annual Priests’ Retreat

May 22^nd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.30pm

May 25^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Reconciliation Activity

May 26^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St Augustine’s Patronal Festival

Jun 5^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ugandan Martyrs - Breakfast

Jun 6^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mass for Africa

Jun 12^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.00pm

Jun 18-19th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evening Guild Garage Sale

July 18^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Confirmation

Sept 17-18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Synod

Oct 3^rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St Francistide Pet Blessing

Oct 16^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.00pm

Oct 23^rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 3.00pm

Nov 6^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.30pm

Nov 13^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.30pm

Nov 13^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Fair

Nov 27^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 1.30pm

Dec 18^th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm

DUTIES FOR 18^th April 2004

Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Heenan, Heather Fitzgerald

Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nancy Fennell, Joan O’Reilly

Servers 8,30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beth, Kate, James

Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Debbie Last, Tiana, Jenny Waite

Euch. Assists 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bev Condon, Heather Fitzgerald

Euch. Assists 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Christine Evans, Carole Henderson

Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Heenan, Nancy Fennell

Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edna Wilson, Pat Griffin

Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Brewer, Christine Jones

Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Galt, Joe Pearson

Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Brewer, Nola Brewer

Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shirley Dean

Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Mervyn & Stephen Cowland

DUTIES FOR 25^th April 2004

Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan Harder, Gwyn Cowland

Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liz Booth, Peter Martin

Servers 8,30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michelle, Stephen, Debbie

Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Pleming, Tiana, Zebedee

Euch. Assists 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Griffin, Carole Henderson

Euch. Assists 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bev Condon, Maureen Cormican

Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Carlyon, Joan O’Reilly

Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeanette Berry, Anita Saville

Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Steen, Jill Waterson

Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Merv Cowland, Gwyn Cowland

Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Adrian Evans

Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cecily McDonald

Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norm Mitchelmore, Lawrie Tinning

FOR PRAYER

Liam Bognar,Sarah Boudville, Barbara Brown, Helen Bruinier, Loris Buntine, Ashley Close, Adie Edwards, Neil Feldthman,Lynette Gates, Richard Goodfellow, Iris Grant,Kevin & Ellen Green, Ron Hall, the Harrison Family, Jean Hastie,Thelma Irwin, Fr Wayne Ireland, Isobel Kerr, Betty Mercer, Joyce Maloney,Ann Mills, Andrew Muirhead, Gabby Palvia,Richard Pearson, Ray Prosser, Dennis Reed, Margaret Robinson, Gwen & Bob Scott, Roger Saville,Shirley & family, Peter & Eva Swindells, Rev Glenis Traill, May Wallace, Brian Ward, Malcolm Waterson, Alyssa, Craig, Darren, Elizabeth, Faith, Gary, Glenda, John, Keith, Mary, Michael, Nea, Rohan

Rest in peace Maisie Lear

Anniversary of Death

Rulrna(Bobby) Young 18^th, Bill lbbott 20^th ,Stoyan Yosifofski 21^st, Evelyn Gould, Leslie Alexander 23^rd

THIS WEEK

Monday April 19^th

Fr Andrew’s Day off