St Dunstan's House Press

A new site for the London trip

2011-08-15T00:12:00.002+10:00

I have created a new site to keep you all up-to-date with the trip to London.

Trip diary and news loaded as often as possible.

Skype

2011-05-15T18:00:00.000+10:00

My latest Skype software up-grade was to version 5.1.0.935, downloaded on the same day that Microsoft announced a US$8B+ purchase of Skype.

Having been a Skype user from it's early days, I now would find it difficult to communicate as frequently as I do (across the globe and locally) at minimal expense, without Skype.

Using Skype I can have a real-time face-to-face conversations with colleagues and family anywhere in the world - providing they have an internet connection to their computer or mobile device.

Using Skype to share documents and live desktop activities allows an ability to be 'virtually' present at meetings and gatherings as never before. Be it a Board Meeting or a 30th Birthday Party.

You will see that I have included a Skype icon on this Blog and also on my main website . These will allow you to make an internet call directly to me. If i am not at a Skype enabled device it will route through to a landline or mobile telephone.

Otherwise you can reach me at Skype on: bpschaplain

If you want to download the free version of Skype Click Here

Twitter and Facebook V. Blogging

2010-09-27T21:54:00.000+10:00

I am beginning to think that the reason some of us aren't Blogging so much as before is because we expose ourselves to too-much information on Social Net-Working sites, then we spend time responding to those posts or articles, that there is very little time left to blog or very little left to be said in a blog that we haven't posted or commented on elsewhere. (That was a long, lawyer-like sentence - apologies.)

A web-page or a blog in the early days - pre Twitter, Facebook, linkedin and picture hosting sites - was a great way to share news and pictures with family and friends around the globe. Today, especially with the evolution of software such as Tweetdeck, we can access all of this information - whilst editing the bits we really are interested in - and respond in typographical soundbites.

That is probably the equivalent in Characters of six to seven Tweets.

Post Scriptum: It is also very difficult to compose a blog on an iPhone: another reason for Tweeting and Fb.

Press Release from the DIocese of Ballarat

2010-06-19T13:14:00.000+10:00

PRESS RELEASE

ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF BALLARAT

Embargoed until 11.30am (EST) on Saturday 19 June 2010

Announcement on behalf of Bishop Michael Hough

Bishop Michael Hough has tendered his resignation as the Bishop of Ballarat with his last

day in office to be Monday, 20 December 2010, following a service of the Laying up of the

Pastoral Staff on Sunday, 19 December 2010.

Bishop Michael says that he has come to this decision with a heavy heart, and after much

prayer and reflection on the unity of the Diocese and its mission.

Bishop Michael hopes that in his stepping aside, the People of God in the diocese will

commit with fresh vigour to make known the transforming mystery and love of Christ to all

people in the diocese of Ballarat.

The Bishop hopes that the diocese will continue with its mandate for mission, enlivening

our traditions and liturgies throughout the diocese in all kinds of faith communities, bringing

those outside the Church into a relationship with God; with the poor and marginalised

continuing to be a priority.

Announcement on behalf of the Complainants

In late 2008, a number of clergy and lay people of the Diocese of Ballarat or with previous

connection to the Diocese of Ballarat together brought individual Complaints concerning

the conduct of the Bishop of Ballarat before the Episcopal Standards Commission of the

Anglican Church of Australia.

After a long process, the Complaints have been resolved by a confidential Deed of

Settlement negotiated and entered into by the Complainants, the Bishop of Ballarat and the

Diocese of Ballarat. As a result, the Complainants have withdrawn their Complaints.

The settlement has been made possible by the commitment of all the parties involved to

the unity and mission of the Church in the Diocese of Ballarat.

Social Networking Media

2010-04-10T13:00:00.000+10:00

"Where have you been?" "Is all well?" "Given up on Fb?"

I have been surprised by the number of emails that I have received these last few weeks containing comments like those above. Whilst I am part of the demographic that supposedly makes up the largest group of Social Networking Media users (SNMUs), I refrain from letting it run my life.

It is good to be able to catch up with family and friends across the globe and to be informed of their joys and troubles almost the instant something happens, but does this always require a written comment or acknowledgment that the post/tweet/blog has been read? I use the application 'Tweetdeck' on my iPhone, MacBook and the iMacs around the house. When the application is minimalised it opens a window briefly above any open application when someone or some topic I am following has a hit. This includes twitter feeds, twitter searches, linkedin, facebook, alerts from the fire brigade about local incidents and from the railways (V Line) about train cancellations or delays. I can also review all posts during a specific time-frame from the man tweetdeck screen.

So whilst I haven't been posting much in recent weeks, I have been keeping an eye on things - locally and globally - and feel informed.

In addition to the usual Holy Week and Easter things, I have been writing and working on a couple of projects. Today I think I have hopefully avoided the flu to the extent that some others around me have suffered.

My next blog post should look at why all of the most recent blogs have been about water?

Another weather-related blog post

2010-02-11T21:53:00.001+11:00

Heavy rain had been forecast for the Melbourne metropolitan area this afternoon but when I left Ballarat this morning the skies were cloudless and blue. Lunchtime in Melbourne was very pleasant although a little warm. After a post-lunch visit to the Central Catholic Bookshop (I am never quite sure just what the 'Central' part of the title is claiming) I walked back to the main railway station wondering just when the 'cool change' was going to arrive.

Wisely I had abounded my summer raincoat and instead took my faithful Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella - It is my favorite (and having just looked at the website via the link above to see what a replacement would cost I will not be offering to lend it out again in a hurry) and this proved to be a wise move as nothing but a Barbour or Dry-as-a-bone would have kept out the rain that came.

My train was delayed and then cancelled along with all of the others. An attempt to exist the station - whilst the announcer proclaimed "this is the result of very, very, very extreme weather" - was delayed due to flash-flooding outside of the station.

Fortunately the Bishop was also in Melbourne, attending a late-afternoon meeting with the Premier, and he had decided to drive in rather than take the train. So after meeting up with the Registrar's daughter (like me stranded in the Big Smoke) we left a note on the Bishop's windscreen and headed to the closet watering hole beside St Paul's Cathedral (Y&J's) and waited for the Bishop to finish his meeting. The drive home was much appreciated.

The pictures are of the flash-flooding in and around Southern Cross Station.

Deo Gratia - The 'Rain' has come

2010-02-10T20:31:00.002+11:00

After two-and-a-half weeks of sweltering in the humid heat with a broken air conditioning system that was not being fixed, the clergy and lay-staff at Ballarat's Anglican Cathedral and Bishop's Registry, welcomed the rain and associated cool change that arrived late this afternoon.

Perhaps the engineers - who have not been to investigate the problem - or, latterly, return desperate calls - think that the church only works on Sunday and so can wait.

Perhaps they have forgotten the many people that come for a free breakfast or a food parcel and who have also had to endure the oppressive conditions.

Suits have been shed for shorts; cassocks have been closeted for cassalbs, shoes supplanted with sandals. Prayers are being offered for the chance to sport Boots and Brollies!

Mass in the Heat

2010-01-30T21:49:00.001+11:00

This evening I drove back to the Cathedral in the late-afternoon sunshine. As I arrived in Ballarat I noticed that there were groups of people sitting outside cafes and bars: shaded beneath large sun-umbrellas; they were dressed in summer footwear, shorts and summer tops: with cold beers on the table in front of them. I thought, perhaps this is closer to Heaven than the informal Eucharist at the Cathedral that I was soon to be a part of? I had parred back the apparel under my white summer cassock (see the image above), but what I really wanted was a cold beer. Have I been living in Australia for too long?

Alone at the Organ

2010-01-17T18:17:00.001+11:00

Seated Today at the Organ

People tell you that it is good to sit in the pews occasionally; for a former organist, its good to play for a liturgy occasionally.

Those of us who lead public worship, have - at one time or another - been critical of the organist: too fast; too soft; too loud; wrong tune; a daydreamer - etcetera. It can be a lonely and frustrating gig, especially if the choir are on leave and the clergy are not accustomed to working together or in that particular liturgical space.

Part of my role as Bishop's Chaplain is to have a through understanding of any liturgy that the Bishop will take part in well in advance of the start of the service. That includes knowing what everybody else should be doing and when. I have learnt to be gentle in these enquires and with my suggestions for how things might otherwise be done.

As part of this preparation, I always consult with the Organist and/or Choir Director and make sure that they are aware of any last minute changes. When you are the organist, as I was today, up in the organ loft and away from the action, it is difficult to switch off and just be the organist for the day. How do you signal down to the sanctuary that the presider has his radio microphone on and therefore all of his aside comments to the concelebrants (spoken loudly as one has a hearing problem and one an English problem) are being heard clearer in the nave than by those standing either side of him? The MC was out stoking the thurible so there was no other option than to play louder.

All in all it was a good morning: the mass was celebrated; the people sung well and Christ was made known in bread and wine and through his people. In future I will be strive to be kinder and exercise more compassion for organists.

Song for You

2010-01-03T18:46:00.001+11:00

Another Bublé moment to enjoy.

Prayer to bring together the Advent Studies

2009-12-18T16:28:00.000+11:00

I have written this prayer for the last of week of the Advent Study series. As we look at the New Covenant, we remember the promises contained in the Covenants we have looked at in this series.

Loving God,

You brought Noah and his family through the flood to find safety and make celebration on Mount Ararat, you put a rainbow in the sky to remind them of your promise; help us when we find ourselves in the storms of life to look for your promise and wait patiently for its fulfilment.

