FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
9th September 2007
Graphics and cartoons appear only in the printed version
CODSWALLOP
A bloke was struggling to help his mate land a monstrous Murray Cod. Finally they had it, and it took the two of them to carry it up to the back of their ute, which it nearly filled. Not being greedy, they packed up then and headed for home. Pulling up at the pub for some beer, they noticed the barman craning his neck, eyes bulging in astonishment at the size of the cod hanging over the back of the ute. By the time the fisherman had walked in to order a carton though, the barman had regained his composure. “Only caught one, eh?” he said, wiping the bar.
TRAVELLERS TALES (20)
Andrew Neaum (2000)
Because I am a weather freak, if I was not a priest and if I failed the examinations required to become that most interesting of society’s helpmeets, a policeman, or proved over qualified to be accepted for that most soul satisfying jobs, mowing municipal lawns, I would want to be a meteorologist. I listen to weather reports with an avidity that astonishes my daughters. If we have taped a television show to watch weeks later and have also inadvertently taped the weather report that preceded it, I insist on watching the stale weather report! I find it very difficult to live in a house that does not have in its garden a decent rain gauge. The most admirable house I have ever visited was one in Zimbabwe with a rain gauge on its roof. A little copper tube brought the rain right down into a measuring receptacle in the lounge.
Weather matters
There was no rain gauge in the garden or on the roof of the Rectory at Invergowrie. I had to make do with an old oven tray left outside which gave me a good idea of how much rain fell. I am disappointed to report that very little did. I love rain, but Invergowrie gets less than Wodonga. The weather in Britain is much more complicated than the weather in Victoria. There seem to be all sorts of local lows and fronts as well as major ones. England can be dry in the south, wet in the middle and dry up north - weather systems seem to come from the north and from the west and from the south, though very rarely, it seems, from the east. East winds normally indicate drier weather, being as often as not the result of high pressure systems. There were not many of them last summer. The complicated weather patterns must result from Britain being so much further into the “Westerlies” than we are in Victoria, as well as from the very different proportion of land to ocean in the northern hemisphere and from the influence of the warm Gulf Stream. So the British fascination with the weather arises from the fact that it is indeed really fascinating, being so invariably variable, unpredictable and fickle.
Greek Orthodox and Presbyterians
Several times during the months that we were in Invergowrie we allowed duty to overcame pleasure and drifted down to coffee mornings in our hall. These were regular monthly affairs run by the Church of Scotland in the Anglican Church hall because their own hall was being refurbished. Such coffee mornings might work at St John’s. You donate cash voluntarily, as much or as little as you like, when you walk in the door, and whatever is raised is put towards some current project or charity. The mornings seemed to be well patronised and judging from the decibels of conversation well enjoyed too. At one of those I attended I talked to a most interesting, oldish, local lawyer - mostly about the Greek Orthodox Church because his very bright daughter, an honours graduate in English, got involved in archaeological digs in Greece, married a Greek, took a further degree in theology there and became Greek Orthodox. She is now very active in that church in Greece. Although Church of Scotland, her father and mother when in Greece worship with her family, and appreciatively too. He remarked upon the fuss made over baptisms there. They are not a part of the Eucharistic liturgy, but are large family occasions. The child is stripped, totally dunked and oiled, and the godparents provide a new outfit of clothes. Then there is a huge feast. Perhaps because they are such big, complicated and socially important occasions, they are far less likely to be taken lightly by those involved than are ours. One of the lawyer’s sons is the engineer in charge of safety at Scottish nuclear plants, a crucial job. As you would expect he is a great believer in nuclear energy, as of course am I - because after water, wind and sun generated energy, all of which are unlikely to prove anywhere near adequate for our needs, nuclear produced energy is the cleanest fuel on offer. The “Greens” in their opposition to it are trying to have their cake and eat it! This son and his family are also active Christians, though in the Church of Scotland. The third son is an advocate in Edinburgh. He became involved with a heavily evangelical and fundamentalist group, grew disillusioned and now attends nowhere - such groups lead many folk out of belief by promising what they can’t deliver, namely, certainty and a coherent world of moral blacks and whites.
