EIGHTH SUNDAY after PENTECOST (17)
25th July 2004
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
The argument goes that the spelling of English words is, by and large, "irrational". Why is there a silent "p" in "receipt" and not in "deceit"? Well, the quick answer is: life's a pain sometimes; stop whining; if you don't like it, go and speak German. In any case, if you try to reform the spelling of English along "rational" lines, you discover quite quickly that there is no way of doing it. It seems to me that people just resent having to learn things. "How do you explain to an eight-year-old that the word ‘yacht' has all these strange letters in it?" a chap once asked me, on the Jeremy Vine Show. This seemed an unanswerable question at the time. It was only afterwards that I worked out my objection to it. Why should the comprehension level of an eight-year-old be our standard for anything?
Lynn Truss
A PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Lord help me to learn not to wish away the present in longing for the future. Rather, teach me to live in the present moment and so to enjoy each simple task I do without thinking that I must hurry on to the next thing. Help me to do what I am doing with all my ability and all my concen-tration, with a mind undivided and therefore peaceful. In learning so to trust you, help me to show others the way to learn to trust you more completely and to do everything which has to be done at your time and your speed.from Michael Hollings
THEOLOGY ON TRAM 48
A drunk climbed aboard the number 48 tram and spoke to the bloke sitting opposite. “Hey, what’s your name then?” “Paul,” said the man, intensely embarrassed by becoming the focus of attention of the other passengers. The drunk was silent for a few moments, then asked, “Say, did those Thessalonians ever write back to you?”
EARINGS AND PIOUS FOSSILS
Fr Andrew Neaum
Chewing a person’s ear can be hazardous. My first church warden attained instant parochial notoriety by swallowing the earing of a lady he was dancing with at a parish dance. He was a fine man, no philanderer. The ring must have leapt into his mouth of its own volition, in much the same way as the golden calf leapt out of Aaron’s fire fully formed, supposedly exonerating him of any guilt in the making of it!
The ultimate insult
My son David when a little boy used the word “earing” as an insult. He must have heard me speak of earings in a contemptuous fashion and assumed the word to be worth appropriating as a naughty word. If his brother annoyed him he would stick out his tongue and shout “earings”. If really exasperated with his parents he would mutter, “earings, bum, earings sissy!” The ultimate insult.
I have never been much in favour of earings. Deliberate bodily mutilation offends me, just as it did the ancient Greeks. My taking offence at the minor form of self-mutilation that is drilling holes in ear lobes for earings is probably silly. That of the ancient Greeks was more significant and certainly providential. It enormously assisted the growth of the early Church, because the many Greeks attracted to Judaism, but repelled by its mutilating rite of circumcision, eagerly embraced Christianity once it had rejected circumcision.
Moses, like me, but with better reason, would have been disapproving of ear rings and self-mutilation. The golden calf that so raised his ire and which leapt fully formed from Aaron’s crucible, was made from the ear rings, nose rings and finger rings of the Israelites.
Weighed down with jewels
When the People of Israel left Egypt they despoiled the Egyptians. So pleased were the Egyptians to be rid of the plaguey Israelites, they loaded them with jewellery and gifts; with clothing, silver and gold, whatever they asked for. The Israelites went off into the wilderness with lots of exotic jewellery, the jewellery of an ancient, civilised and pagan people. This jewellery was more than ornamental, more than an expression of wealth or taste, it also reflected and expressed the strong residue of an ancient paganism.
Our jewellery today refers sometimes to our religion. Little crosses dangle from people’s necks, ears and sometimes noses. This is largely residual religion. A fact that is borne out by the horrifyingly ignorant comment of an assistant in a Chiswick jeweller’s shop to a customer examining a collection of crucifix pendants some years ago: “Are you looking for a plain one, or one with a little man on it?” She had not the slightest conception of whom Jesus of Nazareth was, nor of what the figure of a man on a cross commemorates.
Leaping back to life
When the Israelites left Egypt they took some of Egypt with them. They walked off into the desert and over the Red Sea to find a new life, to discover a new and very different God, a new country, a new freedom. But on their fingers, round their necks, in their ears and noses they carried an old life, an old country, an old civilisation and old gods. When Moses disappeared up Mount Sinai, the old gods leapt back to life.
Fossils of piety
We need never give up hope or despair of Christianity, no matter how residual it has become. Old gods can spring to life and resurrection resides at the very heart of our faith. Our ancient God, with his loving and lovely Christ on a Cross, sadly displaced by Mammon, around whose golden calf twentieth century humanity so single-mindedly prances, can similarly leap back to life.
Oaths are the “fossils of piety”. My son’s use of the word “earing” as an oath was more perceptive and appropriate than he realised, earings too are often fossils or residues of piety. It would take a Spielberg more than an Aaron to bring such fossils leaping back to life. St Steven Spielberg, animator of dinosaurs, breather of life into fossils, Christendom needs you! Father Andrew Neaum
WITTY REPARTEE
“Have ye no tasted haggis?”
“No, but I once trod in some.”
LOVE
God is present by Love alone. By Love alone He is great and glorious. By Love alone He liveth and feeleth in other persons. By Love alone He enjoyeth all the creatures, by Love alone He is pleasing to Himself, by Love alone He is rich and blessed. The Soul is shrivelled up and buried in a grave that does not love. But that which does love wisely and truly is the joy and end of all the world, the King of Heaven, and the Friend of God. Thomas Traherne
THE VERBAL BEAUTY OF MEDICAL TERMS
How long ago upon the fabulous shores
Of far Lumbago, all on a summer's day,
He and the maid Neuralgia, they twain,
Lay in a flower-crowned mead, and garlands wove
Of gout and yellow hydrocephaly,
Dim palsies, pyorrhoea and sweet
Myopia, bluer than the summer sky,
Agues both white and red, pied common cold,
Cirrhosis, and that wan faint flower of love
The shepherds called dyspepsia… (author not found)
MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT
In this world, so long as we are vigorous enough to be capable of action, God, surely, does not intend us to sit around thinking of and loving Him like anything. Aside from rites of public worship in which we bring our bodies to God, we should direct our mental attention towards Him only for so long as it takes us to learn what He wills us to do here and now. This might take only a moment if the task he sets is easy; if hard, a little longer. But once we know what it is, we should forget all about Him and concentrate our mental and physical energies upon our task. W H Auden
THIN HUMANISTIC GRUEL
Fr Andrew Neaum
I had a welcome visit from Fr Chris Shields last week, during which he enthused about a book by John Carroll that he is reading: ‘Humanism, the Wreck of Western Culture’. I have read a fair number of articles by John Carroll, a lecturer in sociology at La Trobe University, and have admired them, but this book, which is a revised and reissued version of one he wrote some years ago, I simply must get.
We went on to talk about the book in relation to the attitudes of many people in our local communities to Christianity and belief, particularly those who contemptuously dismiss belief as primitive nonsense assuming Christianity to be disproved, discredited and done for. The previous week I had encountered and talked to two such people and had noted with interest their incredulity at encountering a not-uneducated person such as myself who actually believes in an objectively real God and the Christian faith. As we talked, there came upon their face, just momentarily, something rather more than incredulity: a flash of wistful longing and nostalgia for belief and faith, almost an envy of my passionate advocacy for sense and purpose and God!
Carroll’s book, which I have ordered, apparently deals with the emptiness and indeed the demise of humanism, of Man as the centre of everything. As I skim the articles and reviews of so many cultured unbelievers, in my regular trolling through magazines and journals, I am often struck at just how bleak the alternatives to faith and belief are, how thin is the gruel offered to humankind by the likes of humanists and unbelieving neo-Darwinists such as Richard Dawkins. Their alternatives are in fact so chilling and awful that none of them has the courage to live by them. They all live and act as if life had purpose and meaning. They are as hypocritical in living their lack of faith as ever Christians were at living their actual faith. This irony I once, rather inadequately attempted to put into light verse:
RETURNING THE COMPLIMENT
Unbelievers view believers
with scornful eyes and critical.
We do not practise what we preach
and so are hypocritical.
Believers note in turn, however,
and not without relief,
How rare it is that unbelievers
practise unbelief.
They live as though their lives have meaning,
and love means more than hate,
But unbelief and atheism
all sense and love negate.
Thus unbelievers lack the courage
of their own conviction.
Impious unbelief, in fact
is but a pious fiction
Believers unbelievers view
with scornful eyes and critical
They do not practise what they preach
and so are hypocritical.
There is more than hypocrisy in most unbelievers, however. Nearly always they evince an almost total ignorance of theology and of sophisticated and learned faith. What they reject, often with so much scorn, is but a Sunday School view of Christianity. This is despicable. There are very good reasons for rejecting faith and belief, of course. Many people of the utmost integrity do not believe, having looked into the matter thoroughly and well. However, to reject the faith without ever having looked at the best of the evidence, without ever having read the great contemporary theologians, seems to me to be disgraceful. It is to reject not God, but a paltry and childish conception of God. W H Auden, who was a believing, though somewhat libidinous and dissipated Anglican, put it well in a little aphorism defining the “God is Dead” business of the Sixties: The “dead” God: a god Who never existed but in Whom, undoubtedly, many people who thought of themselves as Christians believed - a Zeus without Zeus's vices. Science has certainly killed Him.
BEAUTY
One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon. It occurred to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will. Rachel Carson
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Modern man had sawn away the bough of religious faith he had perched on, down he had come: “But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all. It was a cesspool full of barbed wire.” P J Kavanagh - quoting George Orwell
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to Jai Philip Smith and to his parents Darren and Rebecca on his baptism. Also congratulations to and Rosemary Mitchelmore who celebrates her birthday on Thurs. the 29th of July.
CONFIRMATION
Confirmation classes continue this week on Thursday at 5.00pm in the library at St Augustine’s. On Saturdays at 6.00pm from now on there is a Eucharist to enable confirmation candidates and others to fulfil their obligation if unable to make a service on Sundays.
WORSHIP EATING AND STUDY
This Wednesday, July the 28th, starting with a a meal at the Rectory at 6.30pm , is a series of studies based on a booklet called “This is Our Faith”. The meal will be hot and include a glass of wine, it will be followed at 7.30pm, by a simple act of worship and then the study. There will be a small charge for the meal to cover costs and no more, probably $4, and if a surplus builds up, then less for subsequent meals. The booklets are rather fine, glossy things and cost $30.00 each. Those who don’t want to keep them will be able to take one for $10.00 only and return them at the end of the course for use by others later. If you are interested sign up in the Narthex.
ECUMENICAL SERVICE, KATANDRA
On Sunday 8th August at Katandra there is an Ecumenical Service in the Uniting Church starting at 2.00pm and all of us are invited. On that day there will be no morning Eucharist at St Mary’s.
PARISH FAIR
The Fete Committee is planning to send out to all parishioners a book of Raffle Tickets in the hope that everyone will have a go at selling them or winning themselves by buying them. Those who are opposed to Raffles can either send the book back or ask for it to be collected. Don’t forget the Parish Fair! The “Lucky Dip” welcomes donations of small items to be dipped for! Adrian Evans
DUTIES FOR THE 25th July 2004
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Heenan, Heather Fitzgerald
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liz Booth, Peter Martin
Servers 8,30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michelle, Stephen, Debbie
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zebedee, Tiana
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Griffin, Heather Fitzgerald
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christine Evans, Carole Henderson
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Victoria Heenan, Joan O’Reilly
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Nichols, Heather Pearson
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Simonis, Charlotte Brewer
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gwyn Cowland, Merv Cowland
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Adrian Evans
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anita Saville
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .nil
DUTIES FOR THE 1st August 2004
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan Harder, Gwyn Cowland
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jenny Pleming, Charlotte Brewer
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beth, Rachel, Emma
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Pleming, Joan McCann,
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Carole and Bev
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Maureen and Christine
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Carlyon, Maureen Cormican
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edna Wilson, Pat Griffin
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jenny Pleming, John Pleming
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Norm Mitchelmore, Joy Campbell
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Pleming, Jenny Pleming
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Pearson
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Moore, John Pleming
IMPORTANT DATES
July 27th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Playgroup
July 28th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fete meeting 5.30
July 28th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Study Group 6.30
July 28th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Prayer Support Group 7.30
Aug 3rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baptism preparation
Aug 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dookie Guild
Aug 8th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ecumenical Service Katandra West2pm
Sept 4th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quarterly Garden Working Bee
Sept 11th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding
Sept 17 -18th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Synod
Oct 3rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St Francistide Pet Blessing
Oct 16th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.00pm
Oct 23rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 3.00pm
Oct 24th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmation
Nov 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.30pm
Nov 13th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.30pm
Nov 13th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Fair
Nov 21st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bishop’s Visit
Dec 4th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quarterly Garden Working Bee
Dec 5th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm
Dec 18th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm
Mar 5th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quarterly Garden Working Bee
Jun 4th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Quarterly Garden Working Bee
FOR PRAYER
Thomas Bakker, Liam Bognar, Douglas Burns, Neil Feldtman, Kevin Fitzgerald, Richard Goodfellow, David Green, John Green, Ron Hall, Jean Hastie, Joan Kitto, Joyce Maloney, Els Minchin, Margaret Noble, Richard Pearson, Ray Prosser, Raymond Read, Margaret Robinson, Rodger Saville, Peter and Eva Swindells, Laurie Tindal, May Wallace, Brian Ward, Malcolm Waterson, Michael and his parents Leanne & Cameron, Glenda, Genevieve, Geoff, Jenny & Daryl, Darren, Judy & Kian, Elizabeth, Faith, Michael, Ruby, Toby.
Anniversary of Death
Sarah Robbins, Maxwell Mathieson 25th, Frederick Grutzner, Jessie Lynas 26th, Jessie Ross 27th, John Wood, Jamie Thompson 28th, Archdeacon Douglas Smith, Barry Miller, Hock Sidebottom, Gwen Till 29th, Samuel Gaylard 30th.
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday July 26th (Fr Andrew’s day off)
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Tuesday July 27th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
1.00pm CCES meeting
4.00pm Senior Staff
5.30pm Bishop in Council
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Wednesday July 28th
7.45am Mattins - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
1.30pm Hakea Lodge
5.30pm Fete meeting
6.30pm Study Group - Rectory
7.30pm Prayer Support Group - Chapel
Thursday July 29th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Confirmation Preparation - Library
5.30pm Evening Prayer
7.30pm Choir Practice
Friday July 30th
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Evening Prayer
Saturday July 31st
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Evening Prayer
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
Sunday August 1st.
8.00am Mattins - Lady Chapel
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine’s
9.00am Eucharist - St Luke’s Dookie
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine’s/Baptisms
10.45am Eucharist - St Mary’s Katandra
5.30pm Evening Prayer - St Augustine’s