FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
13th March 2011
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
DEAF DOG
One of Dookie's more progressive and intelligent farmer's had a dog that went missing and he was inconsolable. His wife said to him, "Why not put an advert in the Shepp. News to get him back". The farmer did this, but after two weeks, there were no phone calls at all, the dog was still missing. "What did you write in the paper?" asked his wife. "Here boy," said the farmer.
RETURNING TO ZIMBABWE (15)
Andrew Neaum
This is the fifteenth episode of an account of the recent trip to Zimbabwe and Lesotho made by Diana and myself last October. The previous episodes can be found on my website: http://www.andrewneaum.com/articles.htm
The time share house we were kindly given for four days at Troutbeck proved to be one of a dozen or more that are erected on land occupied by a fine hotel that overlooks two tranquil and lovely dams, well stocked with trout and surrounded by its own lovely golf course. The hotel was built forty five years ago and is now one of a chain of classy hotels and resorts that trade under the name "African Sun". The open fire burning in the hotel's foyer, even during this hottest time of they year, has apparently been burning for all the forty five years of the hotel's existence. The name "Troutbeck", which of course originates in England's Lake District, represents colonial nostalgia for a nearly always fondly remembered homeland.
Memorable holidays
Because the Troutbeck district is in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands and so greater in altitude and much cooler even than the highveld upon which Harare is built, has always provided those who wilt in excessive heat with a favoured respite during hot summers. It is noted for its beautiful mountains, almost invariably crisp mornings, trout streams and lovely walks. Even in winter it provides invigorating, very frosty and often misty weather of the sort that nostalgic English folk remember with selective longing, gloriously autumnal rather than numbingly, drearily and interminably wintry.
When I lived in Zimbabwe we often holidayed there. Too poor for a hotel of course as the dependent son of a poorly paid mission priest, then an impoverished university student and finally a modestly paid priest myself. We either camped, or stayed in a "chalet" owned by a doctor friend of my father's, a fine though slightly dilapidated, double storeyed building with a wood-shingled roof. It overlooked a rushing stream and its very own waterfall. Those Troutbeck holidays were very good.
My childhood was lardy rather than oily. Whenever we went on holiday we took a sack of potatoes and the chip pan full of solidified lard, and so ate lots and lots of chips, the best in the world. It is not only nostalgia that makes them so. Lard cooks at a temperature high enough to blister spuds in a mouth-watering fashion. I remember, incidentally, that my eccentric grandmother made delicious chips, against all odds, by simply putting raw, chipped potatoes onto the solid lard of the chip pan and allowing them slowly to sink as the fat melted. By all calculations they should have been soggily foul, but they were not.
Patrolled and protected
The Troutbeck Resort with its hotel and "time share" houses is situated in an unobtrusively policed, spacious and beautifully maintained grassy and treed compound, entered through a boom gate manned by uniformed ex-soldiers of an extremely amiable sort. One of them in particular amused us hugely with his meticulous, if exaggerated, marches from the little guardroom to the gate and back, smartly saluting us every time we drove through. The whole complex is beautifully maintained and managed, a sort of first world enclave in a third world country, one to which only the privileged and tourists would be able to afford access. We later discovered that the whole area was patrolled at night. So much so that we would sometimes be startled by a knock on the french door of our house well after dark. This was to inform us if we happened to have left outside even only a cup in the barbecue area, where earlier we had sat and dozed overlooking the beautiful lake and hills beyond.
The house had three bedrooms, one of them on a mezzanine floor above the kitchen. There was a large open fire place in the lounge which the servant allocated to the house offered to light for us, but we declined, for it seemed too warm for this. The servant looked after several houses as well as ours and would have attended to all our needs had we asked him to, but again we declined preferring to look after ourselves. I did however successfully enlist his help in procuring some salt, desperately needed to do justice to the two most delicious items on our menu, avocados and eggs.
Because of Zimbabwe's frequent power outages, usually one full day in two, there was a two-ringed gas cooker provided as well as a sort of battery device that allowed the television and a few lights to work even when the power was cut. The views from the house were very lovely and for the first day we did little except lounge and relax, taking just a gentle walk around the first of the lakes.
Local rambles
Our first sortie by car was to Inyanga village where we hoped to find a decent supermarket or store from which to augment and render a little more exotic our store of foodstuffs, but to no avail. The village is now no longer in any sense at all a touristy place, and what open stores there were catered for the masses, offering little to attract or entice the likes of us, with our taste for good cheeses, imaginatively marinaded olives, smoked salmon and fillet steak. We wandered around happily enough though and then pressed on to the Rhodes Hotel, not quite so high in altitude as Troutbeck, but a lovely, well remembered and older hotel, once the homestead of Cecil Rhodes. His estate that went with the house is now a national park. We stopped for a brief look at the hotel, and then made our way to the dam where we parked the car and went for a walk in lovely countryside, disturbing a duiker and encountering a troop of baboons. We ate a snack on a little footbridge, not far from where we had spied the baboons and then scrambled through thick bush to a cluster of lodges and to the dam wall. There we lingered awhile, admiring the intricate handiwork (beakiwork or billiwork) of the masked weavers, whose nests are cosy masterpieces.
We later walked right round the two dams in front of the Troutbeck hotel, a beautiful walk during which we sighted a hammerkop, a largish brown bird with a crest that gives its head the appearance of a hammer, hence its Dutch name. They eat frogs and tadpoles and build huge, scruffy nests in which reside several generations. They are regarded with some awe by the Africans and I have always loved them.
The Honde Valley
For our big trip while at Inyanga we decided to avoid the usual touristy circuits and instead head down the Honde Valley. The one and only time I had travelled down there before was with bishop Paul Burrough at the height of the Civil War. I went to keep him company, taking supplies to our church people in the valley at a time when forcible removals from villages into fortified camps were being made, and when the threat of landmines, referred to by the locals as "sweet potatoes", was very real.
To get there Diana and I travelled down a steep escarpment, dropping a thousand feet or more. The soil was red, rich and well cropped with bananas. There were also many little paddocks or patches ploughed and sown, waiting for rain. The population seemed more dense than in any other of the tribal trust lands we had traversed so far, presumably because the land is more fertile and the rainfall heavier than anywhere else in Zimbabwe. Once down on to the valley floor the mountains of the Eastern Highlands on our left loomed large and impressive, while ahead and to our right were less high but fascinatingly shaped mountains in Mocambique. We pressed on, careful to avoid the large number of pedestrians on the road, until we left behind the communal lands and arrived at the well manicured Aberfoyle tea estates which are beautifully green. Like low hedged mazes, they covered the hill sides for miles. Obviously the rain fall here is much higher than elsewhere and the little remnant patches of uncultivated or cleared land appeared to be densely fecund rain forest.
The tea plantations seemed well managed and entirely by local people, though we did not go right up to the headquarters of the Estate. At a processing plant we enquired as to whether we could look around, but were told by the gate manager that she would have to ask her superiors and that they had gone off to lunch. Eventually we turned round to make our way home, stopping at a bakery and supermarket in the middle of nowhere, hoping to buy a Chelsea bun, because on the way down we had stopped to photograph the mountains there and the scent from the bakery had watered our mouths. Unfortunately they were sold out, and so we ended up buying a packet of junk food to stave off the demons of hunger. On the way out of the store we were called back by a security official to have our invoice scrutinised, something that happens in Shepparton if you purchase anything at the garish emporium vulgarly named "Wow".
Mr Mugabe's cataracts
I gather from the latest "Spectator" that Robert Mugabe celebrated his 87th birthday last week, telling his guests that even if his body "may be spent", his ideas are still those of a young man. "The night before, " writes columnist Petroc Trelawny, "he'd flown back into Harare airport, having commandeered an Air Zimbabwe Boeing to take him to Singapore for a cataract operation. Given events further north, and Mugabe's well-known friendship with Colonel Gaddafi, it is a brave time to leave home. Or perhaps, as one local blogger observed, the removal of his cataracts might enable him to see the truth for what it really is." (To be continued)
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthdays:
Christopher Wells 18th March
Nathalie Schwab 18th March
Cecily McDonnell 19th March
WELCOME (1)
We are privileged to welcome as our preacher at the 8.30am Eucharist today, the Rev Dr Lauren Artress from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, of whom Andrew Harvey has said: "Much of the future of the West depends on whether Christianity can rediscover its mystical core. In this rediscovery, Lauren Artress's pioneering work using the labyrinth as a tool for self-alignment will be crucial. Artress brings to her work a marvellous no-nonsense vigour and real exultation."
WELCOME (2)
We are privileged to welcome as our celebrant and preacher at Children's Church today the Rev John Southerden who needs no introduction having endeared himself to the parish as a locum for three months last year. Welcome indeed.
EVENING GUILD AGM
The Evening Guild Annual Meeting is on March 17th at 1.30pm in Roz's Room!!!
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The AGM passed as speedily and expeditiously as is now customary in this most pleasing of parishes. Congratulations to our Churchwardens: John Pleming, Bev Condon and John Horder and to our new Parish Council: Marg Carrol, Dorothy Cook, Joe Fernandez, Norm Mitchelmore, Handson Nhanhanga, Mary Pearson, Martin Richardson and Barbara Whyte, there is one more to be nominated by myself.
Our Parochial Nominators who with the diocese help find a new Rector should the old one disappear for any reason are: Bev Condon, Heather Fitzgerald and John Pleming with supplementaries: Dorothy Cook, Greg Pestell and Sandra Simonis, Supplementaries: Our Synod Representatives are Heather Fitzgerald, Marjorie Earl and Dorothy Cook, with supplementaries: Peter Martin, Joan McCann and Joe Fernandez. Congratulations to them all and many thanks for agreeing to nominate.
It was agreed unanimously that the Parish Fair and Garden Party this year be held on the 4th Saturday in October, the 22nd.
The Rector augmented his written report with the news that Murchison and Rushworth are to come under the care and shelter of St Augustine's from the middle of May, and that the Revd. Chris Shields is to be an Honorary Assistant Priest of our parish.
ARISE 255
Arise 255 is meeting on Monday night the program is "Living the good life". Everyone has the right to better themselves. Can God make a good life better?
THANK YOU
Many thanks to all who helped in any way for the World Day of Prayer, held at St.Augustine's, Friday 4th March.
LENT: LIVING NOW AND THEN
The 2011 Lenten Studies start this week. There is a list for names in the Narthex. The Revd Gail Bryce will be leading one on Mondays at 1.30pm. (NOTA BENE because Monday next week is a public holiday the first Monday Study is on Tuesday, just for this week at 1.30pm.)
Canon Andrew will be leading one on Tuesdays at 7.30pm, preceded by a Eucharist at 7.00pm. (Starting this week, 15th March)
SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND COFFEE MORNING
Kialla Gardens Activities Centre, Wednesday 23rd March at 10.00am Entrance fee $6. Guest Speaker: State Manager of Save the Children Victoria.
LADY DAY SERVICE -WANGARATTA
Wed. 23rd March at the Cathedral. 10.15 morning tea,11.00am Eucharist, 12.30 lunch (cost $10.00) catered for by ABM ladies. The Guest speaker Fr. Kim Benton topic "Missionary Work in Burma". Please give your names to Heather by the 16th March
FRIENDSHIP GROUP
The Friendship Group are meeting on Tuesday 15th and are giving it's folk a choice of venue this month. Some will be going to see the movie The King's Speech, meeting at the Cinema at 1.15pm and the cost is $9, others will be meeting in the Narthex at 2pm as usual. If you would like to go to the movie please ring Val Downie on 58216974 by Monday. All are welcome.
ON LEAVE
Carole Henderson will be on leave for the next month. Please do not disturb her with church business (though of course friendship is another matter entirely).
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Mar 15th Friendship Group 2pm
Mar 16th Vestry 2pm
Mar 17th Evening Guild 1.30pm
Mar 20th St. Luke's A.G.M
Mar 26th Garden Working Bee
Mar 28th Arise 255/Youth Group
Apr 3rd St. Mary's A.G.M.
Apr 9th Wedding
Apr 17th Old Fashioned Easter Picnic
May 15th Hospice Service 2.00pm
May 22nd Patronal Festival
May 26th Raffle Sub-Committee meeting
June 3rd Synod
June 4th Synod
June 16th Parish Fair Planning Group meeting 4pm
July 17th Bishop's Visit
Sept 24th Wedding
Oct 1st Wedding 2pm
Oct 8th Wedding 2pm
Oct 8th Wedding 3.30pm
Oct 22nd Parish Fair & Garden Party
Oct 29th Wedding
Dec 10th Wedding
Oct 23rd Confirmation
READINGS for 20th March
Genesis 12:1-4; Romans 4:1-5,13-17
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.
Nicole Ackland, Alan Akers, Lorraine Ashbury, Deb Bagley, Jan Black, Liam Bognar, Ian Carman, Tom Downie, Michael Green, Frank Harder, Margaret Hoare, John Horder, Jack Halsall, Dot Hunter, Margaret Kidman, Lynn Morcam,Albert Oxenbury, Isabelle Richards, Peter Swindells, Patricia Sparkes, Shirley Young, David, David & Judith, Stewart, John, Pat, Harry, Amanda, Eamonn, Michael.
Rest in peace: Avis Nimmo
Anniversary of death: John Still, Shaun Carter 13th, Constance Mills, Leslie Maskell, Dorothy Bassett, Paddy Wallden 14th, William Wilson 15th, Donald Ducat, Reginald Mould, Rita Lee 16th, Michael Noonan, Yvonne Young 17th, Winifred Tinning, Konstantyn Tokarew 18th, Henry Erwen, Yvonne Houghton 19th.
Duties for 13th March 2011
Readers 8.30 Liz Gyles, Bev Condon
Readers 10.30 Joan McCann, Samantha Conway
Servers 8.30 Heather, Beth, Michelle
Servers 10.30 Greg, Eve, Grace
Intercessors Celebrant, Children
Euc. Assts 8.30 John Griffin, Carole Henderson
Euc. Assts 10.30 Christine Evans, Joe Fernandez
Welcoming 8.30 Bev Ralph, Heather Nichols
Welcomers 10.30 Nola Brewer, volunteer please
Sidespeople 8.30 Trevor Batey, Joy Campbell
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming, Alan Akers
Welcome Table Bev
Tea 8.30 Bev Reither
Altar Linen for March Ella Egan
Mowing 12th March John Pleming, John Wellman
Duties for 20th March 2011
Readers 8.30 Norm Mitchelmore, Victoria Heenan
Readers 10.30 Greg Pestell, Verna Pestell
Servers 8.30 Michelle, Beth
Servers 10.30 Frank, Bethany, Sophie
Intercessors Heather Fitzgerald, Verna Pestell
Euc. Assts 8.30 Bev Condon, John Horder
Euc. Assts 10.30 Joe Fernandez, Gretg Pestell
Welcoming 8.30 Anita Saville, Pat Griffin
Welcomers 10.30 Jenny Moran, Volunteer please
Sidespeople 8.30 Joe Pearson, Norm Mitchelmore
Sidespeople 10.30 Charlotte Brewer, Nola Brewer
Welcome Table Judy
Altar Linen for March Ella Egan
Tea 8.30 Shirley Dean
Mowing None this week
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 14th March
Rector's day off,
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Arise 255/Youth Group
Tuesday 15th March
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.00am Playgroup - Roz's Room
11.00am Shepparton Aged Care- Anne Russell
1.30pm Lent Group - Library
2.00pm Friendship Group (see notice)
7.00pm Lenten Eucharist
7.30pm Lenten Study
7.30pm Baptism Preparation
Wednesday 16th March
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
2.00pm Vestry - Library
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
4.00pm Eucharist - Banksia
Thursday 17th March
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
9.00am Eucharists - Hakea & Acacia
11.00am Eucharist - Harmony
1.30pm Evening Guild
2.00pm Funeral
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
Friday 18th March
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
3.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Saturday 19th March
Associate Priest's Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
2nd Sunday in Lent 20th March
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine's
8.45am Eucharist - Dookie & A.G.M
10.45am Eucharist- Katandra
5.30pm Evening Prayer