Sport and worship
It was strange to watch Wimbledon during the day instead of in the middle of the night. Although I watch sport with interest, I do think that to do so is largely a self indulgent waste of time, and so head off for more fruitful pastimes after a while. I also find the suspense hard to bear, which is what most people do relish I think. If I am supporting a team or person whose victory hangs in the balance, I find it so unbearable that I prefer to go away and hear the result later. This is open to less than complimentary psychological interpretation I suspect.
Worship
Sunday’s continued to be quiet and easy for me. How could they be anything else with only one service at 10.00am in the morning, and that with a congregation of only twenty six or seven and a mere nineteen of them communicants! The good thing about going to new congregations is that they are not used to you and so don’t take you for granted. You get more feedback after sermons, for example. One woman told me that she felt like clapping at the end of some of mine. Unfortunately those who feel like booing are usually too polite to say so. I appreciated the compliment about clapping, because I do feel that sermons need to be positive. In too many churches one feels got at, criticised and hectored after the sermon, and there is surely little sense in that, worship should be a positive experience. In modern liturgies we sensibly get rid of feelings of unworthiness and any compulsion to grovel early on, in the confession! Mind you, as most at St John’s know, I do not like clapping in church. The efforts of choir, preacher, soloist or organist are to the glory of God not to any performer!
The gift of simplicity
Occasionally after Sunday services we had a little “choir” practice. In a Dundee music shop I discovered a lovely arrangement, in duet form, of Copland’s stolen- from-the-Shaker’s melody “It’s a Gift to be Simple”. This song, in being freer of form and less rigid than Sydney Carter’s hymn tune version (Lord of the Dance) is more pleasing than the hymn tune. I suggested to the singers in the congregation that they concentrate themselves to form a de facto choir in the pews. We could hardly extract them from the congregation into a choir proper without sending the very few left into a deep depression of loneliness.
Biking
On the afternoon of the same Sunday as the little choir practice, we had a go at the bicycles in the garage. We nearly gave them up as hopeless, but by dint of transferring the wheel of one to another we managed to make three of them more or less roadworthy. So Elizabeth on a reasonable bike, Rachel dwarfing a child’s bike and I on a spinsterish woman’s bike, set off for a ride, looking all the more foolish because of the helmets we wore, Elizabeth’s was a bright pink one called “Barbie”. Helmets do not seem to be widely worn in Scotland. Initially we expected to make only a modest journey in case the bikes let us down, but we became more ambitious as we rode through Kingoodie and found ourselves on the pretty lane up the Carse of Gowrie. So eventually we pressed on to Errol, nine miles away. There we had a look at the outside of the impressive parish church, bought a drink and then set off back into a breeze that made the journey home a little more like hard work. We strained our way past dog rose decorated hedges and ripening barley fields, the tide in the Tay Estuary high, and so very beautiful. We got back for supper and to watch France snatch victory from Italy in the European Cup Final.
Auberon Waugh
I notice that Auberon Waugh, the journalist and novelist, has recently died. I have always enjoyed his writing, coming across it first in the pages of Private Eye in the early nineteen seventies, when I was teaching in London. He was an eccentric, virtuoso of a writer and his Private Eye column bristled with nonsense, good sense, unashamed prejudices and sometimes vicious insults. While in Scotland I read his autobiography, a funny and fascinating book called “Will This Do?” I noted a few resemblances to myself in him, and to my own experience in his. For example the influence of boarding school on his love life! He took a fancy at Oxford to a woman he calls Beatrice: “Beatrice was eighteen years old.....In the time-honoured fashion of gawky youths, I had seen to it that she knew I fancied her, I gave her an onyx bead necklace for her birthday, to match her lustrous brown eyes and she wore it faithfully for the next four months or so. So I cannot claim that I received no encouragement. I was just incapable of taking advantage of it. We smiled at each other. I treated her with elaborate chivalry. She waited and waited, but I never made a move. It seemed, then, an inexcusable infringement of her personality to push myself on her..... If I had been to a coeducational school I would have realised that the opposite sex craves for these things too - sometimes anyway - but I had little or no conception of this....My trouble was the ghastly old Dante-Beatrice syndrome, a product of Catholic guilt and inexperience.”
Waugh was an anti-authoritarian and thorough going rebel. At school he produced a parody of “The Raven”, his school’s official magazine, which he called “The Rook”, it was stopped before it quite reached distribution, but was well and truly beyond the pale.... He says, “I have always found this subversive element among Englishmen in a position of authority. It does not apply to all Englishmen of course, only to a few of them, but I think it is confined to the English, often a product of public school education, it creates a sort of fraternity.....It sustained and continues to sustain at the moment of writing, such national institutions as Private Eye. Of all the qualities of the British, this readiness to mock and subvert is the one which makes life in Britain preferable to life anywhere else.....” In the diocese of Ballarat, when a new bishop, David Silk, made my job as editor of the Ballarat Diocesan Chronicle unbearable by placing all sorts of restrictions upon me, I resigned as editor and produced a subversive “Ararat Chronicle” each month in retaliation, much to his annoyance. I sometimes think that it was he who persuaded Bishop Paul Richardson to put my name forward as a candidate for the parish of Wodonga. He wanted to be rid of me! If so I should thank him for so fortuitous a move!
(to be continued)
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthday
William Prothero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14th Sept
Wedding Anniversary
Pando & Petkana Radevski (40th). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3rd Sept
Frank & Betty Bush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12th Sept
SUDANESE VISITORS
On Sunday the 30th September we have a choir of about thirty Sudanese folk joining us at the 10.30am Eucharist. Afterwards they will be joining us at lunch to sing, dance and entertain us. All of this is to raise money for Yirol Hospital in Southern Sudan, the home place of Matoc who has been a part of our parish for the last three and a half years, mostly at Dookie, but now, latterly in Shepparton. The details of the day have still to be fully worked out but we do need offers of accommodation for the night of Saturday the 29th!! Please put you name down on the list in the narthex if you can help. Those who provided accommodation a couple of years ago were enormously blessed in doing so. Please book the date in your diary and ask friends along as well.
CONFIRMATION
The Confirmation takes place this month on Sunday 23rd at the 10.30am Eucharist. We have only two candidates: Sophie Bell and Tom Woodcock, but they will be joined by a further two from the parish of Murchison and there will be several baptisms as well, so it should be a happy occasion.
GRIEF SUPPORT
“Moving On”. The next meeting is on Tuesday 11th September at 7.30pm, in the Narthex. All welcome.
VESTRY MEETING
There is a Vestry Meeting on Wednesday at 3.00pm in the Library.
SICK PARISHIONERS
Please let the Clergy or Parish Office know if there are sick parishioners in need of a visit.
SOUL SOOTHING
On Tuesdays in the Lady Chapel, there is a short, meditative non-Eucharistic service followed by lunch and fellowship at 12.15pm.
SPARE A GOLD COIN
The “Spare a Gold Coin” ABM appeal from the 16th to the 30th of September, is to raise funds for water projects in the Philippines. Please be responsive! Nola
OUTREACH
We encourage and welcome any items or articles for the next Outreach, the cut off date being the 23rd September.
PARISH COUNCIL IN DOOKE
Our next Parish Council meeting will be preceded by a meal at the Gladstone Pub at Dookie. We do need to know numbers for this social occasion, so parish councillors who intend coming along to mix business with pleasure, please ring Heather at the office.
VISITING WODONGA
The Rector will be celebrating and preaching at Wodonga next Sunday. The reason for this is a desire of the folk up there to see Margaret and relish in her company. The Rector is a mere optional extra!
PIES FOR SALE
Inflationary tendencies in the national economy have had no effect upon the price of Pat Griffins fine pies. A large pie can still be ordered, either apple or apricot, for $5.00. The profits from these pies will be ploughed into the great Guild Cake Stall effort for the Parish Fair.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Sept 14th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arise 255
Sept 15th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1pm
Sept 15th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.30pm
Sept 18th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Afternoon Guild 2pm
Sept 18th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Thanksgiving Service/ G.V.G. School
Sept 19th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Council/Dookie leave Shepp at 5.30pm
Sept 20th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evening Guild 1.30pm
Sept 23rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Outreach articles due
Sept 27th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Fair & Garden Party Committee mtg
Sept 30th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sudanese Choir
Oct 6th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 2.30pm
Oct 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Men’s Breakfast
Oct 7th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St Francis’ Blessing of Pets Service
Oct 13th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 3.30pm
Oct 15 -18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clergy Conference
Oct 25th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Fair & Garden Party Committee mtg.
Oct 27th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.00pm
Nov 10th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Fair
Nov 17th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.00pm
Nov 17th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 5.00pm
Nov 24th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 2.00pm
Nov 24th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wedding 3.30pm
Dec 1st. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 2.00pm
Dec 8th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 4pm
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
At the beginning of each month this list is cleared and names need putting down again on the list in the narthex and signed in. No names should be listed without permission.
Tony Armstrong, Julie Camp, Michael Condon, Nicky Cavill, Sam Chapman, Donna Dyson, Charles Grant, Frank Harder, Vida Hardy, James Karkham, Marjorie Millerick, Margaret Neaum, Doris Nichols, Margaret Noble, Jan Riches, Edith Robins, Sandra Simonis, Robyn Stone, Peter & Eva Swindells, Lorraine Vogul, Natalie Whyte,David, Faye, Joy, Glenda, Layla, Camron, Heather, Kate, Stephen & Charlotte Goulopoulos, Faye, Warren, John, David & Judith, Roslyn, Alexandra & Charles.
Anniversary of death
Glynn Davis, Margret Condon, Helen Morris 9th, Thomas Tacey 10th, Eileen Golden 11th, Mary Day, Eva Dick 12th, Amy McClusky, Frederick Stagg 13th, Herbert Smith, Eileen Vlasij 14th, Graeme Dempsey 15th.
Duties for 9th September 2007
Vigil Eucharist at 6pm 8th Sept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew Neaum
Celebrant 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Andrew Neaum
Celebrant 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Andrew Neaum
Celebrant 8.45 Dookie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gail Bryce
Celebrant 10.45 Katandra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gail Bryce
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liz Gyles, Pat Griffin
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Moran, Charlotte Brewer
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Volunteer, Michelle, Beth
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny, Tom Woodcock, Sophie
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Victoria Heenan, Children
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Griffin, Heather Fitzgerald
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carole Henderson, Bev Condon
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shirley Dean, Gwen Betson
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nola Brewer, Sandra Simonis
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norm Mitchelmore, Joe Pearson
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Brewer, John Pleming
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pat Griffin
Welcome Tbl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.30 Judy Lloyd ,10.30 Roz Dunlop
Mowing 1st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Norm Mitchelmore, Michael Egan
Duties for 16th September 2007
Vigil Eucharist at 6pm 15th Sept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew Neaum
Celebrant 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gail Bryce
Celebrant 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gail Bryce
Celebrant 8.45 Dookie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anne Russell
Celebrant 10.45 Katandra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anne Russell
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Fitzgerald, Gwyn Cowland
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ian Bryce, Nancy Noonan
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Volunteer, Michelle, Beth
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny, Benjamin, Daniel
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pat Griffin, Christine Jones
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ian Bryce, Carole Henderson
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bev Condon, Jenny Pleming
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beryl Goodfellow, Bev Reither
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hilder Lidgard, Jenny Moran
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Trevor Batey, Joy Campbell
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Nola Brewer
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gwyn Cowland
Welcome Tbl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.30 Dorothy Cook 10.30 Heather Carlyon
Mowing 1st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kay McGregor, Merv Cowland
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Mon 10th September
Rector’s Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Tuesday 11th September
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.00am Playgroup
12.15pm Simply Soul Soothing - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
4.00pm Confirmation Class
7.30pm Grief Support “Moving On”
Wednesday 12th September
7.45am Mattins only- Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
3.00pm Vestry/Library
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice for 10.30 Eucharist
5.30pm Hospice meeting
Thursday 13th September
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
Grammar School Rehearsal
11.00am Eucharist- Harmony Village
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
7.30pm Study Group - Carole’s Pad
Friday 14th September
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Wedding Rehearsals
7.00pm Arise 255
Saturday 15th September
Associate Priest’s Day Off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist (Traditional Rite)
1.00pm Wedding
2.30pm Wedding
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
16th September Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
8.30am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
8.45am St. Luke’s Dookie
10.45am St. Mary’s Katandra
5.30pm Evening Prayer