Your covenant with Abraham begins salvation history as you act to reconcile a fallen world. With Moses, you lead your people from bondage and slavery into freedom and establish a covenant which seeks to bring peace.

Your covenant with David looks forward to a time when a descendant of David would bring peace and justice to all of God’s people. As we seek to live under this new covenant, help us to remember that your promises are from of old and that in Jesus all things find their fulfilment.

When we doubt, reveal to us your rainbow.

When we fall, reach out to us in reconciliation.

When we are in bondage, lead us into liberation.

When we are hurt, come to us as the Prince of Peace.

This we ask through Him whose birth we celebrate

And whose name we honour, Jesus the Lord. Amen.

Baptism at Morrisons

2009-11-23T21:25:00.000+11:00

The sudden and then sustained down pour didn't dampen the spirits as the Cole and Gaussen families gathered at St James' Church Morrisions yesterday for Isabella's baptism. Following in the family tradition of many of her ancestors before her, she was baptized during the main public service of the day and welcomed into Christ's Church.

Men's High Fashion in Ballarat

2009-11-23T21:05:00.001+11:00

A link to an article on my main website regarding the Summer Fashion on offer for men in Ballarat this year.

2009-11-15T14:48:00.001+11:00

The pictures shows the group of final year Medical Students from Scotland on a placement in Victoria pictured with the parish organist Dr Robert Ried. They are having a real taste of the variety of lifestyles available in the State of Victoria. This is one of the smallest churches in the Diocese of Ballarat and was moved to Wallinduc from the Goldfields. It is the only church that I know that still uses the harmonium for every service. Dr Ried likes to give the congregation their monies-worth so they have 5 hymns per service, each with a minimum of 6 verses!

Bishop's Registry Training Day

2009-11-10T19:34:00.007+11:00

Today the staff, lay and clerical, of the Bishop's Registry had a half-day training session. The facilitator focused on the various dynamics operating within the group and the inter-dependencies that help the group function effectively.

The picture is of an "expression" that was made by the group that I was a member of. I must confess that for me this was the best part of the morning.

Here's the explanation of the "expression" as best as I can remember it.

The Cross - Constructed from an assortment of coloured pipe-cleaners - represents the many different crosses than people bring to and prop-up around the Registry. The umbrella in the centre of the cross is a symbol of God's umbrella of love over all of these crosses.
The Figures around the Cross - each with a different colour feather to speak of the variety of personalities that are present in the group and that how together these harmonise in juxtaposition like a rainbow. Some of the sub-gifts of the individuals are represented by the objects in their arms or at their feet.
Around the Cross - are presents, flowers and produce; each speaks for a member of the group.
Band-Aids - talk about the healing process that helps to keep the group together. The Secure Cable-tie, replacing a Band-Aid in one relationship, speaks of the stronger tie that sometimes is required.
The Outer Perimeter and the Carnival Masks - speak of the need for a celebration of life both within and beyond the Registry.

We had ten minuets to discuss our approach and the same to construct it with a wide choice of materials to choose from.

I think our team had fun and at the same time reflected deeply about

our group dynamic.

You can tell from the colour of the feather which one represents me.

British households pour away £470 million of wine every year - Times Online

2009-11-10T19:24:00.000+11:00

British households pour away £470 million of wine every year - Times Online

This is an amazing article from The Times (London) today.

Most of what it says would seem to me a matter of common sense but the volume of waste is astounding.

I can confirm that no wine is wasted in this household, there is a use for each and every drop.

Saint Francis of Assisi

2009-10-03T16:15:00.000+10:00

The 4th of October is date for the Commemoration of Saint Francis of Assisi.

This year it falls on a Sunday, as it is only a 'commemoration' it is not celebrated or transferred. (I dont know what strings the BBC had to pull to have Dibley's Blessing of the Animals on a Sunday.)

So for those who want to remember Saint Francis on the 4th of October, I have included a collect and a prayer blessing below:

Collect for St Francis of Assisi:

Father, You helped Saint Francis to reflect the image of Christ through a life of poverty and humility. May we follow your Son by walking in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi, and by imitating his joyful love. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Saint Francis Day Prayer:

Loving Father, Saint Francis taught us to love all of your creatures and to care for those we have charge of, we thank you for N. ( & N.), for the companionship we share and the support we offer each other. Help us to understand and promote that bond of affection we have with our animals and to share our love with each other. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Start Freedom

2009-09-30T08:48:00.000+10:00

A note to my Father on the anniversary of his death

2009-09-07T22:38:00.002+10:00

I wore your waistcoat today; the plain black one with the silk back. Morning Dress trousers (to me you always seemed to be wearing them), a shirt form the Jermyn Street shirt makers that can be seen from the upper bay window of your old club in St James. I also wore the tie that we wore in solidarity at your funeral: the one I put on when the liturgies were over and I had taken off my robes and was allowed to mourn.

You had made it so clear that at your funeral we were to give thanks and celebrate your life - your friends were so numerous and from so many walks of life that it was like organising a State Funeral - Your choice of the final hymn “Now thank we all our God, with hearts and hands and voices; who wondrous things hath done.” All this helped to lift us beyond our grief and to see the great things you had achieve in your life and the greater things you expected from those in whom you had invested your time, your energy and your love.

The photograph we used for the cover of the Order of Service for your Thanksgiving and Farewell liturgies still sits on the top shelf of the low bookcase in my office. It shares a place with my favourite Madonna & Child picture and my Licence from the Bishop. I think it is now time to replace it and I will find a picture of us together to put in its place.

I can’t explain this feeling - one that should speak of separation but that brings us closer together. The sense that doesn’t say ‘I whished Dad could have been here for this’ but says ‘Son I am here with you, I am still praying for you and rejoicing with you’.

It’s strange. I find myself crying with those who still cry as we talk of you. I cry sometimes when I go to the piano and play your favourites songs. But I cry only for the loss of the physical nearness of you, for you are still near every day. I proudly wear your clothes along with your ring and I remember you daily about the altar.

Today, across the world, you have been remembered. The finest wine has been drunk, flowers have been gathered, the mass has been offered and tears have been shed.

In the morning we will remember you, in our joys and sorrows we will ask for your prayers. In our lives, our homes and in each tomorrow you will play your part.

Rest in Christ; pray for us.

Today's Sermon at the Cathedral Church of Christ the King - Ballarat

2009-07-19T14:51:00.000+10:00

You will have have noticed that we are still in this very action-packed 6^th chapter of St Mark’s gospel; its week 3 and we will be there again next week. It is a pivotal chapter in Mark's presentation of Jesus, both as the embodiment of the expected Davidic Messiah and as the Divine Son of God.

Those who have compiled our lectionary readings have grouped today’s so that we have as a more definable theme than we sometimes get. This theme - one which weaves its way through both Old and New testaments – is that of God’s loving concern for His people expressed as that of the quintessential Good Shepherd.

The bad shepherds that Jeremiah speaks of in the first reading, are, in his time, personified in the person of the King Zedekiah; a weakling who like his immediate predecessors has been devouring the flock and causing them to scatter. Jeremiah proclaims that when God brings about the new order ‘the deliverance will be far more wonderful than the deliverance from Pharaoh and the land of Egypt’.

Over the past few weeks the Old Testament readings have tempted some people to see them as a commentary on our own time. This is a dangerous path to take – the readings tell us firstly and primarily about God and his loving care; only secondly do we read of the activities of the prophets (good and bad) and then we hear of the effect of these events on God’s people.

The stories are recorded for us so that we may see that the unfolding of salvation is all in God’s plan – they are not there so that we may indulgently see ourselves as either the ignored prophets or the scattered and forgotten flock.

Yes, we may note that ‘history repeats itself’, but more importantly we are to note the work and intention of God to care for and shepherd His people.

The appointed psalm for today, psalm 23, is a wonderful recapitulation of this message. Its almost universal inclusion at Christian weddings and funerals is testament to the truth that in all life, in our joys and sorrows, God is there, beside us as the shepherd who protects - and going before us as the shepherd who provides.

When we re-enter Mark's gospel today, the disciples have just returned from their missionary duties, they are tired yet enthusiastic about what has happened. Jesus recognises their need for some time alone, some space and a debrief. The crowd still press in, such was the ‘success’ of their mission. They take off in the boat, only to have their progress observed by the crowd who follow on foot around the shores of the lake. When Jesus and the disciples finally make land the crowd is there ahead of them and the dire need of the people takes precedence.

Mark tells us that Jesus had compassion for the crowd for they were like ‘sheep without a shepherd’. It is this 'compassion' for the crowd that identifies Jesus as the true shepherd, the one who has come to restore Israel. It is God’s compassion for His people enacted through Jesus. This compassion extends to feeding them both through his teaching and then through the miracle of providing enough food to feed the multitude through the multiplication of five loaves and two fish.

From the time of the European Enlightenment onwards, men have tried to explain away this miracle. The explanation with the most currency is that the offering from one encouraged others to share what they had, but Mark is not saying this. We loose sight of the shepherd image when we turn this into something again of our doing, our sharing - rather than God’s providing.

Mark is saying that it is spiritual leadership that the people lack and it is the spiritual hunger that Jesus initially feeds with his teaching. The teaching and the miracles belong together - in his teaching Jesus instructs the crowd about the Kingdom of God and in his miracles Jesus provides instances of its coming.

For the Kingdom of God is a place where miracles of healing and feeding happen. The one who presides over the Kingdom is the Shepherd who serves, protects and provides for those within it. The Shepherd who is constantly inviting people into the fold, that he might provide for them and nurture them in the way in which God intends. The Kingdom is a place where healing takes place, where people are released from troubling spirits and where peoples spiritual hunger is fed.

Timothy Radcliffe in his book “What is the point of being a Christian?” asks:

How are we to heal the wounds of Christ’s body? How are we to learn to breathe again with the rhythm of the Eucharist, gathering people into community to share the bread, and reaching for the fullness of the Kingdom?

Quoting Archbishop Rowan Williams he goes on to say of the Kingdom that it is:

A place where those who need a home and have none may find it… not some closed holy space… but… a temple whose doors are open, where God is to be found and where God’s peace makes a difference.

With all of the instructions to “go, heal and cast out” that our readings have imparted to us over the last few weeks, what a comfort it is for us to hear today’s readings, with their assurance of God’s shepherding care and love for us for us to hear that is right and proper for us to take regular rest with, and to be fed by God.

But may we never forget that the care that God shows to us, we are expected to show to others as imitators of Christ and co-builders of the Kingdom.

The Gospel In Action

2009-07-12T19:21:00.005+10:00

Today I posted the following on the Archdeacon's blog, as a response to his recent blog about the GS in York and today's Gospel:

Someone in the congregation this morning had asked for public prayer as later this week she approaches an operation to remove a cancerous tumour.

Before the Dismissal I invited her to come forward for prayer and invited members of the congregation, if they felt moved to, to come and pray with me for her.

About a dozen of her closest friends came forward and they put their hands on her shoulders as we prayed together. That sort of prayer is something new to that parish, those co-praying were as uplifted by the prayers and the sharing in the ministry of healing as the one seeking prayer was.

The end of today's gospel reading reminds us that the disciples were successful in healing the sick in Jesus' name.

Today I saw a glimpse of the type of church we can be when we 'go as sent' and put our faith into action.

ST. BRIGID’S CHURCH, BALLAN - Update on re-Building

2009-05-02T16:52:00.001+10:00

The first report from a Special Meeting of the Parish Pastoral Council and the Parish Finance Committee was held on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 in regard to procedures for the rebuilding of St. Brigid’s Church, Ballan.

This is the congregation that we are currently hosting at Saint John's.

The full report of the meeting, which will be of interest to all in Ballan, is HERE

Church Times Leader (1 May 09) - World specialises in diseases of the rich

2009-05-02T11:44:00.002+10:00

A MUTANT VIRUS is unpredictable, and for this reason the first reaction to the prospect of a swine-flu epidemic was naturally fearful. Virologists, who were expected to acquire instant expertise concerning the new strain of influenza, have been cautiously reassuring, however. The virus appears to be treatable, and a combination of early treatment and natural immunity may well help to contain it. Political pressure helps. Since government officials approve, regulate, and stockpile medicines, they have to assume a degree of responsibility for public health. The two most recent health scares, SARS in 2003 and avian flu in 2005-06, exposed a lack of preparedness. Now the Government reports that it has more than 30 million doses of a drug that combats the effects of flu, and political squabbling is confined to delays in setting up a helpline.

The feeling of reassurance that this prompts is tempered, though, by the knowledge that such a response is possible only in the wealthier nations. The inference drawn from the lack of fatalities in developed nations so far is that this variety of swine flu is relatively mild, and responds well to treatment. This must be contrasted with the number of deaths attributed to the disease in Mexico. Were the epidemic to spread to other countries with smaller public-health budgets even than Mexico’s, the world would be facing a much greater challenge.

Or perhaps not. The relative lack of investment in public health in the developing world is an indication of the limited scope of globalisation. The lowest-income countries, which account for 2.6 billion people — 38 per cent of the world’s population — also account for just five per cent of the world’s health expenditure. In 2006, government expenditure on health in the UK was £1668 per capita; in Zambia, for example, it was just under £20.

The thinking that informs investment in anti-flu drugs is very straightforward. It has been estimated that a serious pandemic could cost the world economy $3 trillion. SARS is thought to have cost China £25.3 billion in 2003. Even an outbreak of an animal infection, foot-and-mouth disease, cost the UK £7 billion in 2001. Potential losses such as these can easily justify expenditure on disease prevention. Why, then, are the same arguments not applied globally?

Last Saturday was World Malaria Day. Half the world’s population remains at risk from the disease. Nearly a million people die every year. The World Health Organisation estimates that malaria alone reduces economic growth in the worst-affected countries by 1.3 per cent each year. And yet the case for investing in prevention to produce a direct economic benefit is not heard. It is hard to know why, but nationalism, global competition, ignorance, and indifference all play a part. Christ’s definition of “neighbour” has still to be adopted by the world at large.

Information on Sneezing and using tissues

2009-04-30T19:23:00.001+10:00

London and Australia

2009-04-26T17:39:00.000+10:00

I have had a few people asking what is happening to my .mac website (Kevin Harper - London & Australia): It will be back when I pay the fee for the Annual hosting & upgrade. Early next month I hope: after the other more demanding accounts have been attended to.

Mean while, I will be posting on here for free!!

History Quiz

2009-04-26T17:17:00.003+10:00

By a very circumlocuitous route - I had been researching Kenneth Horne of Round the Horn fame and from there I had gone to look at Kenneth Williams and somehow had found a link to Bamber Gascoigne - I came across this HistoryWorld webpage that Gascoigne is authoring and thereby came upon his little History Quiz.

I have loaded the quiz at the very bottom of this blog page (sorry, there is a lot of scrolling-down) for your enjoyment: ( I want Chris B and Kate H on my team) - next parish fund-raiser perhaps?

New "Sharing" Button

2009-04-25T11:46:00.003+10:00

With this new button below, you should be able to share any post or re-posts directly from each article.

Will give this a test - please let me know what you think .

Susan Boyle - A modern-day parable

2009-04-19T19:36:00.000+10:00

The story of Susan Boyle has made headlines around the world; thanks to You Tube and other agencies of the WWW.

Susan's story and the amount of self-reflection it has engendered delivers to us a modern-day parable worthy of a Dominical origin. It has nothing to do with a rags-to-riches modern day fairy-tale or a feel good story that warms our hearts, the reaction has little to do with what sort of life Susan might have in the future, it is about what it has done to us. Yes, Us!

I have heard the comments: "her voice isn't that good"; "it's just the contrast between her ugly face and her OK voice"; "there are hundreds like her - she just got lucky", but I have also seen grown men cry on seeing the Youtube video of her performance (men who have seen first-hand the horrors of the recent Bush Fires) and I have read some fine articles in the 'quality' newspapers. What the writers of these articles seem to want to tell us is that if we bother to look at this global reaction to the Susan Boyle episode and analyze why it has happened, it causes us to re-think the way we judge others.

Writing in The Observer Professor Patricia Williams recalls her own upbringing and the prejudice she encountered for being Black, intelligent and a Woman. On Boyle she says:

Boyle's lesson is not that she is a book whose "cover" deceived people. That's as crass as the supposedly well-meaning comments I sometimes heard growing up: that I might look black on the outside, but I was nice and white inside. Rather, the problem was the audience's self-deception. Dismissing her - or anyone - based on careless expectations about what age or lack of employment supposedly signify is the habit of mind common to all forms of prejudice.

Those who lead us to that understanding open our hearts to the most sublime sense of connection. It's why many of us didn't just cheer when Barack Obama was elected, but wept like babies. And when Boyle sang, we didn't just root for her, we wept for all the slights that ever were.

So Boyle should be able to wear what she wants, whether a canvas feedbag or an evening gown.

The true measure of her success must be our gratitude for the mirror she held up to us.

Lisa Schwarzbaum, a writer in the USA for the magazine Entertainment Weekly which specializes in Celebrities, suggested in an article this week that Boyle's performance was a powerful reality check. She said that of Boyle:

"She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

Let's allow Susan Boyle to have the last word in this Post - This is what she said in an interview with The Times last Tuesday:

“Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances. There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example.”

Her voice has not been wasted all these years, or unheard: She has been singing for God and his Angels.

Susan Boyle - Cry Me A River - 1999 Recording (From The Scottish Daily Record Newspaper)

2009-04-18T21:22:00.001+10:00

If you had this voice in your parish choir would you keep it quiet? How often do we like to keep talent local for the fear of loosing it. I think it may be too late now for that wee Kirk. - What was that Jesus said about Lights and Bus-shelters and lamp-stands.

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

2009-04-15T20:23:00.001+10:00

I first saw this last night and have just spoken to my mother in London who watched it live-to-air on Saturday. A most entertaining performance with quite a lot of moist eyes around the globe. 5M views in just a few days.

"It is Accomplished" - Jesus dies on the Cross

2009-04-10T13:21:00.005+10:00

Jesus said "it is accomplished"; and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

Loving God;

The comfort of the sad, the strength of those who suffer:

Hear the prayers of your children who cry out to you in their trouble.

To the distressed souls grant mercy, relief and refreshment.

To the dying grant comfort and hope.

May none of your children be let alone.

Good Friday Morning

2009-04-10T10:00:00.000+10:00

We adore you o Christ and we bless you; by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the World.

The Fire at Saint Bridget's Ballan

2009-04-08T15:20:00.006+10:00

Here are some pictures Taken just before 8 this morning as Ballan awoke to the news that Saint Bridget's church had been burnt out by fire during the night. The CFA and Police had closed the roads around St Bridget's and a group was gathering along Inglis Street opposite the church. The wet, low-cloud morning had taken away the smell of the smoke and the building resembled the community it had exited for; its heart burnt out and the fragile shell a symbol of what had been.

A lady approached the road-block in her car and seeing the group assembling on the roundabout asked what was happening. As the group pointed to the gutted shell the driver began to cry, "we have lost our priest and now we have lost our church". The crowd included many for the nearby Anglican church who had come to lend support and provide offers of hospitality. The Business Manager from the Catholic Archdiocese was there as was the Anglican Bishop's Chaplain who offered the help and support of the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, the Rt Rev'd Michael Hough. The two bishops had a conversation later in the day where support was again pledged along with the offer of the congregation of St Bridget's using the Ballan Anglican Church and buildings for as long as needed.

Retired Anglican Bishop John Stewart who leads worship at Ballan once a month and will be leading the Easter services, also visited Ballan. Bishop Stewart met with the Principle of St Bridget's primary School offering his help and support.

A meeting is being held at 5 PM in Ballan today with Bishop Peter to look at the way forward. Ballarat Anglican churches have been asked to offer special prayers today and through the week for the people of St Bridget's.

What's that in the bread, it's gone to my head?

2009-04-07T21:52:00.000+10:00

Reflections for Tuesday in Holy Week

Just some random thoughts on today's gospel reading; more for my own reflection but it is a good discipline to write for others. I find it helps me to be more honest in my own reflections.

John 13.21-38

Jesus is troubled: it is party time - Passover - he has his close friends gathered around him,the stress of the past week and the enormity of what lies ahead of him weighs on his mind. His disciples, all perhaps but Judas, are relaxed reclining around him, eating and drinking, not sure of what has just happened, confused by what the Master is saying, unaware of what is about to occur.

Even bold and brash Simon Peter ask 'the disciple whom Jesus loves' to find out what Jesus is really saying (V.24).

What a picture we have here: a loving disciple reclining against Jesus; Judas waiting for the moment to leave the gathering and go to betray Jesus - did he take the purse with him? It is implied that he had it on him (V.29); Simon Peter, perhaps in party mode, pledging loyalty to death - Jesus knowing that Peter is big on words and weak on action.

Gathered around Jesus in this cameo is the "A" team; those called to 'train the trainers', to be the absolvers of the absolvers, to be the witnesses to the Resurrection. When Jesus needs them they are spent and tired. I am not a great fan of the Weber/Rice Jesus Christ, Superstar but it has some great insights, one of them being the song the 'Last Supper'

Always hoped that I'd be an Apostle.
New that I would make if I tried.
Then when we retire we can write the Gospels,
And they'll still talk about us when we die.

You can almost hear them saying: "come on Jesus, dont spoil the party, it a holiday weekend, chill man - let's talk about this in the morning".

Lovers, accusers and friends; drunks and determined; some in vino veritas and some as cold as steel. Such are those Jesus gathers around him when he is most in need, whose dirty feet he washes and for whom he offers his body.

As much as I try to escape it, I am there too. So which one am I?

For Reflection

2009-04-03T11:15:00.000+11:00

A thought for the Friday before Palm Sunday

Maybe those who, while lacking faith, still respond to Christian art and music, at least believe in the works Jesus does. We should foster this lesser faith, as good in itself, and perhaps a pathway to true faith. ”

Put People First Prayer

2009-03-31T19:16:00.001+11:00

Father, we stand before you in prayer as the global economy crisis casts a shadow over the peoples of the earth. In a word as closely connected as ours, each of our actions affects the whole. We are sorry when we have failed to act beyond our narrow interests. Help us to live as a community and care for others, especially the vulnerable and the poor amongst us.

As the G20 meet, we ask for wisdom for the leaders of the world. Where nations have pushed their agendas on others, bring partnership and love. Where people have lived lives disconnected from their brothers and sisters in other countries; bring solidarity and compassion. May we see the dawning of a new world, with your values at its heart; a world of justice, mercy and humility.

May the poor not be forgotten in the midst of crisis.

All: Father, as your people, help us to raise our voices. As your church worldwide, let us rise up in prayer, in speaking out and in demonstrating your way of life, so that out of the ruins of this current crisis might come help for a better world.

Amen

This prayer was used at the serive in Westminister Central Hall before the PPF rally last weekend

G20 - some thoughts before it gets going

2009-03-29T17:10:00.002+11:00

This week's summit may just be the start of a worldwide redistribution, however small, from the chastened rich towards the angry poor. And if it is not, the G20 leaders may suffer the consequences.

The task before them is massive in the time allocated - hence the peripatetic travels of many G20 leaders over the last few weeks, including Mr Rudd.

Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office minister agrees with Tony Dolphin when the latter says:

"There are 20 of them and they are in a room for maybe 10 hours. So they've got 30 minutes each, in effect," says Tony Dolphin, chief economist at the IPPR, a think tank. "Even if there were only six issues, that's five minutes per person per issue: what can they say in that time?"

There is a detailed article in today's edition of the London Guardian Click Here to read it

A focus for prayers before we start Holy Week.

Don't knock the old church buildings but look for God in the gutter too.

2009-03-15T22:38:00.003+11:00

A post I left on a discussion on another site:

.

..remember that the the early house-churches of the pre-Constantine era often gathered in the opulent villas of wealthy Roman citizens - I have no problem with the continued use of magnificent and beautiful buildings that speak of man's need to express his understanding and need of a transcendent God. But God must be encountered in the gutter as well as in the Gothic, in the sinner as well as in the Sanctuary, in the broken as well as in the Beautiful.

As Aquinas would say: we should look at every person, not as we find them , but as the person the creator has given them the potential to be.

Steam Traction Engines to Move Churches

2009-03-15T20:14:00.003+11:00

This innocent Post from the Provost of Glasgow Cathedral had me wondering about what it really requires to move churches today. But not as in this case the building, but to move the people.

The post is here

A place for those who need a home - where scum are made welcome

2009-03-15T17:54:00.002+11:00

Following on from yesterdays' post - and the worthwhile exchange of posts it generated Click Here - I offer this today:

Timothy Radcliffe OP quotes the often misunderstood Ab of C Rowan Williams in a chapter of a book that he titles 'Breeding Pandas':

" To be built by God into a sanctuary... is to be built into a temple whose doors are open, where God is to be found and God's peace makes a difference. ... But we are called (and here he is referring to the everyone who would call themselves Christian) to be a kingdom or priests, and to be built as a holy temple so that the world may be invited , may see, may be transfigured.

Radcliffe, Timothy OP, What is the point of being a Christian?, (p 179) London 2005

The church as Sanctuary - a place of refuge, a place of asylum: not for the initiated but for the poor, the scum, for those with nowhere else to go, for those who have stories that others won't want to share.

This was Christ's idea of the 'kingdom' - I didn't see many like this at the cathedral this morning - unless they were hiding under their big hats and covering up their tatts with those long gloves.

William Stringfellow on Priesthood

2009-03-14T22:03:00.000+11:00

William Stringfellow said that our view of priesthood "is so radically misconceived that the clergy have become a substitute laity whose function is to represent publicly – in place of the laity – the presence of the church in the world... a superficial, symbolic, ceremonial laity"

A Public and Private Faith(1999) p 38

I do not agree with him, at least not in total, but I think it is a good discussion question.

Anyone feeling brave enough t0 comment further?

The rain at lunchtime today

2009-03-14T15:39:00.000+11:00

At last a real down pour; water-tanks are filling fast and the cars are having a much-need wash.

Archbishop's Reflections on Lent

2009-02-26T20:35:00.001+11:00

The ABC speaks about the meaning of Lent

Love Life Live Lent

2009-02-25T22:22:00.002+11:00

If you are not on Facebook you may like to access the Love Life Live Lent website by following this link:

Love Life Live Lent

C of E on Twitter

2009-02-25T13:27:00.000+11:00

You may have seen the article I posted recently on the newish social-networking site "Twitter" .

The ever-so-up-to-date C of E have opened a twitter-stream for Lent. The link is here.

There is also a Love Life Live Lent application on facebook

The Deacon's Blog

2009-02-19T15:11:00.000+11:00

Some of you may be interested in the current reflections of our Deacons.

The blog site for the Permanent Deacons of the Diocese is accessed here .

Mark Russell Blog - A new look to the Church Army CEO

2009-02-15T13:26:00.003+11:00

There is an interesting article in the Church Times (click here) on the CEO of the Church Army.

Mark Russell is, at 34, the youngest person ever to be appointed to his position. Originally from Northern Ireland, he makes some very timely observations about the CA and its future.

On the need for a name change he says:

“The Church Army needs a new identity for the 21st century, although that’s easier said than done. I don’t think the militaristic image is always helpful. In some respects it is, because it talks about a bunch of people with an objective to defeat something, and, without question, I want to see us defeat poverty, injustice, and homelessness. But we’re not a church, and we’re not an army; we’re not a church in an army, and we’re not an army in a church.”

Mark's bog Mark Russell's Reflections is worth adding to your RSS list.

Both the Church Times article and the Blog are worth reading - especially to any engaged in Fresh Expressions.

Haze and Smog a reminder to the State

2009-02-15T12:30:00.004+11:00

The haze and smoke covering most of the State of Victoria is a reminder to us all - as if we needed one - of the fact that the fires are continuing to burn in the East of the State. We are all shrouded in this disaster as we are all enveloped in this smoke haze.

With over 7,000 people homeless and 1800 plus buildings and homes destroyed, this situation will not go away when the smoke lifts. In Britain the snow has brought fun as well as difficulties; the financial cost has been in terms of the interruptions to business, commerce and industry. In Victoria the financial cost is not yet being calculated as the loss of Human life and livelihoods is paramount in the thoughts and concerns of its people.

We have lit our candles and said our prayers; we have made our donations to the various relief and aid funds; we have donated goods and clothes - it is as this next week approaches that we will feel our own helplessness and we will need to find ways to support each other in our collective grief and loss.

Ecumenical Service for those affected by the Bush Fires

2009-02-09T15:38:00.024+11:00

At noon on Wednesday the 11th of February, an ecumenical service will be held at the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Lydiard Street, Ballarat, to pray for all those affected by the recent bush fires in Victoria. All major churches in Ballarat have been invited to take a part in this services and everybody is welcome to attend.

Further details are available on the Diocesan Website - Click Here to access the website

Twitter

2009-01-29T22:47:00.002+11:00

There has been much in the international press over the past week regarding Twitter.

The Guardian had a very good article today (see the link above or click here).

It has been too hot to do much tonight so I have been setting up Twitter and linking it to my various sites - I'll report back next week!

Funeral Arrangements for Aileen Hough - Bishop Michael's mother

2009-01-11T17:38:00.000+11:00

Dear Fathers, sisters and brothers,

The funeral arrangements for Aileen Hough are as follows:

Requiem Mass: Monday the 12th of January, 2 PM, at the Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Ballarat.

The Officiant and Celebrant will be Fr Arthur Savage.

Clergy who wish to attend are invited to robe; the Liturgical Colour is White (alb and stole). Robing will take place in the meeting room of the Diocesan Centre.

Refreshments, to which all are invited, will be served in the Function Hall following the service.

Stained-Glass Ceilings - What would St Jerome say?

2008-12-30T15:03:00.001+11:00

The Times (London) has an article by its Religion Correspondent, Ruth Gledhill with the headline Historic Church of England deal paves way for first women bishops . I have been reading more than writing over the last few days but I am making lots of notes. I am revisiting Marina Warner's book Alone of all her sex: the myths and cults of the Virgin Mary; which - so my handwritten note on the inside cover tells me - I purchased and first read in Oxford in 1979.

Several years of theological study and three-quarters-of-a-lifetime of daily theological reading since I first read it , has made the book come alive in my re-reading of it.

I know not what shall become of this reading and pondering but I am determined to look further at the notion of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) as the Second Eve.

The reference in n The Times today to Stained-Glass Ceilings in relation to 'women bishops' and my re-reading of some of the material regarding the BVM from the Patristic Period, pose to me a question that needs to be thought through: If those women presenting for ordination as priests or bishops today were intact virgins would the Early Fathers approve of their ordination? Listen to what St Jerome says:

"as long as a women is for birth and children, she is different from man as body is from soul. But when she wishes to serve Christ more than the world, then she will ceased to be a woman and will be called a man."

St Jerome, Comm.in Epist. ad Ephes. III

I am researching further a comment attributed to St Ambrose which goes along the line:

"She who does not believe is a woman and should be designated by the name of her sex, whereas she who believes progresses to perfect manhood, to the measure of the adulthood of Christ. She then dispenses with the name of her sex"

Mary Daly quotes this in The Church and the Second Sex (p. 43, Boston, 1968) but I am still looking to verfy this last quote.

Just some random jottings from me as I read and reflect a little further on this - but I cannot help but think about the Stained-Glass ceiling without a topographical reference to the intact Maidenhead so be beloved by the Early Fathers. Does RUth see a connection perhaps?

Recessional

2008-12-26T10:38:00.002+11:00

Recessional by Alan Franks.
A poem written specially for Christmas for Ruth Gledhill's blog in The Times, with apologies to John Betjeman and Rudyard Kipling.

Gracious Lord, it seems like ages
Since we had a little chat.
Heaven knows, we've all been anxious -
Not that we blame you for that.
Father, what a dreadful year,
Losing much we hold most dear.
-
I am loath to add to such
An inventory of loss and stress:
From Northern Rock to - goodness - Woolworths
(Though we veer to M and S.)
Yet one-eight-nine Cadogan Square
Once more requires your special care.

Through the war, you well remember,
How your will was amply done,
Sparing our grandparents from
The hand of, pardon me, the Hun.
The slump, we fear, will make us suffer
Worse effects than the Luftwaffe.

Such is fame today, we only
Note the great ones going down,
Overlooking, most unjustly,
Unsung firms like Harkness Brown
Where hardly anyone was caught
In any form of selling short,

Least of all my husband Harry
Who's entirely lost his pep;
Joe and Jonquil both at Eton,
Podge and Mimi still at prep;
Our tiny Norfolk hideaway
Gone back below 500 k.

Intending no irreverence,
Your house has likewise shed some stock.
You for this are once more blameless,
We who should be in the dock.
(For what it's worth I'm in the tent
Of antidisestablishment.)

We will labour, Lord, to value
What is not material,
Not that we pretend this won't be,
To begin with, hard as hell.
We will strive to feel we're blessed
With liberty through joblessness.

And we'll definitely stop saying
How we're neighbours of the Blairs,
And we'll jettison our shame
And empty anger when we hear
That dull young man from Foxtons state
We're only looking at 3.8.

Lord, I will leave your house til next time
Willing servant, mother, wife,
Praying that, if appropriate,
You bring the market back to life.
Meanwhile, though little and though late,
I've left a tenner in the plate.
-

Santa's Helpers

2008-12-17T20:41:00.006+11:00

The Synod Hall is looking closer to Santa's Workshop than any Myer window display or Hollywood Santa movie. This week the Archdeacon joined his family in frenetic hamper packing; making their own Yeatsean production line. The hampers and food parcels are being collected as fast as they are being constructed. We have had sailors, frozen food producers, pensioners, school children and now the first clergy family packing for the poor... in the words of the old Negro Spiritual "there's room for many amore".

Kid's Mass Kit

2008-12-12T18:56:00.007+11:00

Somewhere in the mail this week - and I now can't remember wether it was in the Snail or E mail - I came across an advertisement for a new product, released on my birthday, from a company in the US called Wee Believers.

The company states its aim as "... a new family company dedicated to creating authentically Catholic toys that educate, entertain and enrich the faith lives of children." They even have an endorsement (not quite an imprimatur) from Archbishop Raymond L Bourke (Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura).

The publicity and pdf. poster that I managed to download for their latest product certainly 'entertained' some big children at Diocesan HQ.

The item in question (shown above) is a plastic 'Mass Set' for BOYS aged between 3 & 11.

I'll let their PR blurb provide the full details..

Pieces include: (All Cloth) Crucifix, Chalice, Thurible, Finger Bowl, Purificator, 2 Cruets, 2 Candles, Corporal, Paten, Hosts

Overview: My Mass Kit is the flagship product in the WeeBelievers™ emerging Catholic toy line. This innovative, educational and entertaining soft-sculpture toy is aimed at play for young boys ages 3-11. Children will enjoy 'playing Mass' using this kit as a part of their play-time activities at home or at school and in environments such as a church sanctuary where busy-child activity requires solemn attendance.

My Mass Kit includes most items used during Holy Mass to aid in a child's first-hand interaction with the sacramental pieces used by the priest in the sacred liturgy. Also included is an ecclesial-approved instruction booklet to educate and foster faith exploration between adults and children. My Mass Kit is an excellent tool for catechists and faith-formation teachers, as well as parents, grandparents and godparents, anyone who interacts in faith development during early childhood development.

Some of my more Liberal-Catholic friends would no doubt of spotted with some horror that this toy is only for BOYS. Perhaps by next year they will bring out the toy Altars to go with the mass sets and plastic flowers and carpet sweepers for the girls ministries in the Sanctuary ?!?

Churches Advertising Network - UK: 30 Sec Christmas Ad

2008-12-09T14:41:00.004+11:00

The UK-based Churches Advertising Network set a competition for the Christmas Story to be told in a radio or Video format in under 30 Seconds. The winner was Frankie Hipwell-Larkin and you can see his video here

The runners up are on the Churches Advertising Network site here - It would seem that the "Put the Christ back into Christmas" campaign is finally working !!

The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God

2008-12-06T10:31:00.004+11:00

A lot has been written this week, understandably given that the appointed Gospel reading is from Mark 1, about the experiences one can have when out in the physical wilderness. The writers have been on the majority 'city dwellers' who rarely see the stars at night due to a combination of city lights and fog. Living miles from anywhere this is the opposite to my own experience. When I step out at night I am reminded of the vastness of what lies beyond us; the billions of stars and planets which appear hung in their appointed places.

Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation was the first large-scale choral work that I performed in as a boy and I can still remember the thrill of singing "The Heavens are telling the Glory of God". I am reminded (with the music filling my head) of this each night when the stars greet me.

Another song from my childhood, but from an altogether different style, which I also remember when looking at the stars proclaims:

"If there's life on other planets, then I'm sure that he must know, and He's been there once already and will take those children home".

As part of our stopping and listening this Advent let's look at the stars like the wisemen did and at least get some idea of God's greatness

Imago Dei (us) - Et incarnatus est (God)

2008-11-29T14:27:00.005+11:00

Following on from my earlier post on Advent, I subsequently came across an article in todays edition of The Tablet by Fr James Hanvey SJ, entitled Waiting for the Light.

It immediately struck a chord with me as Fr Hanvey shares some ideas that have been fundamental to some of my recent writings, in particular: the paper for the Ballarat interfaith Forum on Why does the Human Race exist; The Diocesan study for Advent Three and the previous post on this blog.

Fr James' article is detailed and therefore lengthy - if you haven't the time to read it all, the exerts below support some of the positions I have taken in the articles listed above:

Advent calls us to renew and deepen our trust, while the world finds trust difficult, and "hope" is dismissed as naïve

Where a post-Christian society has forgotten how to read the substance of Christian faith, there can be a genuine ignorance but also a cultivated misunderstanding among those who presume to know Christianity already.

The Church wants humanity to succeed, not fail. That is why it is passionately engaged in this struggle. It does not have any ambition to take away the legitimate independence of the secular but it does have a vision of what that might be.

Advent calls us to consider not only that God is, but who God is. It does not present a puzzle but a mystery: God has finally disclosed his name, "Emanuel" - God with us. We expect a great theophany but all we have is an obscure stable. Even more radically, God chooses to be a man, a person, a human being. Humanity and God are now inseparable and cannot be thought apart.

…the Advent liturgy offers no false dreams. With a steady, clear-eyed realism it asks us to look at the world in which we live; the world in which Word has chosen to become flesh.

In Christ, God creates freedom, he does not destroy it. God, who comes to us with unexpected humility, is born, lives and dies in poverty, does not choose to overpower us but offers us an utterly new possibility. God does not confront us with a boundary, he presents us with an infinite horizon. He calls us into a deeper freedom and love by giving us the greatest freedom of all: the self-emptying of love beyond the bonds of family, nation and self-interest; beyond the accumulation of wealth or security for the sake of the good, especially the good of those who are the weakest and the most despised, those who have no freedom or power or anything to commend them except that they too are his image.

Advent

2008-11-29T12:10:00.003+11:00

Have you noticed that there has been a renewed focus on Advent this year? The paper and electronic media have been a buzz with the directions and pronouncements of senior clerics; the Archbishop of Canterbury has even posted a video on youtube.

Ruth Gledhill, writing in The Times sums it up thus:

The Advent period running up to Christmas, traditionally a time of reflection and contemplation, has been "squeezed" by consumer pressures and frenetic activity, the Church said at the launch of a new website to help Christians mark the season.

This new website WhyAreWeWaiting offers:

"... an online calendar, podcasts, reflections and "waiting tips" on the Advent season described as a "daily dose of chocolate" for the soul."

Yummy as Fr David Oulton would say!

When I tried to access it earlier I recieved a message informing me that the site had exceed its daily allowance, which hopefully indicates that it is getting 'well hit' (I think that is the correct lingo!).

The Diocesan Office in Ballarat has also had to place an additional order for Advent Candles this year, exceeding last years intra-diocesan orders by the first week of November and now out of stock form the second order placed.

Could it be that we are aware that the commercial-side of Christmas will be less glitzy this year and so we are wanting to re-discover the true purpose of the Advent Season? Thereby preparing ourselves for the re-discovery of the best Christmas gift of all: that God became Man in Jesus.

Prayers for Bombay

2008-11-28T20:40:00.000+11:00

Today in the liturgies at the Cathedral, as in so many other places around the World, we prayed for all those affected by the recent attacks in Bombay:the dead, the injured, their loved ones and those still in danger. I have posted a prayer for peace here that may be helpful.

New side-bar items

2008-11-19T16:24:00.003+11:00

Its amazing what a Race Day can bring - it used to be Champagne and friends for lunch now its spending time at the computer catching up on all the on-line housekeeping that's been allowed to slip as other demands mount.

So today has been a productive day with posts to most of my blogs and web sites.

On here you will see some additions in the sidebar when you scroll down a little. One of the new options from Blogger is a feature called "Followers" that will allow you (upon you entering your details) to follow the blogs and updates.

And there is now a link to the YouTube channel

pax et lux

Kevin

The Lazy Servant

2008-11-19T14:07:00.001+11:00

We’re in the middle of three Sundays that for Matthew’s gospel tie-up Jesus’ earthly teaching.

And what readings they are: last week we had the foolish virgins being shut out of the wedding party, this week the laszy steward is rewarded with a life of misery and next week we have tha parable of the sheep and the goats with the commendation to outer darkness of those who have failed to recognize Jesus in the poor and hungry around them.

Just the sort of readings to get us into the ‘Christmas Spirit’!

Matthew is writing about 50 years after Christ first told this parable, and he’s wrting for a community that expected Christ’s return to be imminent. The message from last week was to ‘be prepared’ – it was very much a CFA style message; you wont know when or where, so be prepared and alert.

There is a big difference between being aware of dangers, watching for signs in a prepared/practiced way and just living in fear of what might happen.

There is something of that in today’s parable:
The person who refused to let the money work identifies his fears. The owner reaps where he has not sown and gathers harvest that was not originally his.
A pretty good description of hard business practice in any age. A fear of being abandoned seems to motivate burying the talents.
Matthew's community might think of the controversy over the expansion of the gospel into the Gentile world and the refusal of some Jews to accept that the doors should be flung open so recklessly.
God is misbehaving again and they cannot believe it and refuse to support the mission to non-jews. In typically Matthean style the text promises only damnation for such lack of trust.

If the modern use of talents has any relation to the text, it is at the level of allowing God's life do its adventures with us and putting our talents (our natural abilities) at God's disposal. The talents of the parable are really about God's life and power, not about our natural abilities. But the appropriate response is to allow God's investing hand to employ our abilities.

The tragedy is that many people are afraid of losing or endangering God and so seek to protect God from adventures, to resist attempts at radical inclusion that might, they fear, compromise God's purity and holiness.

Protecting God is a way in which we can hide the fact that we do not trust God. Matthew wants his hearers to share God's adventure of inclusiveness. God is bigger than our little religious boxes that we like to put God into.

I like the modern paraphrase of the reading that we heard this morning - It is a fascinating thing to have God compared to the entrepreneurial multimillionaire. "God's mercy never ends" is a way of saying grace has capital, love is rich.

We need to encourage people to stop putting God under the mattress. As we begin to trust God to move through us, our lives change as individuals and our communities have a better chance of change.

The trouble with this third guy is that he doesn’t recognise a gift when it is handed to him on a plate. And because he can’t recognise the gift, or the generosity of the gift-giver, he lives his life in fear that this is some sort of test.

This is the sort of person who sees God as the harsh examiner in the sky, watching us for mistakes and eager to find a reason to condemn us. And so, fearful of slipping up, such a person never risks engaging with the fullness of actually living.

They are terribly worried that if they open themselves up to others and love and laugh and share, they might somehow expose themselves to some kind of temptation and make a mistake, and so they don’t take the risk. They live life by the miserly handful, so afraid of ever getting a black mark against their name that they never take the risks required to get a tick either.

And, as in nest weeks gospel reading, they will arrive at the judgment and hand back a life unlived.

They accuse God of being harsh and ungenerous. They treat God’s gracious gifts as some kind of poisoned chalice and refuse to even take a sip.

  God recognises that we are all different. Some of us had a good start in life and others were born into a living hell.

Some of us have known nothing but love, and others have been hurt, damaged and trampled on every time they have opened themselves up to anyone.

God knows that having been dealt differing hands in life, we will not all be capable of generating the same amount of love and compassion and self-sacrificing generosity.

But the boss in Jesus’s story did not condemn the second worker for only generating a profit of two talents when his mate had generated five. They were equally rewarded from making the best they could from where they started out.

The only one condemned was the one who refused to have a go, and who in so doing accused God of playing deceitful games.  

And let’s for a moment get beyond just thinking about this in individual terms. We, gathered here, are the recipients of an extraordinary gift in one another. This congregation and the life and prayer it shares together is a gift for which many people would understandably hunger. So the question Matthew’s gospel would put to us, is what are you doing with that gift?

Are we focusing our energies on trying to preserve what we have intact, content to just make sure that at the end of our time there is still a church here, preserved in the same pristine condition we received it in? Still doing things the way we did 20, 30 or 50 years ago. Putting things back to how they were to sustain our comfortable memories, limiting God and putting him back in the box we like in him.

Or are we prepared to live out our faith openly and generously, to give it away in love and mercy?

Can we turn our prayers into a shared life of reckless acceptance, radical hospitality, and extravagant generosity to those outside our doors?

When we pray “send us out in the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise and glory” are we making a commitment to living in the generous and joyous spirit of this celebration out there in our everyday lives.

Can we say to our friends who have joined us today that this is there church too?

Matthew is challenging us to make sure it is not just words. We’ve got to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.  

There are real risks involved in taking that challenge. If we accept it we will make some mistakes, we may lose some treasured things along the way, we may get hurt from time to time, and perhaps even crucified.

But as the first two employees discovered and proved, if we shake off the shackles of timidity and invest all we have fully in life, we will not only be commended as good and faithful servants, but we will find our life multiplying over and over, and ourselves welcomed warmly into the joyous celebratory life of our extravagantly generous God.

Lay-lead Service Resources

2008-03-24T11:12:00.003+11:00

During the last few weeks we have prepared a number of resources for lay-lead services. More will follow over the next month or so.

The resources are available form the diocesan website for down-loading.

MDSAC Resource site

2007-07-13T12:30:00.000+10:00

Its finally up and running.

The new resurce site for people within the MDSAC is on the WWW.

The links is here for copying and pasting and there is a direct link in the side panel.

http://mdsac.blogspot.com

There is a Poll on the site for your feedback and comments.

Cheers, Kevin.

Back to the task@hand

2007-07-08T19:00:00.000+10:00

I admire Bishop Michael's ability to make a Blog entry as frequently as he does: I told him so recently. Apart from professional journalists and hi-tech Bishops, it seems very difficult for the average blogger to 'blog' on a regular basis, whilst remaining relevant and interesting. I know that there are those who use their blog space as a daily 'public' journal, but that is not for me.

As some of you are aware, the last two months have been fully occupied, including another trip to London; this time to help celebrate my parent's Golden Wedding. I am hoping that this weekend marks a return to a more settled period - yesterday was the first 'free' Saturday I have had for over two months - and a chance to catch up on correspondence and writing something other than homilies and official letters.

I will work on my main site and hope to create a site as a reference and resource site. I am often asked for copies of things I quote or refer to in homilies and will paste links on this new site. I will also try to make it accessible form this site.

A thank you to those who have understood the recent pressures and responsibilities that have precluded any postings here.

Kevin.

Following the Shepherd

2007-04-28T17:30:00.000+10:00

Easter 4 Year C John 10:22-30, Acts 13:14.43-52

You may recall that in my homilies since Easter I have been talking about the ‘penny slowing dropping’ for the disciples. Each time they encounter the Risen Lord they understand a little more of what he had been trying to say to them before he went to the cross.

Over the next few Sundays our lectionary readings take us back to some of that teaching that the risen Lord refers to in his post resurrection appearances. In last weeks gospel Jesus tells Peter to “feed my lambs…look after my sheep” and today we have Jesus walking in the portico of Solomon during a very important Jewish feast, the Feast of Dedication.

Jerusalem, and especially the temple, would have been bustling with the faithful from all around the country. A group gathers around Jesus and asks him directly “how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us plainly.” And Jesus gives the response we have just read – “I told you and you don’t believe; I have done works in the Father’s name that testify to me and you still don’t believe…my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.”

This controversy with the Jews is the same debate that Paul and Barnabas are having in Acts 13 and it reflects the tensions between the synagogue authorities and the Christian community for whom John’s gospel was originally written.

For the Jews could not believe that they were no longer God’s chosen people, they wanted a Messiah who would put down their oppressors and liberate them once and for all. The liberation and the Kingdom that Jesus offers (not of this world) is not what they had hoped for, it wasn’t their reading of the prophets. As the church grows rapidly after the Day of Pentecost, as gentiles are added equally to the number being baptised, those of the old dispensation are not happy.

They are especially not happy that the synagogue is still the meeting place for these ‘Christian mission events’.

So where might I be all be going with all this?

Today has traditionally been known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday”; whilst it provides us with an opportunity to refect on one of Jesus’ great “I am” statements – “I am the Good Shepherd” – it also reminds us that we have been entrusted to a shepherd and that we are to listen to that shepherd’s voice.

The instruction given to Peter and to all bishops of the church down the ages still stands today. ‘Feed my lambs, tend and feed my sheep’.

I often ponder what Peter would have made of all this shepherd and sheep imagery; Peter was a fisherman, that’s what he knew, that’s what he done all his life till Jesus came along and told him to fish for men, his life had been about gathering - not protecting. Now he had to do both.

It’s very easy, especially in rural parishes, to think that we can exist without too much interference from the wider church. But we are sheep under a shepherd and in our context that shepherd is the bishop with the parish priest “representing” the bishop when he is not physically present.

We can be like the Jews in John and Acts and not want our ‘synagogues’ used in any way other than the way we’ve always known.

We can cling on to all the ‘old’ ways of being church and stir people up to turn against and drive out the new. Note that in Acts 13 it is the ‘devout women, upper classes and leading men of he city’ who are incited to this behaviour!

Bishop Michael is shepherding us and calling us to mission. Some of this will involve finding fresh expressions of being church – our Gordon Pub mass is one such way that we are responding to this call.

For some this is uncomfortable, some don’t want the ‘newly called’ coming and changing their comfortable situations, its Acts 13 all over again.

Here is what the Bishop said on his website last Friday:

“......One of the great pictures of the Church that we have is to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, which we are reading in our worship at the present time. In particular I love the stories where the apostles are standing on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem, preaching the Gospel to anyone who would listen. What courage! What faith! But that is what is asked of all who follow Jesus Christ.   All too often we Christians keep our heads down, disguising our faith and religious behaviour because of what our friends or others might think or say. We risk turning religion into something private. Nothing could be further from what is expected of us by God.   Jesus sent Christians out to be a leaven in the world, light to the world, and not to lock ourselves away in buildings or interest groups. We need to make sure that the Gospel is heard and there will be a price to pay if we do that faithfully, but it is a price we all have to pay at one time or another.” (end quote)

The message is clear, both from scripture and our bishop, we are called to authentic discipleship, and the church cannot be a club that exists for its members, it very existence is to carry on the missionary work of Jesus. We are called and sent to share what God has given us.

Let us pray that we will each hear that voice, that we will know who is calling and that we may be given all that we need to follow Him.

Fish when the Chips are Down

2007-04-21T15:12:00.000+10:00

Easter 3 Year C John 21:1-19.

The first part of today’s gospel will be familiar, we encountered Luke’s version of the story earlier this year. Luke has the story as part of the call of the disciples; the similarity is that they had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus tells them to throw out their nets, they protest they have fished all night but they’ll give it a go – a nothing ventured, nothing gained response. They get the catch Jesus predicts and they are told to leave their nets and come fishing for men.

When we get to the story today in John’s gospel its after the resurrection and the disciples hadn’t learnt very much in between. They had learnt one thing, they had learnt to trust Jesus. There are no questions asked, they throw out the nets as Jesus tells them to do and they haul up a full catch. The number of fish (153) is thought by some scholars to represent all the known languages at that time, a reference to the disciple’s new mission to ‘all the world’.

So with the catch landed they come up the beech to where Jesus is cooking breakfast for them.

After breakfast Jesus takes Peter aside, they sit round the fire. As Jesus starts to speak I think Peter is probably thinking back to another fire he was sitting around just a few weeks earlier, a fire in the outer courtyard of the High Priest’s house. There, not long after telling Jesus that he would be with him all the way, even to death, he had three times serially denied even knowing Jesus.

Peter’s heart was probably thumping; Jesus had entrusted Peter with the responsibility of building the Church, Peter had pledged his service and allegiance and then ‘lost his bottle’ at the first sign of trouble.

So here in the half-light, in the warmth of the fire, after a cooked breakfast and having landed a large catch of fish following a frustrating night where they had caught nothing, Jesus gently asks Peter if he loves him.

Jesus asks Peter three times 'Do you love me?' and Peter gets pretty irritated by the way he has to be questioned three times. For the first two questions, Jesus asks 'Do you love me?' using ‘agape’ or 'selfless' love.
Peter responds, 'Of course I love you', but he uses 'philein', brotherly, or friendly love, in Australia we might say ‘mateship’ love.

Jesus repeats his question, 'Do you love me?’ Again, Jesus uses agape to which Peter responds 'Of course I love you’, philein-mateship love .

When Jesus asks Peter for the third time, Jesus himself uses 'philein' – mateship love as he asks Peter 'Do you love me?' Jesus is conceding that Peter is not capable of selfless high-love. When Peter responds “Lord you know everything, you know that I love you” there is frustration and acceptance in Peter’s voice. Peter knows that Jesus can see Peter’s own limitations and Peter accepts that he doesn’t need to promise to be anything other than the person he can be.

Yes, Peter is told to feed the lambs, tend and feed the sheep and to ‘follow Me’. But the empowerment will come from an outpouring of the Holy Spirit – Peter will change, he wont catch fish anymore, he too will find his death in martyrdom but God will have done great things through him.

So if God seems hidden from us, if our work seems to be fruitless, if we have un-repented past failures, if we cant quite love God the way he asks us to, today’s gospel speaks to us.

And Jesus says to each of us, ‘feed my lambs, tend my sheep and follow me’.

Poor Thomas

2007-04-14T18:40:00.000+10:00

Gospel Reading: John 20: 19-31

Poor Thomas – if you want a clinical opinion, I think he is demonstrating all the signs of Post Traumatic Stress (PTS). It’s a bit like PMT, but curable!

After the Crucifixion Thomas has run away, too scared to come back to the secret rendezvous; then, somehow, he hears a rumour that Jesus is alive again. It can’t be, Thomas refuses to believe it until he has physical proof; he wants to see and feel the wounds, put his fingers in the holes. I wonder what the other disciples made of this behaviour?

You see the others had seen the Risen Lord. Suddenly Jesus is back and all is well again. But not for Thomas – he wasn’t there! Thomas is still in mourning and his world has collapsed. Peter and some of the others had started fishing again, the penny was still dropping. But Thomas – you know he was called “the twin” – was in hiding.

This is not the time or place to explore any more about this ‘twin business’ but it is important to note that for the writer of John’s gospel it was significant; on almost every occasion when Thomas’ name is mentioned there is a reference to him being ‘the twin’ – Didymous in the Greek.

There are no canonical gospel references to the other-half of the Thomas twin-set.

It is likely from what we know today of the relationships between twins that if Thomas had been separated from his ‘twin’, then this second trauma of the separation- and in a most dramatic way- from his Master, would have had a profound effect upon him.

In this light, Thomas’ need for physical proof makes sense.

In our attempt to be authentic disciples, we bring the complexities of our individual backgrounds and experiences to the common expression of what is it to be ‘the church’ today. Thomas’ doubt imploded when he encountered the risen Lord. But it had to be his ‘personal’ experience of the resurrected Jesus that convinced him.

We can try with all the gifts God has given us to convince others that Jesus lives, but for some, within there own situations it will not be enough.

Jesus will have to break through the locked doors, into the place of refuge, and offer to the doubter the invitation to be touched.

