THIRD SUNDAY after EPIPHANY
27 January 2013
Graphics and cartoons & liturgical material appear only in the printed version
CORPSES GALORE
Ireland’s worst air disaster occurred today when a small 2-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery this afternoon near Dublin. Search and rescue workers have recovered 826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the night.
HYMNS OR CHORUSES
An old farmer went to the city for a weekend and attended a big city church. On his return his wife asked him how his trip to church had gone. “Well,” said the farmer, “it was good. They did do some things different though. They sang choruses instead of hymns.” “Choruses,” said his wife, “What are they?”. “They’re alright, sort of like hymns, only different.” “Well, what’s the difference?” asked his wife. “It’s like this. If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ that would be a hymn. If on the other hand I was to say to you, ‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh Martha, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,’ that would be a chorus.”
THIS AND THAT (69)
Andrew Neaum
I don’t want to cause too much excitement in the parish, but I threw away about eight hundred sermons on Monday. We are having a clear out in the Rectory and so into the bin they all went. Many of the early ones have never even been digitalised and so are not preserved on computer disk, they are done with forever!
I also went through and cleared out a great lot of letters. A fascinating but difficult business this. Which to keep, which not? How seductive they are too. We found ourselves reading many and reliving the past through them. Especially the one’s between Michael and Diana and Margaret and me. Then there are love letters. Sacrilege to throw those away, though I wouldn’t want anyone else to read them.
What a rude fellow I sometimes appear in those letters of times past. I had kept copies of my letters of response to those sent to me when I was a controversial editor of a diocesan newspaper. Wow! Some I sent to bishops were close to outrageous. They make me wonder if I haven’t become too soft, mild-mannered and pacific. Grrrr!
We made a baba ganoush from three of our garden aubergines on Monday night. It is a good way to use up a large crop. They are a strange vegetable, turning to slimy mush when roasted whole. On the same Monday evening we ate the very first of our gem squash, last eaten in Zimbabwe. Picked at the perfect time, with the pips soft enough to eat, as too the skin, it was delicious with a well remembered and faintly nutty taste. Afterwards, out watering the garden in the dark, I spotted our predatory possum and so Heather and Harry Nichol’s possum trap was laid once more, as yet to no effect. Yet again the top, delicate shoots of our mercifully most prolific tomato plants have all been delicately nibbled off.
RETURN TO TRISTAN DA CUNHA (4)
After dinner I had a good chat with the ship’s doctor. Ships’ doctors tend to be a breed of their own. Why would you ignore the usually not inconsiderable rewards and varied clientele of land-lubber doctoring, in favour of the limited, isolating and surely less lucrative doctoring required on a ship? To do so could well mean an interesting and unusual personality, or an inadequate one unable to cope with conventional life and doctoring; or a failed career or marriage, a flight from scandal, or a propensity to drink. Any ship that carries more than twelve passengers is required by law to provide a qualified doctor. This is why freighters tend never to provide more than twelve berths for passengers, if any at all.
I find the doctor on the Agulhas with us to be interesting indeed, but with no apparent failings or bizarre peculiarities. She is no ancient mariner, a good deal younger than I am with a piercing but twinkling eye. It turns out that like me she was Rhodesian educated and went to Highlands Junior School, Oriel School and Roosevelt School. all in Harare where, she declared, she received a superb education. The first two of those schools were in my father’s last parish of seventeen years. He taught R.E in them. Her husband apparently died when their second daughter was only four and so she brought up two girls on her own. She is now studying tropical medicine because having been brought up in Africa she is fascinated by it. A bit of an idealist she fancies working somewhere in Africa for an NGO. One of her daughters is a vet in Australia, though likely not permanently. She has served both on Tristan and St Helena and is a fascinating and intelligent person.
I also talked to an inveterate smoker called Simon, whose father is an educational adviser and teacher on Tristan at present and obviously loves the island. He worked there for eight years when Simon his son was a boy and has returned many years later to work there again. So Simon’s trip is not dissimilar to mine. He has a lively little girl with him from a previous marriage and a partner with her father, good folk. I had a Castle beer with Simon, Castle being the beer I drank as a young man in Rhodesia.
Because the ship travels to Antarctica frequently, most of the steps out on deck have an electric element underneath them so as to stop them treacherously freezing over in bitter weather. After breakfast Diana and I did a brisk walk on a grey and wild day round the helicopter deck. We then went up to the observation deck for a while before an obligatory briefing on the helicopter flights. We then listened to a fascinating talk by a single-minded, somewhat fanatical conserv-ationist, John Cooper. One of those necessary fanatics though. On Gough Island the greatest problem and threat, especially to albatrosses, is mice, of all things. With no serious predators they have grown much bigger than those ancestors who had stowed away with human beings disembarking to explore the island. They now burrow into the warm bodies of albatross chicks when the parents are away looking for food. Then the skuas, spotting the blood, finish the job off.
John Cooper is an advocate for a plan to drench the island with poison to eradicate them all. Some hope I would say.
Wednesday 12 September, 2012 Arrival day
Five thirty in the morning. I tap away at my small laptop. Outside it is too dark to see, but if it wasn’t we would be well within sight of the island. I must close up the computer soon and get organised, though Diana is still in bed, relaxed and unhurried, how sensible.
Last night there was a fancy dress party to which Diana persuaded me to go as the second half of the French comic strip hero Tintin. She carried a big tin, I carried an identical one and both of us affixed to our heads a piece of teased out and fluffed red nylon fishing rope to represent Tintin’s ginger hair. It worked well and we were judged winners and got a block of chocolate. It was a rowdy party in the upstairs lounge and good fun. A lot of people entered into the spirit of it all, and one of the helicopter crew, a natural clown, was the star of the party. We left about ten, having put back our clocks another hour, Tristan being one hour ahead of GMT apparently. I wrote and sent off a little piece for the Diocesan Paper in Cape Town and sent a photo with it.
Yesterday was as rough a day as any we have had. Again it was most exhilarating up at the observation deck. I sign off now to go and have a look outside for an island in the dark.
Thursday 13 September, 2012 10.00am
On the Island of Tristan da Cunha
I sit at the office desk, looking out of the window over the garden wall of the little cottage that is the Rectory on Tristan da Cunha. The shape of the Garden is the same as I remember it from sixty years ago, so too is the sea, which appears to lap the cliff top. Not much else is the same from this view though. The little gully below the house is now crossed by a road, and there are two jagged, black volcanic stone walls across it, forming a pair of paddocks out of what was once common ground running down the gully to the beach. A couple of cows graze in the nearest paddock. The 1961 volcano, sadly for a nostalgic like me, in destroying the old factory and the two main beaches, caused a great shift westward of all the industry on the island. The beach we used to play and sunbathe on, and from which we learned to swim, is now the island’s essential little harbour with all the detritus associated with such places. Above it is the factory and the supermarket and so on. Not ruinously ugly though. My view as I sit here typing, while rain pours down and the wind blows, is still pleasing. It is just that west of the rectory is now the tiny industrial and commercial hub of the community, whereas this was not so when we left nearly sixty years ago.
The sound of rain on a tin roof thrills me. I suspect the three and a half years as a boy here first gave me a taste for and love of that sweetest of nature’s music.
We arrived to anchor pretty well spot on eight o clock yesterday, as scheduled. Best of all though, as light dawned on our vessel, so the classic view of the island in its entirety merged from darkness into light and we were able to take lots of photographs as we approached. The island’s peak had a few streaks of snow on it and although most of the sky was cloudy, not so the island, mere wisps of cloud wreathed it now and then. We even had early morning sunlight on the 6,765 foot peak for a while. Nightingale Island, twenty five miles from Tristan was visible faintly to the left of the island until we drew really close, whereupon Inaccessible island appeared on the right. There was a cold wind to numb us all as we stood on the observation soaking it all in, but the wind was milder and less fierce than for the last few days and the sea had no white caps to its waves. We were blessed with an excellent day for landing.
As we drew closer a fair number of the ship’s decks were roped off. Fore, because of the crane and the hold to be unloaded, aft, because of the helicopters to be used for ferrying us ashore. The island is formidably inhospitable looking, except for the plateau upon which the village is sited. The 1961 lava extrusion appears very black and hardly weather-soften at all. It forms low black cliffs against which the sea pounds. What vegetation there is on the base mountain looks relatively scant, but this is probably a distance illusion. Above the new lava plateau and hill there is evidence of a monstrous landslide, a great whitish coloured scar on the mountain’s face, behind the village.
A few more albatrosses than usual were flying around, as well as a dark petrel known as a “stinker”. None of the “kingbirds” I remember are in evidence, and of course no whales.
We were allocated to helicopter flight number seven of nine. The machine in use takes about five passengers at a time and so there was a fair wait to be enjoyed. All the more so as there was a great deal of dithering about before even the first exploratory flight took place, to test everything and deposit two of the crew on the island to assist passengers disembarking from the helicopter there.
We went down early for breakfast and had a plate of cereal, then later a piece of toast. We had packed all our cases, and as directed took them up to the deck and left them with everyone else’s to be enclosed in a great rope net and lifted by the crane on to a fairly crude seeming pontoon. It appeared from the island’s little harbour, an uncompromising square on floats, powered by two outboard motors.
Having been briefed we were packed into the helicopter for what is a very short flight, a mere minute or two, and deposited not far from the Rectory in a field where crowds of folk waited to greet their loved ones and friends, let alone us. We were met by Eddie, an exact contemporary of mine and Churchwarden. We must have been in the same class at school. He introduced us to Sean, the English, very welcoming Administrator of the Island and his wife Marina. We then headed for the Rectory where three of our five bags were already deposited. We strolled down to the harbour with Eddie to find the other two. They were already in a ute and so we followed the vehicle up to the house, helped unload them and carried them in.
The Rectory is not quite as smart as the photos seen on line had suggested, but it promises to be a congenial home for us while on the island and it has been kindly cleaned for us. There was a loaf of homemade bread, several cakes, one large egg and three small ones and a bowl of crayfish mayonnaise, delicious I later discovered. Sometime afterward, when we were out, a shepherd’s pie was dropped off as well. We settled in only slightly before heading out, first to the supermarket which reminded us of some of those we encountered in Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, rather limited in variety, but with more than enough to provide us with some sort of reasonable tucker while here.
FROM THE REGISTERS
Birthdays:
Malcolm Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Jan
Elaine McMullan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Jan
Wilma White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Jan
Josh Hamilton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Jan
WOMEN’S BREAKFAST
2 Feb. Sat 8.00am Eucharist, 8.30 Breakfast The speaker at the first gathering of the year will be hard to surpass thereafter, it being none other than the Revd. Dr. Helen Malcolm. Helen will delight us by talking about the influences of one of her favourites, Hildegard of Bingen, on our Christian theology. Sign up on the list in the Narthex for catering purposes.
SPLENDID CONCERT
3 Feb Sunday 2013 at 7.00 pm, St Augustine’s
The Chamber Philharmonia Orchestra of Cologne presents very, very accomplished concerts and this one should not be missed. See the Notice Board for details of a most enjoyable programme. Tickets: $30 for adults, $25 for Seniors and $20 for students. Children under 12 years are free.
DEADLINE ANNUAL REPORTS
3 Feb . Sunday to Parish Office please
Time flies. Annual Reports need to be presented within a mere week! No one is going to be chivvied, reports not presented on time will not be presented in our booklet.
ARISE 255
4 Feb. Monday 5.30pm
The Youth Group starts with the beginning of a new school term. The first gathering: Monday 4 February at 5.30pm in the Church Hall.
DEADLINE OUTREACH
10 Feb. Sunday to Parish Office please
SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKE PARTY
12 Feb. Tuesday 6.00pm, under the big tree
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
13 Feb. Wednesday 7.30pm
The St Augustine’s A.G.M. is on Ash Wednesday at 7.30pm. All are welcome. Nomination forms for Churchwardens and Councillors are on the table in the Narthex.
A ROVING LENT COURSE
From 19 February, Tuesday
Helen Malcolm will be leading a Lenten Study with a difference this year, a “Roving Course.” On Tuesdays the plan is to start in different locations at 7.30pm. When not held in Shepparton participants will meet up in the car park at 6.45 to arrange lifts.
Tues. Feb 19: Shepparton
Tues. Feb 26: Rushworth
Tues. March 5: Shepparton or Katandra
Tues. March 12: Murchison
Tues. March 19: Shepparton or Katandra.
Dookie does not feature because they will be participating in a local Ecumenical Group.Each session stands on its own, considering well known people’s opinions on “What is the most important spiritual question of our time.” There will be open discussion and background reading will be provided for each session. Do sign up.
MEN’S BREAKFAST
23 Feb Sat 8.00am Eucharist, 8.30 Breakfast. Sign up!
NEWS OF ELVIE MCINNES
Bev Condon of the Pastoral Care Team reports on a visit to Elvie last week. She is in room 50 of Grevillea Lodge, Rodney Park and would love a visit from friends at St Augustine’s. The Wednesday 10.00am congregation signed a card for her birthday: “......When I told the nurse I was waiting to see Elvie and to give her a birthday card they were most surprised. On checking their information they found out that it was indeed her birthday and that she was 80 years old. I don’t think Elvie had remembered so it was birthday wishes from everyone including the doctor. They were in a tiz about ordering a cake for her, so I think there will be big celebrations at tea time. .....She read out all the names on the card, remembering little things about each person......”
FOR THE DIARY
Feb 2 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Women’s Breakfast
Feb 3 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7pm Cologne Chamber Orchestra
Feb 4 Mon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arise 255 Youth Group
Feb 12 Tue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6pm Pancake Party
Feb 12 Tue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Grief Support 7.30pm
Feb 13 Wed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ash Wednesday & AGM
Feb 19 Tue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friendship Group 2pm
Feb 21 Thur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ladies Guild 1.30 pm
Feb 23 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Men’s Breakfast
Feb 24 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Katandra 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
May 31 Fri. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Synod
June 1 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Synod
June 2 Sun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patronal Festival
June 8 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Martrys of Uganda Service and Breakfast
June 13 Thur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4pm Fair Planning Group Roz’s Room
Oct 19 Sat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Parish Fair
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
Hilary & Alan Akers, Shirley Bartlett, Liam Bognar, Nola Brewer, Malcolm Button, Joyce Cavill, Victoria Heenan, Bruce Hodgson & family, Katherine Holt, Edwin Johnson, Dos King, Elsie Lieschke, Merle Maskell, Bob & June Mc Kellar, Colin Mackenzie, Helen McDonald, Ethel & George Rumble, Lynda Saville, Sandra Simonis, Nicole Sleeth, Patricia Sparkes, Shirley Venamils, Menique Richards with Shylah & Mitchel, Ray, Simon & Cheryl & Joy.
Rest in Peace: Liela McMaster, Laurie Cummins.
Anniversaries: Ron Hall (21) Edie Alexander (27 Jan), Margaret Bone, Elsie Knights (29 Jan), Claire Hooper (30 Jan), Elsie Byrne (31 Jan), John Young (1 Feb),
Duties for Sunday 27 January
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bev Condon, Pat Griffin
Intercessor 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Pearson
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Griffin, Beth Michelle
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joe Pearson, John Griffin
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Max & Bev Ralph
Welcomer 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Nichols, Eileen Quaife
Welcome Table 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Barbara Schier
Reader 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Peter Martin,
Intercessor 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nancy Noonan
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rick, Sam, Maddie
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joe Fernandez
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Irene Crawford, Leoni Gilbert
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mitch Macheda, Anne Hall
Welcome Table 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Projector 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Pearson
Children’s Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Suzanne Lear
Mowing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .none
Monday Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Holiday
READINGS NEXT SUNDAY 3 February
Jeremiah 14-10, Psalm 711-6, at 8.30 only: 1 Cor. 131-13
Duties for Sunday 3 February
Readers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heather Pearson, Bev Condon
Intercessor 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pat Griffin
Servers 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michelle, Beth, Soibhan,
Euc. Assts 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Barbara Schier, John Horder
Sidespeople 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Di Gribble, Gavin Gall
Welcomer 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gwenda Betson
Welcome Table 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Tea 8.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shirley Dean
Reader 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chris Evans
Intercessor 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joan McCann
Servers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . volunteers
Euc. Assts 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . volunteers
Sidespeople 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Irene Crawford, Beryl Black
Welcomers 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Gilbert, Frank Steen
Welcome Table 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dorothy Cook
Projector 10.30. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Black Family
Children’s Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Diana Neaum
Mowing 9 Feb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Garry Grant, John Horder
Mon Office 4 Feb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rosemary Moore, Jeanette Smith
THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH
Sunday 27 January: 3rd Sunday after Epiphany
2.00pm Sudanese Church Service
5.30pm Evening Prayer- Lady Chapel
Monday 28 January Thomas Aquinas (Rector’s Day off)
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer
Tuesday 29 January
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer
Wednesday 30 January Charles King of England
7.45am Mattins - Lady Chapel
10.00am Eucharist- St Augustine’s
5.00pm Evening Prayer
6.00pm EfM
Thursday 31 January
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
5.30pm Choir Practice
Friday 1 February
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
5.00pm Evening Prayer - Lady Chapel
Saturday 2 February: “Presentation in the Temple”
7.45am Mattins & Eucharist - Lady Chapel
8.30am Women’s Breakfast
6.00pm Vigil Eucharist
Sunday 3 February: 4th Sunday after Epiphany
8.30am Sung Eucharist - St Augustine’s
10.30am Eucharist & Children’s Church- St Augustine’s
12.15pm Orthodox Baptism
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