SECOND SUNDAY after PENTECOST
10 June 2012
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
GNASHING
A parson went to the dentist for a set of false teeth. The first Sunday after being fitted with them, he preached for only eight minutes. The second Sunday he preached for only ten minutes. The following Sunday however, he preached for two hours and forty eight minutes. The congregation had to mob the pulpit to shut him up and get him down, whereupon they asked him what happened. The Parson explained that on the first Sunday his gums hurt so badly he couldn't preach for more than eight minutes. The second Sunday, his gums still hurt too much to preach for more than ten minutes. But on the third Sunday he had put his wife's teeth in by mistake, and he simply couldn't shut up.
THIS AND THAT (47)
Andrew Neaum
On Saturday the 2nd of June I pottered across to say Mattins. At exactly 7.45am I rang the church bell as usual. Unusual was that Fr John Price was not present. He happened to be sitting in St Brendan's Church wondering why the bell at St Augustine's was being rung, for it shouldn't have been.
On my return to the Chapel Deacon Grace asked me if I was not going to the well- advertised Mattins at St Brendan's. Each year on the feast day of the Ugandan Martyrs, who were both Catholic and Anglican, we join together with St Brendan's folk for a service and breakfast.
Ugandan Martyrs and a Pseudo Martyr
Diana and I made it to St Brendan's just in time to enjoy a lovely little service. Afterwards we were all invited by Fr Joe Taylor to the Presbytery for breakfast whereupon I faced a severe if minor challenge. The Presbytery was filled with the aroma of bacon, eggs and toast sufficient to fill me with anticipatory glee. However, in expectation of one of those unattractively healthy breakfasts of muesli, chipboard and sawdust I had previously determined to eat nothing, as part of the necessary fast before a blood test. I was due to head for the pathology lab at the hospital sometime after 9.00am. This was the final part of my annual medical checkup.
Had Diana not been present to impress with my strength of character, I would have succumbed to eggs and bacon and postponed the blood test until Monday. Because of her presence I watched everyone else tuck in while I ate and drank nothing, talking madly all the while to Fr. Joe to distract myself. I then self-righteously biked off for the blood test.
What reward did I receive for this impressive show of moral fibre? Diana seemed singularly unimpressed, she expected me to take so minor a challenge without a second thought and certainly with no write-up in the pew sheet. The only reward was nonetheless a good one, though in no way a consequence of my moral fibre. I learned on Tuesday that my blood is flowing well and that my cholesterol is slightly down from last year and so well within the safety zone. I could have eaten a couple of those eggs with impunity!
Preparation
As our trip abroad begins to get closer (July the 30th) there is less and less time to do anything other than prepare for it. This means that my recreational and intellectual life, such that it is, withers away. There is no time to lose myself in a book, woe is me.
On Monday I devoted myself to preparing music sheets from this Sunday right through to Advent Sunday. Although this is made easier by dint of cannibalising sheets from previous years, each particular Sunday needs individual attention and, given the idiosyncrasies of our liturgical calendar, some Sunday sheets do need putting together from scratch. It took pretty well all day. This particular task having now been done, I need to tackle the liturgical portion of all the pew sheets for while I am away.
What will survive of us?
Although not lost in a decent book at present, I do still read interesting articles and on Monday found time to read one about Phillip Larkin and W H Auden, two of last century's very best poets.
The point of the article was made in a couple of little questions which I found interesting enough to pop into my file of quotations:
....has self-consciously highbrow culture made such a fetish of complexity, ambiguity, and obscurity as a measure of worth that we condemn or condescend to more simple, heartfelt exclamations?.... Is it always more mature and serious for a poet to be riddled by doubt and conflict, rather than to give way to transcendence? Perhaps we should pay attention to these near-ecstatic, almost vatic, outbursts, even if the poets in question are self-conscious about them. (The word "vatic" means "characteristic of a prophet".)
The article discussed at some length two lines, one from each poet, that have become very famous and are treasured and much quoted by many readers. Possibly because of this the two poets, have attempted either to eradicate them (in the case of Auden) or distance themselves from them in the case of Larkin.
An Arundel Tomb
One of Larkin's most sublime and famous poems is based upon a 14th-century tomb effigy in Chichester Cathedral. It is entitled: "An Arundel Tomb". The poem begins thus:
Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd—
The little dogs under their feet.
Such plainness of the pre-baroque
Hardly involves the eye, until
It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
Clasped empty in the other; and
One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.....
For anyone who loves poetry and for many who do not, this seven stanza poem is a poem of poems. It is perfect in every syllable. What is more, it is almost miraculous for coming from such a pessimistic, misanthropic, atheistic misery-guts as Phillip Larkin. Why and how should such a man even notice,
.....with a sharp tender shock,
His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.....
Larkin's last great poem, "Aubade", is bleak and hopeless. It depicts brilliantly and honestly his own funk and terror in the face of death. It should be set to excruciating music and declared The Atheist's Halleluia Chorus.
However this marvellous poem "An Arundel Tomb" allows a glimmer of transcendence and hope into Larkin's honest if frigid and bleak world. The last stanza goes:
Time has transfigured them into
Untruth. The stone fidelity
They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
Larkin is far too fine and honest a poet to allow himself to suggest anything he doesn't mean. The famous line: What will survive of us is love is well and truly qualified by the words "untruth" and the double "almost" that go before it. Even so, however, the possibility of the transcendent and a hint of love being perhaps more than temporal is most emphatically present, even when the line is not quoted out of context, as it usually is. So much so that the line discomfited Larkin, almost embarrassed him. Though he didn't disown it entirely.
September 1, 1939
The Auden poem under consideration in the article is the one entitled: "September 1, 1939". This is the date of the Nazi invasion of Poland that began the slaughter of the Second World War. The poem opens:
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade ...
The particular line that he very soon came to disown and attempt to eradicate from all future versions of the poem is the last one of the eighth stanza. As with Larkin's line, it is often quoted out of context:
.......
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Why would that last line embarrass Auden I wonder? Could it be that it sounds suspiciously Christian? Or is it simply too bald-facedly understandable and concordant with the views of the common man to be acceptable to someone who wishes to mark himself off as an intellectual? Like Larkin's line it certainly hints at something beyond nothing. It is the little word "or" that is so significant. It allows the possibility that "Amor vincit omnia" (Love conquers all). Rumour has it that God is Love and so such a line allows even God.
Some years after writing this poem Auden was converted to the High Anglicanism of his youth. His reputation as a poet never really recovered. Even way back then, to be Christian was to be suspect as an intellectual. Partly one suspects because Christianity loves, opens its arms to and can be embraced by the hoi poloi. To be "intellectual" you need to mark yourself off from the common man.
Most of the atheists I meet in Shepparton, seem to me to be singularly uninformed about the faith. Their disdain is linked, I suspect, to Auden's disdain and Larkin's discomfiture at the two lines under consideration. It has more to do with snobbery than reason.
Young chefs
On Monday evening we joined the Youth Group as judges for a cooking competition. I had done this before, a year of so ago and that time had found the food less than appealing for the most part. So much so that this time I contemplated taking a handful of antacid pills with me.
I was most wonderfully surprised. Diana and I with some splendid parents and Deacon Grace were treated to a meal of meals. Each of four teams produced a three course meal for us to savour and judge. This amounted, in effect to a twelve course mean for us all, and every course was good.
So it turned out to be a lovely and happy occasion and the demeanour and happiness of the children was a delight to share. It gives me pleasure to remark once more upon Mary Pearson as being in the forefront of our parish achievements in her work as Youth Group leader. Well done to her, her helpers and to the youth group members. All stars.
The woman in white
The Woman in White is a fine book written in 1859 by Wilkie Collins. It is one of the very first detective novels. From now on however "The Woman in White" for me will be the reserved and dignified little woman who was the centre of so much attention in England last week, the Queen. How I loved her reticence and quietude, and how I loved all those hundreds of thousands of daft Brits along the Thames, so determined to enjoy themselves come wind come rain. Best of all was the Thanksgiving Service in St Paul's, spectacularly filmed, beautifully ordered, gloriously and festivally melodious and with some of the great and loveliest of 1662 Prayer Book prayers. The Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon was also pleasing for being rather more than merely media or crowd pleasing.
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthday:
Lyn Morcom 11 June
Lesley Kenna 12 June
Eileen Quaife 15 June 1932
John Horder 15 June
Daniel Bagley 15 June
Anniversary:
Wilma & Mal Spence 10 June
MOVING ON GRIEF SUPPORT
Tuesday 12 June 7.30pm in the Narthex
The group will watch a DVD,"On Golden Pond", followed by a discussion and of course a delightful supper.
RAFFLE
Draw on 13 June after the 10am service
Prize: hand-painted plate by Joan McKellar. Tickets available from Guild members or Nola Brewer at $2.00 a ticket in aid of ABM.
VESTRY MEETING
Wednesday 13 June 2.00pm
ANGLICAN WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA
Wednesday 13th June 10.30am Wangaratta
The Annual Rally takes place at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Wangaratta, on Wednesday 13th June. At 10.30am there is Morning Tea for travellers. Then at 11.00am the Eucharist takes place, with the Bishop as Celebrant and Fr Rob Whalley the preacher. Lunch takes place at 12.15pm (Cost $10.00). The Guest Speaker, at approximately 1.30pm is Catie Inches Ogden from the Chaplain Department of Defence in Canberra. Lunch must be ordered. Names to the Parish Office please.
PARISH FAIR PLANNING MEETING
Thursday 14 June 4.00pm
The Parish Fair Planning Group are having their first meeting in Roz's Room. Please come and help us plan the exciting event. After last years great success, this year's Parish Fare will be on Saturday 20 Oct 2012 so book it in your diaries now.
ARISE 255-YOUTH GROUP
Monday 18 June 5.30 - 7.30pm
The program, among other things, doubtless, involves planning the Car Rally
FRIENDSHIP GROUP GAMES AFTERNOON
Tuesday 19 June 2pm
Come and join our Games Afternoon in the Narthex. Thanks in advance to Nancy Noonan and June McKellar for organising the teas.
PARISH COUNCIL
Wednesday 20 June 7.30pm
GUILD MEETING
Thursday 21 June afternoon
Please meet in the Church car park at 1.15pm if you need a ride or 1.30pm at Shepparton Art Gallery. We will have a short meeting and enjoy afternoon tea together at the end of the visit.
STUDY GROUP-MARCUS BORG
Thursdays 7.00-9.00pm for 6 weeks
21, 28 June & 5, 12, 19, 26 July
See the Notice Board for more details. The course will be led by Fr Rob Walley and considers the liberal Christian thinker and theologian, Marcus Borg.
FOR THE DIARY
Jun 12 Tue Grief Support
Jun 14 Th Parish Fair Planning Meeting 4.00pm
June 16 Sat Deadline for articles in Advocate
Jun 18 Mon Arise 255-Youth Group
Jun 19 Tue Friendship Group
June 20 Wed Parish Council 7.30
June 21 Thur Guild
June 30 Sat Garden Working Bee
July 8 Sun Deadline for Outreach
July 15 Sun Confirmation
Oct 20 Sat 2012 Parish Fair and Garden Party
Oct 27 Sat Murchison Car Boot
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
At the beginning of each month this list is cleared. Names need putting down again on the list in the narthex and signed in. No names to be listed without permission.
Dulcie Ackland, Hilary & Alan Akers, Heather Baker, Margaret Bakker, Liam Bognar, Peter Burgess, Betty Bush, Debra Davies, Blake Dyer, Michael Egan, Christina Furze, Frank Harder, Bruce Hodgson & family, Katherine Holt, Margaret Kidman, Elsie Lieschke, Judy Lloyd, Colin MacKenze, Joy Markey, Merle Maskell, Elvie McInnes Adrian Moule, Molly Olphert, Olive Paez, Bev Reither, Isabelle Richards, Ethel & George Rumble, Sandra Simonis, Heather Steen, Faye Warren, Amanda & Michael, Joyce & Ray, Kaye, Glenda.
Rest in Peace:
Jack Heily, Bill Hunter, Angelique Kolenaty, Albert Oxenbury.
Anniversaries: Francies Crawford, Robert Malcolm, Hilder Lidgard (10 June), Lawrence Jones, Harold Merigan, Jovan, Maria, Bogoja, Blaguna (11 June),Maria Marcetic, John Eccles (12 June), Len Robertson, Ella Davis, Leo Kenna, Olive Emery (13 June),Brian Morris (15 June), Mary Taylor, John Greenwood, Reginald Keeley (16 June).
Duties for Sunday 10 June
Readers 8.30 Bev Condon, Norm Mitchelmore
Intercessors 8.30 Norm Weaver
Servers 8.30 Michelle(C) , Beth,Soibhan
Euc. Assts 8.30 Grace, Bev Condon
Sidespeople 8.30 Bev & Max Ralph
Welcomer 8.30 Shirley Dean, Gwenda Betson
Welcome Table 8.30 Bev Condon, Diana
Tea 8.30 Shirley Dean
Readers 10.30 Jenny Pleming, Christine Jones
Intercessors 10.30 Christine Evans
Servers 10.30 Jenny, Sarah & James Davies
Euc. Assts 10.30 Grace, Christine Evans
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming, volunteer
Welcomers 10.30 Leoni Gilbert, Chris Sim
Welcome Table 10.30 Bev Condon, Diana
Projector 10.30 Mary Pearson
Children's Church Suzanne
Mowing 16 June Norm Mitchelmore, Alan Jeffery
Altar Linen -June Rosemary Mitchelmore
Monday Office volunteer
Duties for Sunday 17 June
Readers 8.30 Liz Gyles, John Wellman
Intercessor 8.30 Pat Griffin
Servers 8.30 Michelle, Beth
Euc. Assts 8.30 Carole Henderson, John Horder
Sidespeople 8.30 Gwyn & Merv Cowland
Welcomer 8.30 Anita Saville , Shirley Dean
Welcome Table 8.30 Beverley Walsh, Diana Neaum
Tea 8.30 Barbara Schier
Readers 10.30 Mary Pearson, Joan McCann
Intercessor 10.30 none
Servers 10.30 Rick, Olivia, Oscar
Euc. Assts 10.30 Jenny Pleming & Joe Fernandez
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming, Beryl Black
Welcomers 10.30 Mitch Macheda,Irene Crawford
Welcome Table 10.30 Diana
Projector 10.30 Black Family
Children's Church Grace
Mowing none
Altar Linen -June Rosemary Mitchelmore
Monday Office Barbara Brown, Pat Gibson
READINGS NEXT SUNDAY 17th June
1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13, Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Sunday 10 June
5.30pm Evening Prayer- Lady Chapel
Monday 11 June
Rector's day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer- Lady Chapel
Tuesday 12 June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10-12pm Play Group - Roz's Room - Church Hall.
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
7.30pm Grief Support - Narthex
Wednesday 13 June Antony of Padua
7.45am Mattins - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
2.00pm Vestry
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Hospice
6.00pm EfM
Thursday 14 June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
8.25am Narthex Breakfast
10.00am Mercy
11.00am Eucharist Harmony
11.00am Eucharist Ave Maria
12.15pm Clergy Lunch
4.00pm Confirmation Class - Juniors
4.00pm Fair Planning Meeting
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
7.30pm Confirmation Class - Adults
Friday 15 June Evelyn Underhill
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
8.25am Narthex Breakfast
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
People Supporting People
Saturday 16 June
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
Sunday 17 June 3rd after Pentecost
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am Eucharist - St Augustine's & Children's Church
9.00am Rushworth- local
11.00am Murchison- local
8.45am Eucharist - St Luke's Dookie
5.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel