NAMING AND CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS
1st January 2012
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
THE PSYCHIATRIST
AND THE PROCTOLOGIST
Best friends graduated from medical school at the same time and decided that, in spite of two different specialties, they would open a practice together to share office space and personnel. Dr. Smith was a psychiatrist and Dr. Jones was a proctologist; they put up a sign reading: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones: Hysterias and Posteriors". The prissy and PC Town Council was livid and insisted they change it. So, the doctors changed it to read: "Schizoids and Haemorrhoids". This was also not acceptable, so they again changed the sign. "Catatonics and High Colonics" - No go. Next, they tried "Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives" - thumbs down again. Then came "Minds and Behinds" - still no good. Another attempt resulted in "Lost Souls and Butt Holes" - unacceptable again! So they tried "Analysis and Anal Cysts" - not a chance. "Nuts and Butts" - no way. "Freaks and Cheeks" - still no good. "Loons and Moons" - forget it. Almost at their wit's end, the doctors finally came up with: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones - Specializing in Odds and Ends". Everyone loved it.
THIS, THAT
AND THE OTHER (27)
Andrew Neaum
On Australia Day I take the pledge and become an Australian Citizen. The event is to be marked by a public holiday I believe. I am mildly flattered.
The Reverend Gail Bryce
Gail said her farewell as our Associate Priest by celebrating Midnight Mass as lightning flashed, thunder grumbled and holy smoke filled the building. Celebrating the Eucharist is for her the acme of priesthood, she does so with care, precision and devotion. It was a lovely celebration and she was able warmly to greet and farewell all present, as they left the church. We wish her well as Rector of Tatura and thank her for over six years of devoted priesting among us.
Digger's Rest
On Tuesday we took Martha, Llew, Max and Bella to the airport after two very pleasing and lively weeks with them. Martha is Diana's daughter and it was lovely to have our Australian family augmented by a contingent of the English family. Our biggest family day was Christmas Eve, when Nathan, Lil, Meg and Susan all from Benalla, as well as Peter from Albury (soon to be Tamworth), joined us for a feast of feasts. The four grandchildren got on together delightfully well and they enjoyed setting up the altar crib-scene as well as later, with some excitement, attending the Children's Christmas Eve Eucharist.
It was fascinating having a family of vegetarians in the Rectory. It in no way inhibited our diet, but rather expanded it, indeed, the visitors did most of the cooking. Being broad-minded vegetarians, they don't mind sometimes cooking meat for others.
Having dropped them all at the airport, Diana and I found our way to Diggers Rest, of all places. Over many years Diana and Michael (her late husband), had a lot to do with a monastic community called the Society of the Sacred Mission. One of the Society's Australian Priories we knew to be sited at Diggers Rest and so resolved to call in and say hello to any monks still resident there. At least one or two of them Diana was bound to know. We were disappointed. There appear to be no residents at the Priory at all. We peered into all its windows only to discover that it is empty of all but a few sticks of basic furniture and a shelf half full of books. So we lunched on a neglected patio, in heavy shade, overlooking nearby gentle hills, surrounded by a pleasing variety of twittering and very active birds. Egg and guacamole sandwiches were supplemented by our very own speciality of specialities, homemade date and walnut cake with homemade walnut marzipan both within and without. Quiet bliss.
We thought Diggers Rest itself an unprepossessing place. It did though contain a pleasing surprise, namely a monument in honour of the great escapologist and magician Harry Houdini. Apparently in 1910 at Diggers Rest, in a Voisin biplane (purchased in Germany prior to the trip) Houdini made the first ever controlled, powered flight of an aeroplane in Australia! Perhaps every Australian child picks up such fascinating information during their schooling, and so this strange little tidbit is widely known and appreciated. It came as a complete surprise to us.
Back to the New Zealand Trip
On November the 19th we left Margaret's cousin Penny's place at Tor Bay, North Auckland, to head south for Hamilton. Penny is a kindly, godly and courageous woman. Recovering with good humour from extreme ill health and vicious though effective medicine, she was hugely hospitable to us, as well as good company. Our time with her was rewarding and before we left she gave us, on disk, a copy of the family history she has been compiling, with lots of old scanned photographs, to pass on to our own likely family archivist, Elizabeth.
Heading south
The trip south through Auckland, which is far and away the largest city in New Zealand, was all on hideous motorway with a spaghetti junction in the middle that beggared description. There was little chance to see any beauty in what must be a fascinating city, so dominated is it by water from both the east and the west. The island comes here to the narrowest of isthmuses. All the significant ports are on the east side, the inlets on the west are apparently too shallow for ships of any size.
We turned off east after a while and headed through rolling, lush pastureland towards a place called Miranda, but bypassed it to look at a hot spring with the largest single pool in the southern hemisphere. We resisted the very minute temptation to enter, at a cost of thirteen dollars apiece, to have what would have amounted merely to a swim in an ordinary looking swimming pool whose only novelty would have been tepid water. From there we headed along flat coastal plain, well grassed and heavily farmed, to the Coramandel Peninsular and a town called Thames, which I estimated to be about the size of Ararat, though once much bigger when it was the centre of a large and frenzied gold-mining boom. There we parked and walked right up its main street.
The peninsular is obviously very mountainous and well forested, the town itself being backed by mountains once famous for Kauri trees that are now all but logged out, as indeed are most of the great hard wood timber trees in New Zealand, necessitating strict preservation and much replanting.
As we walked up the street in a cool breeze there was a slight sense of being in a land other than Australia, but it was hard to put a finger on what made the difference. The buildings are not as well balconied or verandahed as in most Australian towns, there is less brickwork and more wood, but many of the businesses of Australia are present, like ANZ, Westpac, Dick Smith and so on. We were relieved to visit a bank's ATM and discover that the money on our travel card had now come through.
From Thames we headed over the mountains, stopping by a river to eat the left overs of a stir fry I had cooked the previous day. The river was spoiled scenically by dead, sprayed gorse, and a breeze so cool that we had to huddle below the bridge for warmth. There were many lovely places thereafter as we headed for a while down the coast, and then back inland through a variety of smaller towns through increasingly prosperous looking pasture land, with many acres of young maize plants sprouting, probably for silage. The area around Hamilton appears to be prosperous and productive.
We stopped at Morrinsville to see the railway station, one of Diana's little obsessions. It proved symbolic of the sad decline of the railways everywhere, because it consisted of no more than a gravel wasteland with a track running through it. There was a tiny relic of a platform, no rolling stock, not even a shed.
In Hamilton
Eventually we arrived at Jan and Linda Joustra's house. When I was first Rector of Wodonga, the Joustras lived in Rutherglen, Jan being the Rector there. We became friends largely because of our common passion for Scottish Country Dancing. At the time of this New Zealand trip he was Dean of the Cathedral in Hamilton, but we learned that he had recently resigned and so in about a month's time we will be attending his induction as Rector of St Andrew's Brighton.
Their house on Riverside Road in Hamilton was their own, and had been sold only a couple of days before we arrived. It is a beautifully furnished, immaculate place in which they had lived, allowing the Deanery to be rented out and a proportion of its rent to be paid to them in lieu of accommodation. Many clergy would appreciate such an arrangement, but it would never do for me. I love to live next to the church in which I serve, and consider it an essential part of the job. Our bishop thinks likewise, so this arrangement is unlikely to be encouraged in this diocese.
Jan is a fascinating man of many and diverse talents and hobbies. He is an accomplished weaver, owning several great looms, he also embroiders beautifully, producing magni-ficent vestments, and he paints and makes icons. He appears to be a very effective priest, emphatically untrendy, and so both traditional and successful, a rare accomplishment these days. He certainly appeared to run a good show in Hamilton as Dean. While sociable and friendly he can be necessarily ruthless, demanding and expecting the very best, and he knows how to delegate and directs things d'haut en bas, managing to keep up his art work and weaving in all of this.
On our first evening he showed us the outside of the cathedral. It appeared to be beautifully kept, with the new porch he had been instrumental in adding to it, brilliantly achieved with three great glittering icons on the outside, at the top, designed and executed by himself. Linda his wife is a lively, petite woman of Chinese descent. She is an accomplished accountant, and for all the time they have been in New Zealand has worked for a European concern whom she joined during the three years that Jan was a priest in Monaco. This means that most of her work is undertaken during European business hours, during the night by way of the phone and computer. Before Monaco, they spent nine very happy years in Hong Kong, not far from Linda's parents home. I can remember encouraging him to go to Hong Kong from Rutherglen, not least because adventur-ousness should be a part of parish priesting, but also because the diocese had just begun its drift backwards into status-quoism with the appointment of David Farrer as bishop, and Jan, for all his liturgical traditionalism, is very much a liberal theologically and politically.
For all of this ongoing diary column see on this website“Articles”and then Number:64
COMMON SENSE
Poverty, Frost, Famine, Rain, Disease, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to Common Sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
PRAYER
When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing.
Saint Francis of Assisi
LET THE YEAR DIE
Why won't they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, can't they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping - rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year's and Easter and Christmas - But, goodness, why need they do it? John Dos Passos, 1917
CONGRATULATIONS
Birthdays:
Lesley Wells Mon 2nd Jan
Kay McGregor Mon 2nd Jan
Jeanette Smith Wed 4th Jan
Bev Martin Fri 6th Jan
ISLAM STUDIES RESUME
I begin to look forward to some robust discussion on a worthwhile topic again and so am pleased to announce that on Tuesday the 10th of January, our Islam Studies resume in the Rectory at 7.30pm. We resume with Chapter 7: The Bible and the Quran. The series should conclude a week before Lent begins.
