SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
22nd June 2008
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
DUCK TALE
A duck walked into a bar and asked, "Have you any grapes?" The bartender, puzzled and surprised, told the duck that his bar didn't serve grapes. The duck thanked him and left. The next day, the duck returned and said, "Have you any grapes?" Again, the bartender told him that the bar did not serve grapes, and that furthermore it had never served grapes, and was most unlikely ever to serve grapes in the future. The duck, a little ruffled, thanked him and left. The next day, the duck returned, but before he could say anything, the bartender yelled: ''Listen, duck! This is a bar! We do not serve grapes! If you ever ask for grapes again, I will nail your silly, quacking, yellow, duck’s beak to the bar!'' The duck was silent for a moment, and then asked, ''Have you any nails?'' Confused, the bartender said, “No!” ''Good!'' said the duck. ''Have you any grapes?''
CLERICAL LIFE
Andrew Neaum
Most of my creative work as a parish priest, such as writing this article, or composing sermons, preparing funeral homilies or planning reflections for Simply Soul Soothing is done early in the morning. I tend to be up these day at about half past four, not as heroic as it sounds for I get between five and six hours of sleep a night, which is not at all bad for someone my age. After a shower, a cup of coffee and a quick skim of the internet news, I write my daily journal and then get down to turning inchoate ideas and notions into well wrought articles, sermons or whatever. I enjoy doing so enormously, once I have warmed up and become absorbed.
I make my way over to the church at around 7.00am, and having set up the altar for mass I sit down to say my personal prayers and sometimes to listen to Bach or learn poetry off by heart. Mattins begins at a quarter to eight, after thirty three emphatic rings of the church bell. Breakfast is usually sometime between half past eight and nine.
The rest of the day tends to be taken up with a wide variety of tasks. There is my weekly hospital round, which takes at least a morning and is very rewarding. There are interviews for funerals, weddings, and sometimes baptisms. There are regular sick visits, old age home eucharists as well as Wednesday eucharists. There are staff meetings, vestry meetings and other meetings. The bereaved are visited the enquiring answered. There are email queries to be answered, and letters to be attended to, some of them complicated. There are diocesan obligations to fulfil, complainants to be mollified and the puzzled unpuzzled. There are hymns to be picked, anthems to be discovered, considered, downloaded and printed. There are holes to be augured for ashes. There are graves and sometimes houses to be blessed. There are insistent needy folk to be listened to, counselled and helped. By evening I am usually wacked. The clerical life is full, fulfilling, demanding and fascinating.
The “sunrise of wonder”
One of the best reasons for being Christian is out of a sense of wonder. Michael Mayne in one of his very fine books quotes that great Christian and aphorist G K Chesterton as follows:
At the back of our brains, so to speak, there is a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spiritual life is to dig for this sunrise of wonder.
William Blake put much the same notion memorably and famously like this:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
Mayne goes on to say that he has “... always been attracted to that concept of priesthood that likens a priest to an artist, Keats spoke of the poet as a ‘priest’, one who experiences the joys and suffering with and on behalf of others and who understands the reality and the truth of the things of the spirit. The most awesome task of an artist is to help us to see, to say, ‘Look! Pay attention!”
Where are we to look? If we are unable to find God, wonder and the things of the spirit in the stuff of our everyday life, we are unlikely to find them anywhere, for where else is there to look?
Paws for prayer
At St Luke’s Dookie on Sunday mornings the company of the faithful is sometimes enriched by the presence of a parishioner called Gracie. She is a gentle, affectionate and well behaved spaniel, the companion, friend and confidante of Janet Kiddell. Janet tells me that her brother Martin, who is a priest in England, has been looking after a small church on Dartmoor. On his first Sunday the handful of parishioners was augmented by the presence of the pet dog of one of them. It sat up quietly and intelligently carefully looking at the priest, who avoided catching its eye in case doing so excited it in any way. You will have noticed that I am just as careful. I make sure that I never catch the eye of Ron Rose while preaching or conducting a service in St Augustine’s in case it causes him to bark, whimper or scratch. The following Sunday, to Martin’s faint surprise, there were two women with a pet dog each in attendance. Both dogs sat up intelligently, paying careful attention to the service. Again he avoided meeting their eyes. (This, by the way, is a true story recounted by Janet to me after Church last Sunday, though there might be an odd detail I have remembered wrongly). On the next Sunday, to his surprise and mild alarm there were three dogs in attendance, enough surely to worry even St Francis. Worse was to follow. When the time came for Communion one of the women brought her dog up to the rail. It stood there beside her, and naturally enough Martin ignored it while he gave its owner the sacramental bread, whereupon she gave the sacrament to her dog and reached out to take another for herself! Martin has written to his bishop asking him what should be done about the wilful giving of communion to a dog that has not been baptized!
Sleepy head
Mercifully the daily life of a parish priest involves encounters with sinners as well as saints. Too much sanctity cloys. Last week I had dealings with a dubious character who, I am almost sure, was the one we caught going through the cupboards in the parish office a year or so ago. He had jumped through the glass hatch when the office was briefly unattended and its door locked.
His visit this time was for a bag of emergency food, but he was so consumed by sleep that he kept nodding off as he stood and talked to me, staggering into an erect if wobbling wakefulness as the law of gravity began to pull him down, and then immediately nodding off again. Eventually I had to give him a ride home in case he came to harm. A pleasant enough person but with a somewhat oblique perspective on truth and honesty.
Scepticism
I have had several interesting luncheon encounters recently. One was with a congenial non-believer with whom I share in good work of a secular nature. In conversation I began to develop an idea that has been lurking in the back of my mind for some time. It is to do with a natural scepticism I discover in myself and a growing conviction that rather than to be deplored this is to be rejoiced in. I appear to be a questioner of everything, a congenital non-believer in anything except, strangely, God.
With the explosion of information now available to us by way of the internet, it is vital, I suggested in our conversation, that we all learn to be critical and sceptical in our assessment of it all. The internet, so valuable as a tool for research into pretty well anything and everything, is awash with dubious facts, half truths, lies and hogwash as well as invaluable and valid information.
If, for example, we are offered a strange therapy or remedy for a dire illness, before we fork out our cash to purchase it, swallow it, massage it in to our aching limbs or whatever, it is necessary and vital to test its bona fides and seek out whatever evidence is available as to its efficacy.
Researching purported panaceas on the internet usually reveals a thousand laudatory articles and reviews. However, all of them, or nearly all of them, on close and critical inspection turn out to be from vested interests. It is the critical appraisals not the laudatory ones that should most interests us. I certainly am a sceptic and have no wish ever to be duped into discipleship of, or faith in the dubious, wacky or daft.
So although I believe in God and the Christian revelation, albeit in a reasonably sophisticated and developed form, I discover myself to be a natural sceptic. Almost by reflex a questioner of pretty well every orthodoxy, be it the cult of “self esteem”, climate alarmism, fashionable greenness, art as self expression or whatever. Perhaps this in part explains my robust faith. Agnosticism and atheism, certainly in the non-church going part of my milieu, are now very much the current and usually flaccid orthodoxies that most need sceptical questioning.
Musical metaphors
I listen to a Haydn piano trio as I write what I trust to be an enjoyable and informative article. It is an insult to Haydn to use his lovely music as mere background. It is also, possibly, an insult to any readers of this piece to treat them so casually as to have only half my mind on what I am writing, the other half delighting in music.
The mind’s ability to do more than one thing at a time is impressive though. We can drive a car, hold a conversation and relish an apple all at once. I remember reading many years ago that when listening to music, the ear and mind together can only grasp two and a little bit melodic lines at one time. So to listen to a five part fugue means missing at least half of what is going on. Though there is enormous pleasure in melodic line jumping, as well as a certain satisfaction in an awareness of there being more going on than one can fully grasp. What is more when there occurs a five part chordal pause or conclusion a sense of the wonderful totality is momentarily grasped.
So too it is with life. God is a constant, comforting, delighting, exciting, joy-imparting, rich melodic line in the daily polyphony of life, whether we are fully aware of it or not. Part of the pleasure of a full Christian life lies in giving our attention to different melodic lines, while always being at least faintly aware of the thrumming ground bass of the divine melody upholding and giving coherence to all others. Music is a rich source of devotional and religious metaphor.
Ripping music
Over the past few months I have been gradually ripping my CD collection on to my computer. It is a fairly complicated job if it is done properly. Each disk, when it is fed into one of the computer’s mouths, sets the digestive juices of the internet working, and as often as not a picture of the album is thrown up on screen as well as disk information. This needs to be edited and sometimes corrected, and if the internet throws up no information at all and declares the disk “unknown”, then the information has to be labouriously typed in by hand. I have now 261 CD’s on my computer, reasonably well edited, sorted and duly backed up. Wonderful.
Haydn’s piano trio is now ended and so have I. Even more wonderful.
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthdays
Joan McCann. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22nd June
Max Ralph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23rd June
Judy Lloyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25th June
WELCOME
We congratulate today young William Furphy to be baptized at the 10.30am Eucharist. Welcome too to his parents Adam and Jeannie and family and friends.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY BREAK
There is no Catechesis of the Good Shepherd or Playgroup during the school holidays.
WELCOMING PROCEDURES
After both services today there will be a short meeting of Welcomers to talk about procedures and listen to any problems. Please stay on if you possibly can.
CATERING
The Catering Team do a wonderful job in raising money for necessary improvements to the hall. There is a list in the Narthex for the names of those willing to be asked to help with catering for funerals and the like. Please consider enlisting.
GIANT GARAGE SALE
This takes place on Friday the 11th of July from 9.00am to 4.00pm and on Saturday July the 12th from 9.00am to12noon. It is time to sort out any unwanted or excess items that you may have. We are in need of all sorts of saleable articles, and as the event is now only a month away, we are a little short. We will accept most things and they can be collected if required. Contact Merle 58315601 or Betty 58211558 or any Guild member
GARDEN WORKING BEE
This Saturday 9.00am. Note change of date!
EMERGENCY FOOD
As the months get colder so does the need for emergency food. Items that are particularly appreciated are 50gram tins of coffee, 250gram Kraft cheddar cheese blocks, small Vita Brits, litre cartons of long life milk, 1kilo packets of sugar.We appreciate parishioners donating to the emergency food cupboard. Nearly all of the recipients of our parcels appreciate it even more. Thank you.
DIOCESAN SNOW TRIP
This takes place from the 1st to the 3rd of August. Plenty of food, and fun with young people from all over the North East. Applications need to be in by the 10th of July and fees and application forms are available from the Parish Office.
READINGS for 29th June
Genesis 22:1-14 & Romans 6:12-23
DATES FOR THE DIARY
July 8th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Moving On”/Grief Support Group
July 9th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vestry 2pm
July 11th & 12th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evening Guild Garage Sale
July 16th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Council
July 17th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friendship Group
July 20th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ecumenical Service at Dookie
July 26th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garden Working Bee
Aug 1st - 3rd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Diocesan Snow Trip
Aug 16th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mens Breakfast
Aug 20th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Council
Aug 21st. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evening Guild/Postie Party
Aug 30th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garden Working Bee
Aug 30th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm
Sept 17th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Council
Sept 18th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evening Guild/Den
Sept 27th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garden Working Bee
Oct 4th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 1.30pm
Oct 5th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . St. Francis Tide Pet Service
Oct 7th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Visit of Gippsland AWA Eucharist & Meal
Oct 12th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125th Anniversary Celebrations - Katandra
Oct 15th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Council
Oct 19th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St Luke Day for Health & Caring Professionals
Oct 25th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Garden Working Bee
Oct 27-30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Clergy Conference
Nov 1st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .All Saint’s Day
Nov 2nd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All Soul’s Day
Nov 8th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Fair
Nov 15th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mens Breakfast
Nov 19th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Council
Nov 20th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evening Guild/Narthex
Nov 22nd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wedding 2pm
Nov 29th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garden Working Bee
Dec 17th. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Parish Council
Duties for 22nd June 2008
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Carole Henderson, Norm Mitchelmore
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Brewer, Christine Evans
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michelle, Beth
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joe, Zebedee, Bethany
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pat Griffin, Celebrant
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Margaret Neaum, John Griffin
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Christine Evans
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gwen Betson, Joy Campbell
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jenny Moran, Charlotte Brewer
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bob Galt, Joe Pearson
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alan Akers, Nola Brewer
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shirley Dean
Welcoming Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Mowing 21st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gary Grant, John Horder
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
At the beginning of each month this list is cleared and ALL names need putting down again on the list in the narthex and signed in. No names should be listed without a person’s permission. The list for names of those to be prayed for is kept in the top drawer of the little plastic box of drawers on the narthex table..
Liam Bognar, Joshua & Nicky Cavill, Kylie Butterfield, Alison Baldwin, Jack Cook, Bernie Dreher, Donna Dyson, Jean Eden, Andrew Fox, Richard Goodfellow, John Green, Frank Harder, Charlie Keen, Joan McRae, Lyn Mawson, John Moore, Margaret Neaum, Margaret Noble, Albert Oxenbury, Ellen Pearson, Bev Ralph, Jan Riches, Kevin Richards, John & Betty Shortridge, Peter & Eva Swindells, Lorraine Townley, Wes & Sue Tyson, Heather Vines, Lorraine Vogul, Bill, Brigid, David, Darren, Glenda, Layla, Michael & Amanda, Rae & Kevin, Carolyn & Stuart,Peter, Amanda.
Rest in Peace: Marija Marcetic, Mary Taylor
Anniversary of death: Joyce Rutherford, Maude Stone 22nd, Nancy McRae, Edna Inglis, Marjory Watts 23rd, Peter Preston, Lenard Woodyard 24th, George Petrovski 25th, Charlie Causon, Thomas Dickie, Sylvia Allen, Walter Young, 26th, Robert Lennox 27th , Vasiliki Janett, Jean Hastie, Terrence Rogers 28th.
Duties for 29th June 2008
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Pearson, Bev Condon
Readers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Noonan, Andrea Fisher
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beth, Michelle, Phillipa
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter, Sophie, Daniel
Intercessors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Fitzgerald, Andrea Fisher
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Horder, Carole Henderson
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., Bev Condon, Jenny Pleming
Welcoming 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bev Reither, Joyce Cavill
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nola Brewer, Frank Steen
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bev Ralph, Max Ralph
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Charlotte Brewer, John Pleming
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Pearson
Welcome Tbl 8.30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Mowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .no mowing
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 23rd June Rector’s Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
3.45pm Catechesis of The Good Shepherd
Tuesday 24th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
12.15pm Simply Soul Soothing
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Bishop in Council
Wednesday 25th June
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Thursday 26th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.15am Grutzner House
11.00am Eucharist - Harmony Village
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
Friday 27th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
9.00am Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
11.00am Ave Maria
Saturday 28th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel Trad Rite
9.00am Garden Working Bee
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
Sunday 29th June
8.30am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine’s
12.15pm Orthodox Baptism
8.45am Eucharist - Dookie
10.45am Eucharist - Katandra