THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT
11th December 2011
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
DENOMINATIONAL BRAS
As told to an appreciative Friendship Group Meeting last week!
A man walked into the ladies department of a Myers' store, shyly walked up to the woman behind the counter and said, "I'd like to buy a bra for my wife. "What type of bra?" asked the saleslady. "Type?" inquired the man, "Is there more than one type?" "Look around," said the saleslady, there was a sea of bras in every shape, size, colour and material imaginable. "Actually however, it is not quite as difficult as you might think, for even with all this variety, there are really only four basic types to choose from." Relieved, the man asked about them and she replied: "There are the Catholic, the Salvation Army, the Presbyterian, and the Baptist types. Which one would you prefer?" Now totally befuddled, the man asked about the differences between them. The Saleslady responded, "It is all really quite simple. The Catholic type supports the masses. The Salvation Army type lifts the fallen, The Presbyterian type keeps them staunch and upright, and The Baptist makes mountains out of mole hills."
THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER (24)
Andrew Neaum
The whole of this Ongoing Diary Column Can be viewed at:
http://www.andrewneaum.com/articles/64-This_and_That_(Ongoing_Diary_Column).htm
The week's best comment would have to be the complaint made to me, that with the Rector's wife in the Parish Office parishioners will have no one to whinge to! That is probably not a bad thing. We don't employ a secretary to field, absorb or suffer whinges and whines. Affirming, not whingeing, should characterise Christians. However, as a long time clergyman's wife, Diana is well practised in the art of listening to whinges and criticism in order to filter them judiciously into forms suitable to the tender susceptibilities of sensitive clergy. Most of us at times need a whinge, and now and then they carry some justification. Perhaps at out next AGM we should elect a Parish Whinge Receptor, to listen to and filter whinges of dross and rubbish and then pass on any small residue of legitimate criticism.
Too beautiful this year
My children have some close ties to New Zealand, mostly through a family that was warmly connected to ours when I was Rector of Ararat. I wonder if they will be reading this account of our two weeks holiday there with more than usual interest.
On our return we received a card from Rachel in Jerusalem where she is helping to run courses at St George's College. She says: "I could live in Jerusalem a thousand years and not come close to getting a handle on its glorious, passionate beauty." She precedes this comment by quoting the second half of a glorious sonnet by Edna St Vincent Millay.....
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do fear
Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
Somewhere in this pew sheet I will print the whole of the sonnet, it is lovely.
New Zealand Birthday
Back to New Zealand. It was only when I lay on the bed of our little eyrie in the lovely house near Keri Keri, opened my small travelling laptop and pressed Control-D to begin the day's entry in the Journal which is the quarry for this article, that I noticed it was my birthday, the 16th of November. Needless to say Diana had not forgotten the date.
After a proper breakfast of scrambled egg, followed by toast and lovely Manuka honey, my birthday was duly recognised with presents and little candles stuck into a pair of very sweet oranges from the orchard behind the house. A mere remnant of an orchard now turned over mostly to kiwi fruit vines, which are grown in hugely high-hedged paddocks on trellises which are high enough to walk under to pick the fruit dangling invitingly and conveniently down. Pruning on top of the trellises must be something of a hassle.
Summing me up well, the Summers gave me a book called Preposterous Proverbs, its subtitle being my mother's very favourite proverb "Fine words butter no parsnips". Diana gave me a book on New Zealand and two seat belt covers.
The loveliest of loos
After breakfast we set out for the airport to collect our hire car and travel south to Tor Bay to stay with our second host. The trip was trouble free, with one little shower of rain early on, and mostly sunny, though cool, thereafter. The countryside was beautifully lush and green and for the most part, as in England, it was either cultivated, or rich pastureland so well grassed that sometimes the ubiquitous dairy herds were all but invisible in wind-waving unmown hay. There seemed to be little flat land, it was very much up and down along a curvaceous road with very many grassed hills that were for the most part, sharp angled beneath their turf, indicating relatively recent volcanic origins.
