FIRST SUNDAY after EPIPHANY
13 January 2013
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN
When Richard Dawkins was a little boy he was taken to church for the baptism of his father’s friend’s infant. They sat in the very front row so that the little Dick could see what was going on. Even at the age of five the boy had an enquiring and curious mind and so, seeing the priest muttering strange words and pouring water over the infant's head he turned to his father and asked a question he still appears to be asking today. "Daddy, why is he brainwashing the baby?"
THIS AND THAT (67)
Andrew Neaum
On Monday, after the Macedonian Orthodox Christmas Eucharist and breakfast, I dismantled our lovely crib and took down all the stars. It is a good job to do on your own, even on a day well on its way to 40 degrees centigrade. Being a faintly melancholic chore it invites private reflection. When I install the crib, with the help of lovely and joyous little granddaughters, I find myself anticipating its dismantling by thinking to myself, “in a fortnight I will be undoing all this”. Typical of me. Had I been conscious at my birth I would have been thinking to myself, “a mere seventy or eighty years and all this will be ending!” It is a way of doffing my hat to the futility of everything from outside of a Faith perspective. An awareness of futility feeds passionate faith.
Had it not been the Orthodox Christmas I would have spent Monday in Mornington with Diana, having stayed Sunday night with Heather and Kevin Fitzgerald. Diana had to go on her own to meet friends from St Helena who were passing through Melbourne. Without a wife to throw ideas and jokes around with I listened more to the radio. How well served we are by the ABC and how much more nourishing is radio than television. I listened to a superb conversation between Clive James and Peter Porter on Shakespeare, wise and enlightening.
RETURN TO
TRISTAN DA CUNHA (2)
Thursday 7 September, 2012 (continued)
Night has fallen and our ship is anchored in Table Bay. We have both taken a seasick pill, though the motion of the ship is very gentle. We bought a great swag of pills in London, Sturgeron 15, recommended by folk who should know. (In the end we used very few of them).
I have been so terribly afflicted by seasickness in the past that suicide seemed a preferable alternative. Tuna fishing on St Helena brought on violent attacks of the old heave-ho, providing bile-marinaded bait for the smaller fish we were pulling in as we circled around waiting for tuna, the air noxious with diesel fumes. The tuna did offer themselves up to our hooks eventually, to take my mind off my misery. Worst of all was the voyage to Tristan as a little boy on the HMS Actaeon in 1952, it was a vibrating little sardine can of a vessel, again stinking of diesel. Seven days of unutterable misery.
We are anchored in Table Bay to allow an expert engineer, flown in from Norway, to fix one of the cranes on the ship. We learned later that he did this in a matter of minutes, a simple fault easily remedied. What a wonderful expertise to possess, granting a trip to Cape Town all the way from Norway to do a two minute job. After he had fixed the problem and been taken ashore by launch, there was some rearranging of cargo in the hold to be done by the repaired crane and we set sail after 9.00pm.
Food plays an important part in my enjoyment of daily life. One of the first discussions I initiate each day with Diana has to do with what we are to eat for dinner. So our first meal on board was of great interest. We are allocated to the second sitting at 7.00pm, a mere half hour after the first sitting. Obviously lingering, languorous table talk over coffee and port is not encouraged. We were served a good four course meal by unfussy waiters who double up as stewards, deckhands and more, for this is indeed a working ship. The fish course was too strong and acrid for me. That line of dark flesh in so many large tropical fish is far too sharp and pungent, it needs excising before cooking. Otherwise no complaints: fillet steak, tender and pleasing and an eclair (confectioner’s cream, not the real thing though) to follow.
At a brief briefing with the captain we were given some interesting facts about the ship and learned that twice each day the vessel heaves to for an hour to allow sea water samples and other observations to be taken. It really does appear to be a working ship with mercifully few plans to entertain passengers. Even the bar is open only for about three hours a day. We sat at dinner with a bright young African oceanographer and a female intern. He was very forthcoming on his work and love of it, she hardly said a word, possibly through shyness.
There appears to be no easy internet access on board, though I might be able to access emails on my small travelling laptop, if I can get a cable to attach my machine to the network plug in our cabin. I have asked the faintly harassed and lugubrious looking purser about this and he tells me he should be able to obtain one.
Friday 7 September, 2012 11.42am
So far so good, no sign of seasickness whatsoever, I am keeping on with the pills every eight hours for another day, Diana has abandoned them already. The sea is fairly calm, though there is regular motion that causes us to stagger now and then and one is always aware of it. It appears to be from bow to stern with very little lateral motion.
We had a good night’s sleep. Some time after nine I looked out of the window and seeing no lights from Cape Town realised that we were on the move. This morning has been sleepy too. We got up at around seven, had a welcome and scalding hot shower, and then went for a walk round the ship wearing beanies and our waterproof jackets. There was a very stiff breeze, partly from our speed, but we must too be heading into the wind. As is so often the case at open sea, there is very little sign of life and the ocean doesn’t really have any scent. It is when land meets sea that there occurs that explosion of scents that so invigorate us. At the top of the ship, above the bridge, there is a splendid viewing cockpit with half a dozen seats behind great glass windows offering wide views ahead and to the sides. Two birdoes were there with note pads and binoculars watching out for anything interesting. They reported seeing one bird, and we ourselves spotted what appeared to be a tern. A whale was announced later over the intercom, but we didn’t bother rushing out to see it. I asked a Tristanite about the frequency of whales around the island and he said they do still come, but not often these days. When I was a boy on the island they came in good numbers during spring, I think it was, possibly to breed. The sound of their trumpeting and blowing and of their tail flukes clapping the sea surface was a thrilling commonplace in my boyhood.
Lorna Lavarello-Smith told us that when the Island was deserted from the time of the volcanic eruption in 1961 until the return of the islanders in 1963, Japanese whalers (others later claimed them to have been Russian or Norwegian) visited the islands and slaughtered every whale in sight. They have never, ever returned in any number.
Breakfast at seven is the whole tutti frutti, though the waiters are hard pressed and finding a table can be difficult. The two shifts don’t seriously seem to be kept for breakfast. We sat with a jovial South African engineer going to Gough Island for three weeks to fix some problem or other in the cabins there. When it has unloaded its cargo and scientists at Gough the SA Agulhas sails off to position buoys for scientific purposes for three weeks. Hence the convenient length of our stay on Tristan.
We had a life boat drill yesterday. There are two great big life boats, bright orange in colour and fully covered. Each seats seventy five people, all of them sitting in four, tight rows having first donned special orange suits in which one has to relieve oneself until rescued, an unpleasant thought. Though when you think about it, what else could possibly be the case? The ship is designed for Antarctic waters and bright, well-sealed and totally weatherproof gear is absolutely necessary. To be pickled in your own urine and dung for a few days is a small price to pay for survival.
Saturday 8 September, 2012 6.58am
I lie on the bunk having been up and out to collect a cup of coffee at the end of the lounge just round the corner from us. Not only is there hot water on tap all the time and the wherewithal for mugs of coffee, tea and milo, there is also one of those fancy coffee machines that grinds the beans before it makes your cup. I have begun to master its intricacies, though not entirely. Another good night’s sleep and at several times during the night I fancied the movement of the ship to be rather more boisterous, but if so only marginally because on going to get the coffee, things seemed much the same. Talking to the Gough Island paramedic about sea sick pills she commended the one we are taking and said that she herself, being a very bad sailor indeed, takes in addition a single pill a day more usually prescribed for epilepsy, this apparently deals with vertigo and balance. Some folk are so susceptible to mal-de-mer that ordinary seasick pills do not suffice at all. Diana was talking to just such a person last night, a conservationist who, having being working on St Helena for a while, is now returning to finish a project on Tristan. She had been to the ship’s doctor to have an injection to help her cope.
I have talked to all sorts of interesting people and regret not hurrying down to the cabin to write up actual conversations. Unlike James Boswell I cannot be bothered, nor do I have his memory or recreative imagination.
One particular conversation was with two young Frenchmen, both of them delightful. Their role on the island has something to do with monitoring seismic and possibly even atomic activity in this remote part of the world. They are employed by the United Nations in conjunction, I think, with a French company. One of them is on his way to the island for the first time to take over, the other has just completed a year on the island and has been to the Cape for a short break, returning to shoe-horn in his replacement and pack up. I talked to the latter for an hour or two, and he told me about his desire to write, how and what, and that at school he was more a humanities man than a scientific one, but that he had chosen science at university with a view to getting a decent job. Both of them come from Brittany so we congratulated ourselves on being, in a sense, all British.
The one with whom I had the longer chat, Geoffroy, has enjoyed his year’s stay on the island and is very positive about the place, but he does also hint at there being problems there, including drink. I asked how he had avoided romantic entanglements, but he said there was no problem because there were many more men than girls around. I wouldn’t have thought that to be a problem for a personable young foreigner, but perhaps he had good reason to be reticent! I mentioned the 1908 Tristan Diary of a clergyman’s wife that I had discovered and he told me that he had it on disk and would give it to me, with some other bits and pieces, which he duly did last night.
I had another conversation in the morning with a group that included an islander of the Rogers family and who has lived in England for many years. Although retired he has no desire to return to Tristan permanently, but visits regularly to see his family, especially his old mother. He told me that the sea pool that I learned to swim in is now a part of the harbour, confirming what I had suspected, that Garden Gate beach, so enjoyed as a little boy, has been wrecked by necessary progress. He did say that part of the beach remains and that the cave I so well remember is also still there, remarking on my good memory. He tells me that most of the donkeys have gone, being of course redundant now with cars and motorbikes available. Someone else suggested that I looked fit enough to climb the 2000 foot Base cliffs, though the Peak might be another matter. Certainly it looks daunting from photographs and is almost certain at this time of the year to be snow covered.
We walked round the ship outside several times, all wrapped up and head covered, for the wind is cold indeed. Last night after dark we did likewise and the wind was much, much decreased, so perhaps the headwind has turned to a tailwind. We appear to be doing about 14 knots an hour (a knot is 1.852 km) according to information on the board beside the purser’s office.
I continue to read the letters of that miserable fellow Philip Larkin who has all my faults magnified a hundred fold. I wish I had his gifts in similar proportions, though the cost and labour involved in writing his verse seems to have been horrendous. At lunch, or was it dinner, we sat with the Chaplain appointed to the Gough team of eight that is to be deposited on that isolated spot for thirteen months. He is only with them for the trip and will not stay on the island. Also at the table with us was a Norwegian fellow who like me is returning for nostalgic reasons. He was actually born on the island and returning to stay for three weeks with his nanny of that time. The Chaplain is of the Dutch Reformed Church, amiable and keen to share his experiences. The trouble is they were both interesting and so in competition with each other and the Chaplain tended to win. His stories were about his time in Burundi with army, doing apparently excellent work in that benighted country. He seemed a wise fellow in many ways, almost certainly an admirable forces chaplain.
At lunch (it must therefore have been dinner with the other two) we sat with the parents of the Captain. They are travelling not to Tristan, but to Gough as a surprise, to meet their daughter who is the paramedic and team leader of the group about to be relieved. We enjoyed their company, they too are Afrikaans and touchingly and obviously devout. Before we ate they covertly joined hands briefly and muttered a little grace. Lovely.
They have spent years in Namibia and I asked about that country’s politics and prospects. He maintained that it is doing better than South Africa, there not being the hatred between black and white still so evident in the latter.
Later: Much of the day was taken up with lectures or presentations in the auditorium. One on seals, one on Nightingale Island buntings, one on Oceanography and one on Geodesy, the last by a brilliant fellow from whom we learned that the sea is not flat and can vary up to 140 metres in height from one part of the globe to another, even the level of the earth’s crust is not constant. To measure them, therefore you need something constant and for this they select one of the furthest quasars in space.
FROM THE REGISTERS
Birthdays:
Soibhan Glen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Jan
Joan O’Reilly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Jan
Les Earl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Jan
Beverley Walsh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Jan
Val Downie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Jan
Anniversary:
Heather & Joe Pearson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Jan
MACEDONIAN BAPTISM OF JESUS
Saturday 19 January 2013 8.00am
This is an unusual celebration that includes an auction of Icons and the blessing of water outside. You will be welcome to this most interesting celebration too.
SPLENDID CONCERT
Sunday 3 February 2013 at 7.00 pm, St Augustine’s Church
Two years ago, as a wild storm raged outside, the Chamber Philharmonia Orchestra of Cologne presented a concert of splendid music at St Augustine’s with astonishing vigour and expertise. They return on the 3rd of February to play Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, J S Bach’s Suite No 2 in B minor for Flute and Orchestra BWV 1067, Tchaikovsky’s “Andante Cantabile” for Violoncello and Orchestra, Mozart’s Divertimento in B Flat Major KV 137 and Paganini’s “La Campanella” for Violin and Orchestra. This will be a memorable concert! Tickets: $30 for adults, $25 for Seniors and $20 for students. Children under 12 years are free.
DEADLINE ANNUAL REPORTS
3 February to Parish Office please
DEADLINE OUTREACH
10 February to Parish Office please
GRIEF SUPPORT: “MOVING ON”
12 February 7.30pm in the Narthex
Grief Support starts the year with a “Sharing Evening” on Tuesday 11th of February. Come along to the Pancake Party at 6.00pm and then stay on!
THE ENNEAGRAM AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
Fr Rob Whalley plans is to run a study group on the Enneagram and Spiritual Direction in 2013 and is asking for expressions of interest. The Anagram is a psycho-spiritual tool involving 9 personality types. We studied the Anagram this year in EfM and also at the lay retreat in April. It is something I (Helen) have been interested in for years and found very useful for my own development, as well as in understanding other people. The study group is advertised in the December Advocate – the location and dates will depend on interest. You can either contact Fr Rob or, if you have questions about the Anagram to help you decide whether you’d like to join the group, you can also talk to Helen.
PLATES FROM THE NARTHEX
There is a collection of people’s plates waiting to be claimed. They were kindly brought to us laden with goodies for a variety of parish functions and are now emptied and washed. Please help yourself to yours.
A B M BOXES
Marg Carroll has allowed the mantle of Nola to fall upon her and will take on the task of Anglican Board of Mission representative in our parish. (Thank you!!)) Anyone with an ABM box to be emptied please bring it to Church or to the Parish Office.
FOR THE DIARY
Jan 19 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8am Macedonian “Baptism of Jesus”
Jan 26 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garden Working Bee
Feb 2 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Women’s Breakfast
Feb 3 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7pm Cologne Chamber Orchestra
Feb 24 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katandra AGM
Feb 12 Tue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6pm Pancake Party
Feb 13 Wed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ash Wednesday & AGM
March 3 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dookie AGM
March 10 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mothering Sunday & Breakfast
March 31 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Easter Sunday
May 23 The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4pm Raffle sub Committee Roz’s Room
June 2 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patronal Festival
June 13 Thur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4pm Fair Planning Group Roz’s Room
Oct 19 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Fair
READINGS NEXT SUNDAY 20 January
Isaiah 621-5, Psalm 365-10, 1 Corinthians 121-11 (8.30)
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
Hilary & Alan Akers, Shirley Bartlett, Liam Bognar, Nola Brewer, Victoria Heenan, Bruce Hodgson & family, Katherine Holt, Dos King, Elsie Lieschke, Bob & June McKellar, Colin Mackenzie, Mia Nolan, Shirley Venamils, Menique Richards with Shylah & Mitchel, Ray, Simon & Cheryl & Joy.
Rest in Peace: John Webb, Val McNab
Anniversaries: Nicholas Auldrige, Percival Brooke, Sofia Poulos, Charles Grant(13), Margaret Tobias, Ethel Peters, Cyril Caldwell, Leslie Hillas(14), Rowland Tag, Joyce Stewart(15), Keith Dean, Colin Ferguson(16), Ernest Guyatt, Ilias Petcopoulos(17), Valerie Ford, Judith Climas (18), Madge Grutzner, Niko Rendevski, Leona Hopkins(19).
Duties for Sunday 13 January
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Wellman, Gwyn Cowland
Intercessor 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bev Condon
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beth, Soibhan, Michelle,
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Barbara Schier, John Horder
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norm Mitchelmore, Trevor Batey
Welcomer 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Di Gribble, Gavin Gall
Welcome Table 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Val Bambrook
Reader 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan McCann
Intercessor 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Pearson
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Volunteers
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jenny Pleming
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .John Pleming, Robert Gilbert
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Simonis, Frank Steen
Welcome Table 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Projector 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Karina Black
Children’s Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Suzanne Lear
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .none
Monday Office 13 Jan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Diana, Rosemary Moore
Duties for Sunday 20 January
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Victoria, Norm Mitchelmore
Intercessor 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norm Weaver
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michelle, Beth, Soibhan,
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Heather Pearson,
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joe Pearson, Joy Campbell
Welcomer 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gwenda Betson Cecily McDonnell
Welcome Table 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gwyn Cowland
Reader 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Jones
Intercessor 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrea Fisher
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ella Rohde
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joe Fernandez,Jenny Pleming
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Pleming, Kylie Milsom
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . volunteers
Welcome Table 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Projector 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Black Family
Children’s Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Pearson
Mowing 26 Jan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Merv Cowland, Beryl Bonfitto
Altar Linen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Monday Office 21 Jan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barbara Brown, Pat Gibson
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Sunday 13 January Baptism of Our Lord
2.00pm Sudanese Church Service
5.30pm Evening Prayer- Lady Chapel
Monday 14 January Sava 1st Abp of Serbia
Rector’s Part Day off
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
11.00am Memorial Service - John Webb
Tuesday 15 January
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer
Wednesday 16 January
7.45am Mattins - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist- St Augustine’s
5.00pm Evening Prayer
7.30pm Parish Council
Thursday 17 January Antony of Egypt
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
Friday 18 January Confession of Peter
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
8.30am Narthex Breakfast
11.00am Memorial Service - Val McNab
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Saturday 19 January
8.00am Orthodox Baptism of Our Lord
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
Sunday 20 January 2nd Sunday after Epiphany
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine’s
10.30am Eucharist & Children’s Church- St Augustine’s
9.00am Eucharist - St Paul’s Rushworth
11.00am Eucharist - Christ Church Murchison
8.45am Eucharist - St Luke’s Dookie
2.00pm Sudanese Church Service
5.30pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel