TRINITY SUNDAY
19th June 2011
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
HOIST BY HER OWN PETARD
Mildred, the church gossip, and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, couldn't help but stick her nose into other people's business. Although several parishioners did not at all approve of her extra-curricular activities, they were either so charitable that they maintained their silence, or had consciences guilty enough to fear exposure by her and so were silent.
She made a mistake, however, when she accused Bazza, a newcomer to the parish, of being an alcoholic, after she observed his old ute parked in front of the Terminus Pub all one afternoon. She told Bazza (and several others), with much censorious relish, that all those who saw it there would know exactly what he was up to.
Bazza, a man of few words, simply smiled at her for a moment and went on his way, making no attempt whatsoever to explain, defend, or deny her insinuations.
Later that evening, however, he quietly parked his ute in front of Mildred's house, walked home .....and left it there all night.
THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER (1)
Andrew Neaum
My daughter Rachel in England sent me an email recently which she headed: "A Haiku that could have been written by you"
Somewhere at the heart
of the universe sounds the
true mystic note: Me.
She was having a crack at that ego of mine. I love her for it. It needs cracking and often is, but it does mend itself with alacrity.
To the airport and Ivanhoe
Diana managed to evade the Chilean ash cloud on Wednesday, just as I did the Icelandic one last year. So as I write she is on her way to Toronto, there she will spend a week with family and friends before heading on to London. She has left me a freezer full of meals, a weeded garden, leaf-raked lawns and lots of expressions of love and affection.
After seeing her off I called on John and Kate Horder in Ivanhoe and had a lovely chat with them, my mobile phone pinging with messages from Diana as she waited to board her plane. John is stoically undergoing both radiotherapy and chemotherapy which have very far from pleasant side effects. His sense of humour remains active and infectious though, and his interest in the parish focussed and wise. It was his birthday and so I was able to leave a little gift and card and wish him well. He is an exceedingly good egg.
I was told last week of a funeral homily that I had delivered some years previously which had offended a relative of the deceased. That cracked my ego alright! My immediate reaction was regret, self-admonishment, chest-beating and a rueful acknowledgement of that tendency in myself to sail verbally too close to the wind. However, in my funeral homilies, over which I labour long, lovingly and hard, I usually manage to avoid giving offence, so I was surprised.
Fortunately I keep a copy of all my homilies and so revisited the one in question. I was reassured. It was one of my best. I would not want to retract a word of it, for it was complimentary, appropriately humourous, well argued, strong on faith and most felicitously expressed. The offended person I assume (possibly wrongly) to have been a hyper-sensitive ninny, one of those sorts who expect from mother Church the unctuous pap and comforting platitudes that undertakers are paid so well to deliver. I regard the homily so highly I am considering posting it on the net, with the name of the deceased person it celebrates tactfully disguised, of course.
Hilder Lidgard
The last time I saw Hilder Lidgaard was but a few days before her death. I called in on her at Acacia House after a Hospice Board Meeting that finished earlier than is usual. She was lying peacefully on one of those wonder-beds that can be electronically raised and lowered with such ease, and so she was but a few inches from the ground. I stretched out on the floor beside her and chatted about choirs, churches, her husband, her widely admired nursing prowess and so on. She could not respond verbally, but managed to do so with the slightest of little nods of the head whenever she was in strong agreement with any sentiment that I expressed. There re-mained the suspicion of a sparkle to her eyes.
A few years ago, when my daughter Rachel sang in the choir, Hilder was her very favourite chorister, she loved her and liked to sit beside her. It was all to do with Hilder's sense of humour and fun, her love of music, her remarkable voice in one so aged, her lively interest in all that happened, and her "cheerful countenance". May Hilder Lidgard rest in peace.
Anglican parish church choirs of the sort that both Hilder and I love so dearly are endangered species in Australia. All our efforts to "modernise" and "enculturate" our worship I can undertake only half-heartedly and merely from a sense of duty. I would really far prefer to embed us more firmly and surely in the 17th and 18th centuries! Unable to attend Hilder's Funeral I played to myself, but in her honour, a setting of Evensong by my favourite Anglican composer, Orlando Gibbons (1583-1685).
Orlando Gibbons
All true Anglicans should be aware of Orlando Gibbons. Not least because he is responsible for several glorious hymn tunes, notably the ones we sing to the words: "Forth in thy name O Lord I go...." and: "O Thou who at the Eucharist didst pray..."
Gibbons was born in Cambridge and christened at Oxford the same year. Between 1596 and 1598 he sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where his brother Edward Gibbons, eldest of the four sons of William Gibbons, was master of the choristers. Orlando entered the university in 1598 and achieved the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606. James I appointed him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist from about 1615 until his death. In 1623 he became senior organist at the Chapel Royal. He also held positions as keyboard player in the privy chamber of the court of Prince Charles (later King Charles I), and organist at Westminster Abbey. He died at age the age of 41 in Canterbury, of apoplexy of all things. It is the sort of end that I fear I might make. Shaking off my mortal coil in a fit of apoplectic rage! There is a monument to him in Canterbury Cathedral.
He is up there with the greatest of composers and his anthems are superb. However perhaps the most remarkable of his compositions is a fascinating montage of the advertising jingles of his day: "The Cryes of London". Set for five voices and five viols, the composition makes use of the street cries and songs of the hawkers and vendors in the London of his time. Lovely to listen to, the words go as follows:
God give you good morrow my master,
past three o'clock and a fair morning.
New mussels, new lily white mussels.
Hot codlings [cooking apples], hot.
New cockles, new great cockles.
New great sprats, new. New fresh herrings.
New haddocks, new. Now thornbacks new.
Hot apple pies, hot. Hot pippin pies, hot.
Fine pomegranates, fine.
Hot mutton pies hot.
Ha' ye any old bellows or trays to mend?
Rosemary and bays, quick and gentle.
Ripe chestnuts, ripe. Ripe smallnuts, ripe.
White cabbage, white young cabbage, white.
White turnips, white young turnips, white, parsnips, lettuce.
Buy any ink, will you buy any ink,
very fine writing ink, will you buy any ink?
Ha' ye any rats or mice to kill?
I ha' ripe peascods, ripe.
Oysters, oysters, oysters, threepence a peck
at Bridewell dock, new Wallfleet oysters.
Oyez! If any man or woman can tell any tidings of a grey mare,
with a long mane and a short tail, she halts down right before,
and is stark lame behind, and was lost this thirtieth day of February.
He that can tell any tidings of her, let him come to the Crier,
and he shall have well for his hire.
Ripe damsons, ripe fine damsons.
Hard garlic, hard.
Will ye buy any aqua vitae, mistress?
I have ripe gooseberries, ripe.
Buy a barrel of Samphire.
What is't ye lack? Fine wrought shirts or smocks.
Perfumed waistcoats, fine bone lace or edgings, sweet gloves,
silk garters, very fine silk garters, fine combs or glasses.
Or a poking stick with a silver handle.
Old doublets, ha'ye any old doublets?
Ha' ye any corns on your feet or toes?
Fine potatoes, fine.
Will ye buy any starch for a clear complexion, mistress?
Poor naked bedlam, Tom's a-cold,
a small cut of thy bacon or a piece of thy sow's side, good Bess.
God Almighty bless thy wits.
Quick [live] periwinckles, quick, quick, quick.
Buy a new almanac. Buy a fine washing ball.
Buy any small coal?
Good gracious people, for the Lord's sake, pity the poor women,
we lie cold and comfortless night and day
on the cold boards in the dark dungeon in great misery.
Hot oat cakes.
Lanthorn and candlelight, hang out maids for all night.
And so we make an end.
Aubergines
We have just ripped out our aubergine plants and so have been eating the last of a good crop. I have invented a new and simple way of cooking them. I slice them almost a centimetre thick, make a pocket through the skin into each slice and insert thin slivers of garlic and tomato. I then lightly spray them with oil and grill both sides a handsome bronze. More than tolerable. I don't bother with all the salting away of a bitterness that doesn't exist.
Touché Chris, touché!
Most people appear to be unaware that Christopher Hitchens once did a demolition job on Mother Theresa, writing a book that questions everything she was and did, calling her among other things, "Hell's Angel" and accusing her of extreme dogmatism, blinkered faith, and of being a fanatic, a fundamentalist, a fraud and much worse. That after all is Hitchen's style and some of what he says is doubtless partly true. All motives are mixed, mine certainly are. However I was delighted to read someone say of Hitchens himself: ".....it would be unfortunate if he were to be remembered not as the person who had fed the poor and comforted the dying, but the person who had given a good kicking to the woman who did. Touché Chris, touché!
In retreat
On Tuesday Gail and I go to Harrietville for the annual Priests' Retreat. I notice that this year we have only one full day, for we return on Thursday. The Diocese is obviously cut-ting costs. Chris Shields will be taking the Wednesday Eucharist. One of my favourite poems is called "The Retreate". It is by the seventeenth century priest and parson Henry Vaughan and looks back to a happy childhood with eloquent longing, assuming the Platonic notion of the preexistence of the human soul, and so of us arriving at birth trailing Wordsworthian "clouds of glory" which we lose as we grow up, it ends memorably thus:
Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move
And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return.
Wowserism
In a recent article entitled "Warm to Sin" I noted a comment about a colleague that I had made in conversation to Diana and recorded in my journal......."he is only an anglo catholic in gloss, not the real thing, his relationship to sin is not warm enough to be a genuine anglo catholic".
I have just read an excellent little article by Greg Melleuish in "The Australian" which makes, in passing, much the same point. He says "Wowsers (We Only Want Social Evils Remedied) are traditionally as Australian as meat pies and Holden cars. They were responsible for Australian institutions such as the six o'clock closing and the shutting of shops on Sundays..... wowserism has never really gone away and, like any great tradition, has bided its time waiting for new opportunities. It has simply changed its spots. Once it had a strong religious colouring; now it is taking on an increasingly secular tone.
Wowsers want to improve people and make them better. To do so they have to prevent them from engaging in activities that they find immoral: be it gambling, eating meat, drinking alcohol, smoking or consuming junk food. My father used to say that for such people if you were enjoying yourself there must be sin involved......
Melleuish goes on to talk of eugenics in relation to the desire to force improvement upon humanity in the spirit of wowserism and makes the point that in the past: it was not politics so much as religion that determined whether a government would seek to go down this road. Protestants generally did, Catholics did not. Fortunately, Australia had a significant Catholic minority.
It is an excellent, short article which, if you google his name and the word "wowser" will make itself available to you.
How I love the Christian Faith
How I love the Christian Faith! It is so beautiful, so life enhancing, so culturally profound and enriching. Why is it so hard to get the vacillating, wimpish, politically correct, lumpen intelligentsia of Shepparton, all those mugs who play their endless, hedonistic rounds of golf, revere and take as scripture only "The Age", and who mouth the cliches of anti-faith so slavishly and ignorantly, to step out or their selfish, indecisive, stupid scepticism to take seriously the glorious, ancient, mysterious, compelling faith that gave rise to a poem like this, written all those years ago in the seventeenth century:
To Christ on the Cross
I am not moved to love you, Lord, to gain
the heaven you have promised in return.
And God, what moves me never to complain
is not the fear of hell where sinners burn.
You move me, Lord. It moves me when I see
they mock you as you draw your dying breath.
I'm moved before your body's injury.
I'm moved by what you suffered, by your death.
At length what moves me is your love, and thus,
if heaven were not real, I'd still love you;
if hell untrue, I'd fear you nonetheless.
You owe me nothing for loving you like this,
since if I did not hope for what I do,
I'd love you, Lord, with equal tenderness.
Miguel de Guevara (1585-1646)
translated from the Spanish by Robert Schechter
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthdays:
Joan McCann 22nd June
Max Ralph 23rd June
Judy Lloyd 25th June
NO CONFIRMATION CLASS
There is no Confirmation Class this week as both the clergy are away on Retreat.
GARDENERS PLEASE
Garden Working Bee Saturday 25th June. Our dedicated gardeners will shun the cold morning, put on their warm winter woollies, get their circulation going with some digging, weeding and raking and then enjoy a hot cuppa together, come along and join in. Come and join us.
TEA AND COFFEE BAG TAGS
Please save your tea/coffee bag tags and leave them at the Parish Office. They are being collected as part of an effort to raise money for a wheel chair for a child. Many thanks.
FRIENDSHIP
The Friendship Group meets on Tuesday the 21st June at 2pm, "At Home" in the Narthex. All welcome
ARISE 255
The Youth Group "Arise 255" meets on Monday the 20th June. Dinner in! Cooking night with a difference. Feeding the 5,000. Come along and join the fun, all welcome.
PARISH FAIR & GARDEN PARTY
The Craft Stall ladies met recently. They were thrilled with the beautiful hand-made articles which members of the Parish donated last year. They would love to have similar items for this year's Fair. Any items that are saleable are welcome. Donations of lavender for lavender bags could be left at the Church Office. Dorothy Grant
DATES FOR THE DIARY
June 20th Arise 255/Youth Group
June 21st Friendship Group
June 21st- 23rd Clergy Retreat
June 25th Garden Working Bee
July 3rd Sunday @ 5/Alternative Worship service
July 12th Social Responsibilities Meeting 12.00 noon
July 12th "Moving On" Grief Support Group
July 17th Bishop's Visit
July 19th Friendship Group 2.00pm
July 21st Evening Guild 1.30pm
July 30th Garden Working Bee
July 31st Combined Parish Worship etc. Rushworth
Aug 20th Wedding
Aug 27th Garden Working Bee
Sept 3rd Women's Breakfast
Sept 10th Harvey Norman Sausage Sizzle (Fete)
Sept 17th Men's Breakfast
Sept 24th Wedding
Sept 24th Garden Working Bee
Oct 1st Wedding 2pm
Oct 8th Wedding 2pm
Oct 8th Wedding 3.30pm
Oct 22nd Parish Fair & Garden Party
Oct 23rd Confirmation
Oct 29th Wedding
Oct 29th Garden Working Bee
Dec 3rd Women's Breakfast
Dec 10th Men's Breakfast
Dec 10th Wedding
READINGS NEXT WEEK
Genesis 22:1-14, 2 Corinthians 6:12-23
Duties for 19th June 2011
Readers 8.30 Norm Mitchelmore, Victoria Heenan
Readers 10.30 Linda Prosser, Andrea Fisher
Servers 8.30 Carole
Servers 10.30 Frank, Beth, Sophie
Intercessors Celebrant, Greg Pestell
Euc. Assts 8.30 Heather Fitzgerald, Carole Henderson
Euc. Assts 10.30 Jenny Pleming, Greg Pestell
Welcomers 8.30 Gwen Betson, Volunteer
Welcomers 10.30 Nola Brewer, Volunteer
Sidespeople 8.30 Bev & Max Ralph
Sidespeople 10.30 Nola Brewer, Volunteer
Tea 8.30 Gwyn Cowland
Welcoming Table Beverley Walsh
Mowing 18th Norm Mitchelmore, Alan Jefferies
Altar Linen for June Gwen Betson
Duties for 26th June 2011
Readers 8.30 John Wellman, Jeanette Smith
Readers 10.30 Joan McCann, Nancy Noonan
Servers 8.30 Eucharistic Assistants
Servers 10.30 Jenny, Vanita, Valerie
Intercessors Heather Fitzgerald, Celebrant
Euc. Assts 8.30 Bev Condon, John Griffin
Euc. Assts 10.30 Greg Pestell, Jenny Pleming
Welcoming 8.30 Shirley Dean, Bev Reither
Welcomers 10.30 Jenny Moran, Frank Steen
Sidespeople 8.30 Trevor Batey, Joy Campbell
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming
Welcome Table Dorothy Cook
Altar Linen for June Gwen Betson
Tea 8.30 Bev Reither
Mowing none this week
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 Akers, Deb Bagley, Liam Bognar, Marlene Bovaird, Kath Grills, Frank Harder, Katherine Holt, John & Kate Horder, Ross Judd, Lyn Morcom, Margaret Kidman, Albert Oxenbury, Isabelle Richards, Dawn Scott,Sandra Simonis, Peter Swindells, Suzanne Singh, Beryl Sutton, Patricia Sparkes, Fay Warren, John Young, David, Harry, Peter.
Rest in Peace: Hilder Lidgard, Laura Shields, Dierdre Johnston
Anniversary of death: Ken McRae, John Burgess, Yvonne Gibbins 19th, Arthur Halsey, Arthur Taylor, Georgia Morcom, Annie Donaldson 20th, Elsie Cloak, Florence Robinett, Robert Blackley 21st, Joyce Rutherford, Maude Stone, Marjorie Malcolm, John Moore, Gladys Kind 22nd, Nancy McRae, Edna Inglis, Marjory Watts 23rd, Peter Preston, Lenard Woodayrd, Mark Wellman 24th, George Petrovski 25th, Charlie Causon, Thomas Dickie, Sylvia Allen, Walter Young, Johannes Alberse, Catherine Withers 26th.
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 20th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Arise 255/Youth Group
Tuesday 21st June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.00am Playgroup
11.00am Eucharist - Shepparton Aged Care
4.15pm No Confirmation Class
Wednesday 22nd June
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
6.00pm Efm - Roz's Room
Thursday 23rd June
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
11.00am Eucharist - Harmony
5.30pm Choir Practice - Rectory
Friday 24th June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
11.00am Eucharist- Ave Maria
6.00pm Induction - Seymour
Saturday 25th June
Associate Priest's Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist (trad rite) - Lady Chapel
9.00am Garden Working Bee
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist - Lady Chapel
Sunday of Easter 26th June
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine's
8.45am Eucharist - St Luke's Dookie
9.00am Eucharist - St. Pauls Rushworth
11.00am Eucharist - Church Christ Murchison