Our first stop was at a place called Kawakawa, famous above all else for its public conveniences — the Hundertwasser toilets. Hundertwasser was an anti-rationalist artist, environmentalist and architect. As an architect he was an enemy of straight lines and so his work is vaguely reminiscent of the more famous Gaudi architect of the great church of flowing lines in Barcelona. Hundertwasser's brightly coloured toilets in Kawakawa are indeed a delight to use, different and fascinating. Relieving oneself was more than a mere convenience, I felt that I was participating in a work of art. Sculptured columns, flowing lines, mosaic tiling, tufts of native grass adorning the roof, a tree incorporated into the structure, copper handwork, sculptures and cobblestone flooring, it was amazing. Of all rivals to being the most uninteresting place in a city or town the public conveniences would win. Not so in Kawakawa.
Ruapekapeka
Our next significant stop was twenty of so kilometres south of Kawakawa. We headed off the road and up into lovely, well grassed hills, all buttercupped and daisied, the unmetalled road lined with cow parsley. We had spotted a signpost to a famous Pa: Ruapekapeka. A Pa can be the site of a fortified village, but is more usually that of a fortified hilltop defensive position. Ruapeka-peka is a very fine example of the latter. It is the site of the final battle between the British and Maori in the "War of the North". We parked the car and walked through a fine carved wooden archway at the beginning of a path up the hill. On reaching the site itself there was very clear and striking evidence of long gone palisades, earthworks and trenches. There is now too a great big and very fine carved commemorative Maori pole, with the characteristic, glaring, fierce faces.
Apparently the British victory over their opponents had been aided by an unfair attack on a Sunday, when the newly converted Maoris were at prayer! Nothing is beyond perfidious Albion. Though ironically accounts of colonial history nowadays, both here in Australia and in New Zealand, do appear so to bend over backwards in an anti-colonial and pro-indigenous fervour, that they transfer the deplorable triumphalism of our own proud accounts of our history in days gone by, to those we conquered all of whom are painted as having been heroic and faultless. An ironic colonial legacy.
Continuing south
After a lovely walk all over the beflowered and grassy Pa in bright sunshine and a brisk, cool breeze, we headed back to the car and made our way to the port of Whangarei. There we found a grassy park adjacent to what appeared to be a large yachting berth, empty of yachts, and ate what was to become our standard lunch. A fresh and crisp baguette, with a delicious New Zealand avocado pear each, supplemented this time with a modestly sized blue brie cheese. We abandoned cheese in later lunches for the unutterably delicious Manuka honey.
We then headed on south towards Auckland, avoiding the toll road and finding our destination with ease. So much so we arrived before scheduled and were able to do a beach walk around the eponymous Tor of Tor Bay. Of particular interest to our inquiring minds and salivating mouths were the great clusters of small mussels, oysters and other little molluscs on the rocks we walked across. The sea and fine seafood of course play a big part in the life of New Zealand. To my shame, however, I never sampled the much vaunted, but unappetising looking mussel fritter.
We had arranged to stay with a cousin of Margaret's, Penny, who lives in a two-bedroomed flatlet at street level beneath her daughter's house. In her eighties, for she is the oldest of all Margaret's cousins whereas Margaret was the youngest, she has been very, very ill, but remains the doughtiest and bravest of persons, the family archivist and focus. She offered us the alternative of going out to eat, or pork chops at home and we decided on the latter. I cooked them, keeping half an ear cocked as Diana interrogated her about the Margaret's extensive and interesting family.
One of the most interesting things about a second marriage, and sometimes the most difficult, is the melding of two families. Immediate family is one thing, but even if that is achieved, there remains a vast network of distant and then more distant relatives and their stories who have helped to make the present the present. All need to be absorbed, appropriated and at least in part understood if one's sense of belonging is to be complete. A vast hinterland awaiting exploration then. It is like emigrating to a new country. All the history, geography and literature learned or absorbed during one's school years fades into utter irrelevance in a new land, leaving a great gaping hole which, if you are an adult, is never, ever quite adequately filled.
Our time with Penny was spent mostly talking. Much of it to do with family matters, but also with faith as well. Most of her family are church involved, some of them intimately so. She herself remains a stalwart, thoughtful, traditional Anglican, some of her family of more enthusiastic varieties of the faith. We had two lovely walks while with her, the first up a steep valley, almost opposite her house, through thick forest with large trees and many tree ferns, very lovely and wild considering it is situated in the middle of a suburb. The second walk was more extensive, several miles along a wide flat beach, muddy coloured presumably from being estuarine. Along its landward side were splendid examples of the sprawling Pohutukawa trees with their seaward side roots exposed in impressive, snarled tangles.
God's World
O World, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!
Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart. Lord, I do fear
Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year.
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.
Edna St Vincent Millay
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthdays:
Dora Blackley 13th Dec
Charles Grant 17th Dec
Anniversary:
Maurice & Nancy Fennell 12th Dec
THE BEST CAROL SERVICE
The Parish Carol Service, at 5.30pm TODAY will be the best in town. This is because, of course, it is a service, not a concert. It is participatory and devotional, so in saying that it is the best in town, I am in no way denigrating the splendid "concert" by Sempre Cantare on the 16th, which I know will be of truly exceptional quality. Do come along to both and bring your friends. After the Carol Service this evening there is a Panegyrical Repast, in the form of a "Bring and Share" meal in the hall". See below.
CAROL SERVICE & FAREWELLS TONIGHT SUNDAY 11th DEC
The Carol Service at 5.30pm tonight Sunday 11th will be followed by a splendid Bring and Share Meal, a "Panegyrical Repast" to thank Norm Mitchelmore for his years and years as treasurer, and both to thank and farewell Heather Fitzgerald for her huge part over so many years in the life of this parish. If you are able to come, please sign the sheet on the Narthex table for catering purposes.
Because the Revd. Gail Bryce prefers to say her farewells individually and with a celebration of the Eucharist, I shall tonight, at the "Repast" be taking the opportunity to thank her, on behalf of us all, for her huge contribution to the life of the parish over many years. Her "Farewell" however, will be her Celebrations of the Eucharist in St Mary's Katandra at 8.30pm on Christmas Eve, 11.30pm at St Augustine's also on Christmas Eve and at St Luke's Dookie at 8.45 on Christmas Day.
THE LOVELY HEATHER CAMM
Heather Camm has put her heart and soul into our church community as Parish Secretary over the past eight years, and there can be very few if anyone who does not love her and mourn her going. We will say farewell to her at the Wednesday Eucharist on the 14th of December. This will be followed by a slap up morning tea. Do try to be here for this.
INDUCTION
The Rev'd Gail Bryce will be Inducted as Rector of the Parish of Tatura (with Toolamba) on Thursday 9th February, 2012 at 7.30pm at All Saints Anglican Church, Francis Street, Tatura. A good number of folk from here should be present to support her.
EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY
Find out more about the links between your daily life, God, the bible and your faith.
EfM is a supportive learning community where there are no wrong answers but lots of fun. You need no formal theological training, just an interest in reflecting on what is happening in your life and where this is touched by the story of God's people.
It is NOT training for ordination, it is NOT asking you to DO more and it is SO MUCH MORE than Bible study (just ask any of the current EfM group)!
At the Quiet Day the EfM group will demonstrate a Theological Reflection, one of the mainstays of EfM sessions, to give you a taste of what joining EfM would be like. We are looking for enough participants to start a second group in Murchison – remember participants can be from any denomination and at any stage on their Christian journey. Ask some friends if they'd like to join with you.
For more information, ask
Helen: hmalcolm@bigpond.com,
Victoria: heeno@bigpond.com,
Heather in the office, or any of the current group.
The deadline for letting Helen know if you'd like to join us next year is 18th December.
ANGLICARE CHRISTMAS BASKET
Next week after the Wednesday service 14th we will be sending donations of goods to the Anglicare Christmas Appeal. Gifts are needed for all age groups from babies to grandparents. No perishable goods please.
CAROLS IN ST. AUGUSTINE'S
Friday December 16th at 7.30pm
Sempre Cantare is a professional, a capella vocal ensemble based in Melbourne. The members of the ensemble have recently completed their Bachelor of Music (Classical Voice) at Monash Conservatorium. It is with pleasure that they present this concert to the local Shepparton community and beyond. Be entertained by the beautiful, unique sounds and arrangements of well-known popular and sacred carols. The concert also features guest artist Felicity Oakes who is granddaughter of Lois Oakes and a member of the group. Renee Rankin is the granddaughter of Barbara Schier. Entry is by a gold coin donation with all proceeds going to Anglicare.
"MOVING ON" GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP
Tues.13th December 7.30pm in the Narthex
Sharing positive memories of our loved ones
who are now with God. All welcome - Christmas Supper.
MONDAY 12th DECEMBER ARISE 255
Water/Pool/breakup. Grab your bathers and join us for a BBQ for end of year breakup.
VESTRY AND PARISH COUNCIL
No Vestry Meeting this week. On the 21st there will be a Parish Council Meeting followed by drinkies and chat at the Rectory.
READINGS NEXT WEEK
2 Samuel 7:1-11,16. Romans 16:25-27
FOR THE DIARY
Dec 11th Panegyrical Repast and Carol Service 5.30pm
Dec 12th Arise 255/Youth Group
Dec 13th "Moving On" Grief Support Group
Dec 14th Farewell Eucharist and Morning Tea - Heather
Dec 16th Concert: Sempre Cantare
Dec 21st Parish Council
Feb 29th Ash Wednesday and AGM
Apr 8th Easter Sunday
May 4th Raffle Sub Committee Meeting 4.00pm
Jun 14th Parish Fair Planning Meeting 4.00pm
Oct 20th 2012 Parish Fair and Garden Party
Duties for 11th December 2011
Readers 8.30 Liz Gyles, Bev Condon
Readers 10.30 Christine Evans, Courtney Craven
Servers 8.30 Beth, Michelle
Servers 10.30 Rick, Braden, Sam
Intercessors Carole Henderson, Children
Euc. Assts 8.30 Heather Fitzgerald, John Griffin
Euc. Assts 10.30 Christine Evans, Jenny Pleming
Welcomers 8.30 Dulcie Ackland, Eileen Quaife
Welcomers 10.30 Frank Steen
Sidespeople 8.30 Gwyn & Mervyn Cowland
Sidespeople 10.30 Charlotte Brewer, Volunteer
Tea 8.30 Val Bambrook
Welcoming Table Dorothy Cook
Mowing none this week
Altar Linen/Dec Rosemary Mitchelmore, Pat Griffin
Duties for 18th 2011
Readers 8.30 Norm Mitchelmore, Victoria Heenan
Readers 10.30 Linda Prosser, Andrea Fisher
Servers 8.30 Beth, Michelle
Servers 10.30 Jenny, Joe, Zebedee
Intercessors Carole Henderson, Joan McCann
Euc. Assts 8.30 Carole Henderson, Bev Condon
Euc. Assts 10.30 Greg Pestell, Joe Fernandez
Welcomers 8.30 Anita Saville, Gwen Betson
Welcomers 10.30 Sidespeople
Sidespeople 8.30 Bev Ralph, Max Ralph
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming, Mitch Macheda
Tea 8.30 Gwn Cowland
Mowing Merv Cowland, Beryl Bonfitto
Altar Linen/Dec Rosemary Mitchelmore, Pat Griffin
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.
Alan & Hilary Akers, Margaret Aldous, Joshua Bryce, Liam Bognar, Nola Brewer, Joy & Ian Carmen, Ross & Helen Dainton, Michael Egan, Liza Griffin, Vida Hardy Frank Harder, Katherine Holt, John & Kate Horder, Ross Judd, Ruth Lewis, Patricia Loughhead, Olive Paez, Margaret Kidman, Albert Oxenbury, Val Rose, Ethel & George Rumble, Sandra Simonis, Patricia Sparkes, Peter Swindells, Lesley Walker, Fay Warren, Malcolm, David, Peter, Val, Kaye, Pat, Lewis,
Rest in Peace:
June Scandolera, Harry Lloyd.
Anniversaries:
Bernice Batey, Elma Jackson 11th, Betty Watts, Neville Batey 12th, Anna McInnes, Vi Ball, Rodney Seamans 13th, John Rankin 14th, Bernard Bazeley 16th.
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 12th December
Rector's Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30am Arise 255
Tuesday 13th December
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.00am Playgroup - Roz's Room
11.00am Shepparton Aged Care
7.30pm Grief Support - Narthex
Wednesday 14th December
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
Thursday 15th December
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
9.30am Eucharist- Hakea & Acacia
11.00am Eucharist - Harmony
4.00pm Banksia
5.30pm Choir Practice - St Martin's Chapel
Friday 16th December
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
7.30pm Concert/Semptre Cantare
Saturday 17th December
(Associate Priest's Day off)
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist - Lady Chapel
Sunday 18th December Fourth in Advent
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am Eucharist - St. Augustine's
8.45am Eucharist - St Luke's
9.00am Eucharist - Rushworth
11.00am Eucharist - Murchison
12.15pm Orthodox Baptism