DUTY ROSTERS
This year we will be publishing Duty Rosters for only three months at a stretch. This is because we hope to involve new folk on duty rosters, as they turn up, as well as old folk, when we have artfully persuaded them to sign up! Please offer your services for duties. If taken on in the right spirit they become unutterable pleasures. For January there will be a Roster on the narthex board, in the pewsheet and on the web for the week ahead.
REDUNDANT TOASTER PLEASE
From February, on some weekday mornings (to be announced), after the early morning Eucharist at 8.00am, there will be a light breakfast on offer in the narthex: toast, marmalade and decent coffee or tea. The clergy already have impromptu banter, debrief and discussion sessions each day after the Eucharist. It will be good to extend this a little, more leisurely, over a light breakfast and with anyone else who cares to join us. With this in view, does anyone have a redundant toaster to offer us, please?
MACEDONIAN CHRISTMAS
This Saturday at 8.00am we celebrate Christmas with Orthodox ceremonies. Do come along and join us. It is Christmas without the commercial frenzy, and from a slightly different though essentially the same perspective.
EVENING PRAYER
From now on, Evening Prayer will be said daily at 5.00pm in the Lady Chapel, except on Mondays and Saturdays. While we have only one clergyman on duty there will be rare occasions when he is unable to be there, but usually he will.
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.
READINGS Sunday 8th January 2012
Genesis 1:1-5, Acts 19:1-7
FOR THE DIARY
Feb 29th Ash Wednesday and AGM
Apr 8th Easter Sunday
May 10th Raffle Sub Committee Meeting 4.00pm
May 28-31 Lay and Clergy Conference - Harrietville
Jun 14th Parish Fair Planning Meeting 4.00pm
Jun 25-29 Clergy in Service Training Trinity College
Sep 24-27 Clergy Retreat - Harrietville
Oct 20th 2012 Parish Fair and Garden Party
Duties for Today 1st January
Readers 8.30 Gwyn Cowland, Liz Gyles
Readers 10.30 Joan McCann, Joan McCann
Servers 8.30 Beth, Michelle
Servers 10.30 Greg Pestell, Rick Coates, Frank Steen
Intercessors Carole, Christine Jones
Euc. Assts 8.30 Carole, John Griffin
Euc. Assts 10.30 Greg Pestell, Jenny Pleming
Welcomers 8.30 Bev Reither
Welcomers 10.30 Sidespeople
Sidespeople 8.30 Bev Ralph, Max Ralph
Sidespeople 10.30 John Pleming
Tea 8.30 Shirley Dean
Welcoming Table Dorothy Cook
Mowing
Altar Linen/Jan Bev Reither
Duties for Sunday 8th January
Readers 8.30 John Wellman, Jeanette Smith
Readers 10.30 Christine Jones, Greg Pestell
Servers 8.30 Beth, Michelle
Servers 10.30 Jenny, Joe, Zebedee
Intercessors Celebrant, Kids
Euc. Assts 8.30 Carole Henderson, Bev Condon
Euc. Assts 10.30 Jenny Pleming, Joe Fernandez
Welcomers 8.30 Gwen Betson
Welcomers 10.30 Sidespeople
Sidespeople 8.30 Joy Campbell, Joe Pearson
Sidespeople 10.30 Charlotte Brewer, John Pleming
Tea 8.30 Gwn Cowland
Welcoming Table Judy Lloyd, Dorothy Cook
Mowing
Altar Linen/Dec Bev Reither
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, Nola Brewer, Vida Hardy, Frank Harder, Katherine Holt, John & Kate Horder, Margaret Kidman, Anita Saville, Sandra Simonis, Lesley Walker, Fay Warren, Kevin Woods.
Anniversaries:
Lilian Walter 2nd, Bessie Dealy 4th, Nancy Davis, Linda Maskell, James Crosier 5th, Doris Woodcock, Lesley Rankin, Rebecca Arthur 6th, Raymond Eldridge 7th.
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Monday 2nd December
Rector's day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
Tuesday 3rd January
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
10.00am No Playgroup ( school holidays)
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Wednesday 4th January
7.45am Mattins only - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist - St Augustine's
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Thursday 5th January
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
11.30am Grave Blessing
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice - St Martin's Chapel
Friday 6th January The Epiphany of our Lord
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Saturday 7th Jan Macedonian Orthodox Christmas
7.15am Mattins
8.00am Orthodox Christmas Eucharist
6.00 pm Vigil Eucharist - Lady Chapel
Sunday 8th January The Baptism of our Lord
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine's
10.30am Eucharist - St. Augustine's.
8.45am Eucharist - St Luke's
9.00am Eucharist - Rushworth
10.45am Eucharist - Katandra
11.00am Eucharist-Murchison
5.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel