THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
28th November 2004
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
....There are many other Australians, probably including some who call themselves Christians on the census return, who really have no religious profession or religious practice. They do not attain the dignity of heretics. Nor have they lapsed from any faith. They are pagans by delinquency and not by deliberation. The description of a pagan is that he has no gods to worship, no faith to uphold, no creed to recite. He has no guide to conduct other than his own appetites and those customs of the tribe that aid the satisfaction of appetite. When frightened he propitiates the unknown by howling and sobbing until fear passes. When cheerful with a bubbling hope he invokes a phantom called Luck and rollicks in self-indulgence. He finds refreshment in a romp by the seashore or on a playing field but knows no need for a penitential walk in hard places and finds no comfort in the contemplation of the heavens. He finds no merit in self-sacrifice and no civility in deference to others but a great self-satisfaction in being first to the ball and in grabbing something that no-one else has. His faith is in appetite. His unacknowledged creed is self- indulgence. In the graphic language of the day and in the expectation of his own counsellors he “does his own thing”. Sir Paul Hasluck
INSUBORDINATION
A young naval sub-lieutenant found himself with half a day of shore leave, and decided to spend it profitably by taking a tour of a coal mine. After the tour, he took a shower and dressed in his uniform, ready to re-embark. On his way back, he met a senior officer, who asked him to carry his golf clubs back. He was a little apprehensive at the sight of the rather cantankerous Admiral of the Fleet, who was directly in his path at the gang-plank, but after a quick tidiness check he decided to walk on. For once, the old boy seemed to be in a good mood. After returning the young man’s salute, he said, “Hello my boy. Been playing golf?”“No sir,” replied the sub-lieutenant, “I’ve been down a coal mine;” and he was immediately put under arrest for insubordination.
EVEN THE WIND AND SEA OBEY HIM
Fr Andrew Neaum
It is the time of the year to get down to composing and sending off an annual Christmas “round robin” letter to all our friends and relatives scattered around the globe! Such letters are major feats of imaginative composition. They ingeniously contrive to tell the awful truth about myself and my family in a way that yet flatters us! Over the years they have developed a pattern. They begin usually with a trip around the vegetable plot and garden, they then move on to talk about the piece of music to which I happen to be listening as I tap away, before rapturously describing the holiday we have enjoyed during the year and finally, when there is only a paragraph or two’s space left, they introduce the family one by one, recounting only prosaic facts, but hinting at genius, beauty and achievement to which modesty and humility forbid open admission.
Cordon bleu and bonsai
Having lived in many places and parts we receive not a few such missives ourselves. Some of them are nowhere near as artfully structured as my own. They are less circuitous, disingenuous and falsely modest! They contain all a friend’s family’s news, keep us up to date and tend to be so full of happiness and successful family achievement that they make us feel totally inadequate. We hear how dad has been promoted to be managing director of his firm, and that mum is the head of this committee and that committee, is doing a University degree in her spare time, with outstanding success, attends a cordon bleu cookery course and is into bonsai, aerobics, and water colour painting. We learn that the oldest child is in his third very successful year of a medical degree, is an outstanding sportsman, and has the most perfect fiancee imaginable. The second child, we are told, is school dux, head of the footy team, tennis team, chess team and debating team and so on and so on and so on. Many circular letters are so impressive in the family achievements and happinesses they record, they leave us depressed at all the failures and mess in our own life.
Other people’s lives and families, from the outside and judged by the public front presented by such things as circular letters, seem too good to be true, one’s own too bad to be true. The real truth, needless to say, lies in one’s own family and life.
Quiet desperation
It has been said, I think rightly, that most people live lives of quiet desperation. This often becomes publically apparent and obvious only in the sudden eruption of crises like divorce, separation, desertion or even murder. A gale begins to blow and waves break into life’s boat so that it is almost swamped. Sanity, order, purpose, love, our religion, our Lord, are in the stern, head on a cushion, asleep.
If we have any sense we awake our Lord and say: `Master, do you not care? We are going down!’ And the master wakes up, rebukes the wind, and says to the sea, `Quiet now! Be calm!’ Sanity, order, purpose, love, our religion, our Lord, return. The wind drops. All is calm again and our Lord says to us, `Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ And we respond with awe and say to one another, `Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’
Surviving without shipwreck
How pleasant the lot of a parish priest would be if God and faith could so easily bring such peace, calm and tranquillity, if there was no crucifixion and the road was wide, winding and gentle rather than strait and narrow. However, even if it is not that easy, it is still possible to persuade folk that our Lord cannot be allowed to remain asleep on a cushion in the background of daily existence, if we are to cope at all adequately with the inevitable sad storms that erupt in life. Although faith doesn’t always ensure a smooth passage, yet with the Lord sane and strong beside us, rather than asleep behind, storms, if they are not always stilled and calmed, are the more easily survived without shipwreck. Life without the Lord, without the sanity of strong moral reference points, without the primacy of sacrificial love, without reference to, dialogue with, and love of the Lord and of our Faith tradition, is too often indeed a wild mess and storm of moral lassitude, ignorance and relativism; is purposeless, ruled by the ego, greed, mammon, revenge, spite and hatred; love is temporary and relative, the loved one discarded, aborted, put to death once deemed useless. Existence for many, many folk is indeed a wild, insane, frightening and desperate mess.
So there is little need to discard or apologise for our pious little cliches like, `say your prayers’, ‘know the Lord’, ‘know your bible’, ‘have faith’, ‘take your Church seriously’, ‘don’t be half-hearted’, ‘Believe’ .They are ways of expressing a simple and profound truth, `Wake up the Lord in the background of your life, or by God you’ll drown!’
From Tethy’s Festival
Another Song
Are they shadows that we see?
And can shadows pleasure give?
Pleasures only shadows be
Cast by bodies we conceive,
And are made the things we deem,
In those figures which they seem.
But these pleasures vanish fast,
Which by shadows are exprest:
Pleasures are not, if they last,
In their passing, is their best.
Glory is most bright and gay
In a flash, and so away.
Feed apace then greedy eyes
On the wonder you behold.
Take it sudden as it flies
Though you take it not to hold:
When your eyes have done their part,
Thought must length it in the heart. Samuel Daniel 1562-1619
TO BE HAPPY AT HOME
The following lovely piece of prose comes from the pen of Samuel Johnson 1709-84, one of the sanest, most commonsensical and yet at the same time maddest of Englishmen and Anglican laymen. One of our greatest sons......The main of life is indeed, composed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence; of insect vexations which sting us and fly away, impertinences which buzz awhile about us, and are heard no more; of meteorous pleasures which dance before us and are dissipated; of compliments which glide off the soul like other music, and are forgotten by him that gave, and him that received them.
Such is the general heap out of which every man is to cull his own condition: for, as the chemists tell us, that all bodies are resolvable into the same elements, and that the boundless variety of things arises from the different proportions of very few ingredients; so a few pains and a few pleasures are all the materials of human life, and of these the proportions are partly allotted by Providence, and partly left to the arrangement of reason and of choice.
As these are well or ill disposed, man is for the most part happy or miserable. For very few are involved in great events or have their thread of life entwisted with the chain of causes on which armies or nations are suspended; and even those who seem wholly busied in public affairs, and elevated above low cares, or trivial pleasures, pass the chief part of their time in familiar and domestic scenes; from these they came into public life, to these they are every hour recalled by passions not to be suppressed; in these they have the reward of their toils, and to these at last they retire.
The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours, which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man shrinks to his natural dimensions, and throws aside the ornaments or disguises, which he feels in privacy to be useless encumbrances, and to lose all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
A MACARONIC FRIVOLITY
Last night I’m afraid I indulged ad lib.
My Frau dit, `Man, you’re drunk
And the vicar is coming to dine mit us,
Oh Heaven, mein Gott, quid nunc?”
“I’ll prove I’m as sober as you, ma chere,”’
I said, nil desperandum.
Und I touched my toes
with the tip of my nose:
Quod erat demonstrandum. N.E. Soret
WHAT IS MAN?
Man as we know him is a poor creature; but he is half way between an ape and a god, and he is travelling in the right direction. Dean W R Inge
SALTY WIT
Seen in a butcher’s shop in Ireland: “This bacon was cured in Lourdes’!
My great concern is not whether God in on our side, my great concern is to be on God’s side.
Abraham Lincoln
A PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
I am no longer my own, but yours, put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. You are mine and I am yours, so be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
CONGRATULATIONS
.....To Joyce Auldrige who celebrates her birthday on Thursday the 2nd December to Lillian Walter who celebrates hers on Saturday the 4th, and to Betty & Barrie Pleming who celebrate their wedding anniversary on Friday the 3rd.
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. G K Chesterton
“OUTREACH”
Contributions to the December “Outreach” are needed at the very latest by the end of this week at the Parish Office.
BAPTISMS TODAY
Welcome to Leonard John Brereton, Julie Brereton, Mikalia Lee Brereton, Rhianna Elizabeth Hayes, Taneisha Jean Hayes, Simon Marcus Van Merkesteyn Ethan Christopher Redwood and Nathan Douglas Hobley-Gray who are being baptised today, also welcome to the families and friends who are here to support those being baptised.
SUMMER GARDEN WORKING BEE
It would be appreciated if the following tools of trade could be brought along to the working Bee to be held next Saturday Dec 4th...... Hedge Clippers for trimming bushes, shovels with muscles for the Tennis Court Garden, chain saw, whipper snipper as well as your favourite gardening tool. Be early to get the best jobs and for those with the expertise the pool garden’s drippers need overhauling.. In anticipation many thanks to you all for your participation. Barbara Whyte
A BIG DAY
Next week, at the 10.30am Eucharist, there takes place an event of no small significance. Lionel Waterson is to be baptized! During a Wednesday Study Group, when we were considering the sacrament of Baptism, Lionel revealed that although a communicant, faithful and much appreciated member of our church family, he has never been baptized. This is because he was brought up a member of the Salvation Army, which is a denomination that doesn’t have sacraments. God’s grace is not limited by the rules and regulations of his Church, and so Lionel, in fact, has been as much a member of the Body of Christ as any of us, but he has decided to regularise his membership and be baptized. So come along to offer congratulations and rejoice with him.
TODAY IS WORLD AIDS DAY
In Zambia 20% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS. Joy who works for our partners, the Council of Churches in Zambia, is one of the many infected. Gifts to the Christmas Bowl will continue to provide education about prevention and living with the disease to many Zambian people. God of tenderness and compassion, open our hearts to reach out to all who have been created by you, giving the courage to hope for peace. The Christmas Bowl giving envelopes are on the Narthex Table at the back of the Church
LECTIONARIES
The 2005 Lectionaries have now arrived and those who placed an order can pick them up from the office.
CALENDARS
There are still a few Anglican Calenders to be collected, please make a point of collecting these from the office before the end of November.
ROSTERS FOR 2004
In the Narthex there are lists for the names of people who would like them ADDED to or REMOVED from the rosters of duties in the coming year. Everyone rostered for this year will automatically be rostered for next - unless they indicate otherwise on those lists.
KATANDRA
On Sunday the 8th of December there takes place the Patronal Festival of St Mary’s Katandra West at 8.00pm. All are welcome to attend, and do please try to do so. On Sunday the 19th of December the congregation of Katandra West have been invited to attend the 50th Anniversary Celebration of St Bernard’s Catholic Church, Katandra West, starting at 10.30am. This being so there will be no Eucharist at St Mary’s on that day.
DUTIES FOR THE 27th November
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Norm Mitchelmore, Heather Carlyon
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maureen Cormican, Jenny Pleming
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michelle, Stephen, Debbie
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joan McCann
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Griffin, Carole Henderson
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carole Henderson, Christine Evans
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Carole Henderson, Hilder Lidgard
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joy Campbell, Eileen Quaife
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Adrian Evans, Cheryl Richards
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Merv Cowland, Gwen Cowland
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Adrian Evans
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anita Saville
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Merv & Stephen Cowland
DUTIES FOR THE 5th December 2004
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carole Henderson, Joan Harder
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hilder Lidgard, Christine Jones
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beth Brewer
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jenny Pleming
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Carole Henderson, Bev Condon
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maureen Cormican, Christine Evans
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Celebrant, Joan McCann
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joyce Cavill, Gwen Betson
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Steen, Jill Waterson
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Norm Mitchelmore, Joy Campbell
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Pleming, Jenny Pleming
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Pearson
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norm Mitchelmore, Lawrie Tinning
FOR PRAYER
Joyce & Vernon Auldrige, Irene Beard, Liam Bognar, Daniel Cowan, Rae Egan, Lachlan Falls, Richard Goodfellow, Ron Hall, Noel Heenan, Barry Henderson, Tanya & Peter Lindberg, Joyce Maloney,Ann Mills, Margaret Noble, Shasikala Prahalapan, Richard Pearson, Ray Prosser, Margaret Robinson, Rodger Saville, Susan Stone, Peter & Eva Swindells, May Wallace, Lillian Walter, Brian Ward, Stan Windley, Darren, Elizabeth, Faith, John, Lindsay, Gladys, Alan, Glenda, Dorrie, Brian, Mary, Julie, Pat, Jackie, Bernie.
Anniversary of Death
John Ross-Edwards 29th, Judith Bear, Edna Hooper 1st. Dec, Edith Waite 2nd Georgie Gribble 3rd, Yvonne Guthrie 4th.
IMPORTANT
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Dec 3rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dookie Guild
Dec 4th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quarterly Garden Working Bee
Dec 5th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm
Dec 8th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Mary’s Patronal Festival 8pm
Dec 9th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Prof Lee on St Mark - St David’s 1.00 or 3.00pm
Dec 14th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .G.F.S. Townsend
Dec 17th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christmas Carol Service
Dec 18th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Orthodox Wedding 1.30pm
Dec 18th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 4pm
Dec 19th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anniv. Service St Bernard’s Katandra
Dec 24th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.30pm Children’s Christmas Eucharist
Dec 31st. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 4pm
Jan 8th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding
Feb 5th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding
Feb 12th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding
Feb 19th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding
Mar 5th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quarterly Garden Working Bee
March 12th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding
Jun 4th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Quarterly Garden Working Bee
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 29th November
Father Andrew’s day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
6.00pm Evening Prayer
Tuesday 30th November Andrew Apostle & Martyr
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
6.00pm Evening Prayer
5.45pm Social Responsibilities Meeting - Library
Wednesday 1st. December Charles de Foucauld
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
1.30pm Hakea Lodge
6.00pm Evening Prayer
6.30pm Study Group
7.30pm Prayer Support Group - Chapel
Thursday 2nd December
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
2.00pm Valley Nursing Home
5.00pm Wedding appointment
6.00pm Evening Prayer
7.30pm Choir Practice
Friday 3rd December Francis Xavier
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
2.00pm Dookie Guild
6.00pm Evening Prayer
Saturday 4th December Nicholas Ferrar
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
9.00am Garden Working Bee
6.00pm Evening Prayer
6.30pm. Vigil Eucharist
Sunday 5th December
8.00am Mattins - Lady Chapel
8.30am Sung Eucharist
9.00am Eucharist - Dookie
10.30amEucharist - St Augustine’s
10.45am Eucharist - Katandra West
5.30pm Evening Prayer - St Augustine’s