When we encounter these situations, we are to provide the place of safety into which Our Lord will enter, we are to share the joy of the one who sees and believes. We are not to dwell on the old wounds but to be transformed by the new life and the receipt of the Holy Spirit.

Then we too can respond with Thomas “My Lord and My God”.

Christ is Risen: He is Risen indeed. Alleluia

A Prayer in this time of Drought --- Written for the People at Morrison

2007-04-14T15:49:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow I go to St James’ Morrison to lead the faithful there in worship and give them the sacrament. They are without doubt the people in this Mission District who have been affected the most by the current drought. Before I could begin to plan a homily for them I had to write this prayer:

Father God,

You gave us this world that we might enjoy its beauty and share the use of its resources for the good of all.

We confess that your gift has been neglected and misused.

We pray for those who are most affected by this drought, for those whose see their life’s work and achievements literally turning into dust.

As we wait for rain, we claim your promise that ‘while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease’.

Keep us faithful in the face of this adversity; help us not to be afraid of our dependence on each other. May we never be too proud to ask for help or too selfish to share what we have.

We ask this prayer through him who invites us to call you Our Father and to ask you for our daily bread; the very one who turns water into wine and who feeds the hungry,
Jesus the Lord. Amen.

Athletic Disciples

2007-04-07T12:16:00.000+10:00

Easter Day Homily – St John’s Bungaree
John 20:1-9

In today’s gospel there’s a sense of excitement in Jesus’ followers that we haven’t seen before. Christian art, from the Renaissance onwards, has a habit of depicting the disciples as heavy, ponderous individuals, encumbered by voluminous flowing robes and cheap footwear. This image is furthered promoted by the gospels generally speaking of the disciples as being ‘slow on the uptake’ as they fail to understand Jesus’ teaching and rarely take any initiative themselves. Slow plodders, constantly having to be lead.

But today there is a change. Mary, finding the tomb empty, comes ‘running’ to Simon Peter. Then Simon Peter and the ‘Beloved” disciple (John) run back to the tomb. Not just a jog, it’s a race to see who can get there first, who can be first to verify Mary’s news.

Suddenly, ‘at this moment’ the gospel tells us, they understand the teaching of the scripture, and then all that Jesus had been saying to them about his death and rising made sense. Today there is speed and action replacing the fear and inertia of the past; today they are excited and today they believe.

Runners in the ancient world were the equivalent of today’s e-mail, SMS or mobile phones. We have always had a need to communicate news quickly; wether it was news of a victory in battle, the birth or death of a Sovereign or news of an immanent threat or danger. Today, Mary may have sent a Videotext message showing the empty tomb, but in first century Palestine she had to run to share her news and the others had to see for themselves.

We need to catch some of that excitement.

During Lent, and especially during Holy Week, we have taken time to reflect on our discipleship and to deepen our relationship with Our Lord. We have suppressed the Alleluias and omitted the Gloria from our liturgies.

Like Our Lord’s first followers, we have been deeply affected by the remembrance of His Passion, from the betrayal in the garden to the final cry of anguish form the cross; after all the ugliness of our own lives has been spilt out at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday we need the day ‘in the tomb’ to get over the effect of that purging.

So today, Easter Day, the Day of Resurrection, we too can run with excitement and share the news that Jesus is risen.

David Hick’s trial and the news of his immanent return to Australia would have robbed many preachers of their Good Friday sermon analogies. At least they still had the Gulf War and Global Warming to provide them with material for their media intended ‘sound bites’. If you watched the news on Friday evening or read Saturday’s papers you will know what I am talking about.

In attempts to make the Eater Message ‘relevant’ to a growing number of people who have never heard the ‘full message of the gospel’, all too often preachers focus on the warm and fuzzy (“Easter is a good time for familles to get together”) or, as I said earlier the issues of Iraq and Global warming.

But the focus today must be unashamedly on the empty tomb and the transformation that took place in the lives of the followers of Jesus who witnessed these events.

For this is a news story far more important that any other. It is news that will transform lives not just in one place and at one time but in all time, beyond time and in all places. It is the resurrection of Jesus that transformed the lives of his followers. They were accustomed to the atrocities of living under Roman rule; for them the brutal horror of crucifixion was a regular sight. The fact that Jesus defeated all this and rose brought them the hope they needed, cemented their faith, changing not only their lives but also the world.

It is this message that we have to run to tell the world, to run with all the excitement of Mary, Peter and John, for the unbelievable is believable. Jesus lives and continues to transform lives, to bring hope and to conquer death in all its forms.

As Bishop Michael calls the diocese to Mission, how will we respond? We will run with joy to share the good news of our risen Lord or sit in fear and wait?

If we are not running to share this good news then it may be that our eyes are still fixed on the Cross and that we haven’t looked into the empty tomb and seen and believed.

Over the next few weeks of the Eater Season we will journey with Our Lord and the disciples, watching as the penny finally drops and they, along with us receive the Great Commission to “Go and make disciples”.

This news is too good to keep to ourselves; we are to run to share it.

Christ is risen: He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Palm Sunday at the Gordon Pub

2007-03-26T16:53:00.000+10:00

This Sunday at 5 pm Bishop Michael will join us and lead our Palm Sunday celebratons at the Gordon Pub.

We will start at the former Anglican Church (now the gordon Hat Shop) and process with our palms to the pub.

The chant for the procession is availbale as a podcast or for listening to on your computer at:

http://web.mac.com/st.dunstan/iWeb/Site/Podcast/23D3D9C3-8290-435C-BDAD-E56F47307F62.html

You can copy this into your broswer or click the side-link on this blog.

See you there!

GO and Make disciples (again!)

2007-03-12T11:46:00.000+11:00

This morning I was emailed a link to a blog which is discussing our 'mass at the Gordon Pub' based soley on a local press article written 'before' the first mass had taken place.

The link to the blog is here http://jen-reed-candid.blogspot.com/2007/02/licence-for-prayer.html

and my response follows:

We are so much like Jesus’ first disciples. – Our Lord leads us into gospel opportunities and our response is to stand back and question him.

“contextualisation…what the music will be…how it is set up” (earlier blogs on this subject).

Did Zacchaeus wonder what he had left playing on the Sound System when Jesus said he was going home with him?
Did Jairus wonder how the furniture was arranged or if the house was tidy when Jesus went in to heal his daughter?

Jesus’ rebuke to his disciples (Mark 9:19) might well apply to us: “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?”

Jesus’ command to every disciple is to ‘GO’ and make other disciples. This command in Mathew 28:19 (Go therefore and make disciples of all ‘nations’ ) has the Greek word ‘ethne’ which we translate as ‘nations’ but could also mean ‘gentiles’ – it is clearly a command to go to those on the ‘outside’ . And we all know how Matthew ends; “and remember I am with you always” – at the Gordon pub as much as at High Mass at the cathedral.

2007-03-08T17:43:00.000+11:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

There's a long story to this as it relates to me this past week - at one point the 'cup of tea' option seemed the best altough the 'tea' had various outward forms including Champange, chocolates and whiskey!

To those of you who understand, a big thank you.

Re-thinking our worship space

2007-01-08T10:27:00.000+11:00

I have been revising a booklet I wrote back in 2005 on the use and development of Liturgical space. I have put the first part of this up on my website as a podcast. I am convinced that we need to use the recorded spoken word as much as we use the printed to comunicate today.

The url

http://web.mac.com/st.dunstan/iWeb/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

I will also post a link in the side bar here.

Church Schism - Not Mission Shaped

2006-12-22T15:43:00.000+11:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Leaving your nets

2006-12-02T15:16:00.000+11:00

I have been following the Pope’s visit to Turkey through the eyes of Robert Moynihan from the “Inside the Vatican” magazine. In Robert’s final reflections about the importance of this visit he moves away from the two men of the moment and points us back to St Peter and St Andrew.

Here’s what he has to say:

“... And so, the story of Benedict’s trip to Turkey remains open-ended. The words and actions of these days will bear their fruits in due season.

So what is the key issue now?

It is to see how the seeds planted here grow, how they are watered and tended as they mature.

Pope Benedict, in his homily at the Mass on November 30 said the effort to bring the separated Christian Churches together, East and West, Orthodox and Catholic, was the chief goal of his visit, imitating the work of the apostles Peter and Andrew, brothers called by Christ to leave their work as fishermen to become "fishers of men."

That call reveals much about the mind of Christ. He did not call them to create structures. He did not call them to build churches. He did not call them to delineate parishes or dioceses or patriarchates. He called them to catch men.

Their work was to propose to men and women a "good news" which would be so attractive that those men and women would become different, filled with a new spirit, and being so transformed, would create the necessary preconditions for a more just, peaceful, and loving world.

And how did Peter and Andrew act?

They acted with courage. They risked everything. They left their ordinary work and took on a work which they did not anticipate, a work which was given to them by Christ. And they carried out that work even unto death - unto deaths on crosses, one crucified head down, the other crucified on a cross shaped like an "x."…”

Tomorrow in the parish we start our Advent homily series on God’s first four questions to man, beginning with “where are you?”

I will pick up on the ‘fisherman’ theme in my homily, asking if we are hiding from the God we once walked with for fear of being sent out to fish for men and women, outside of the comfort zone of our own little bit of paradise.

Parallel ways of being Church

2006-11-29T22:10:00.000+11:00

Stuarticus asks in response to my last post:

…It's interesting to consider the different rates of change in the wider community and the church. Also, change is not necessarily synonimous with improvement.. So, should the church:  * lead from the front * keep pace with societal  expectations or  * act as a rearguard moderating  influence?
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

In response I offer the following:

My recent reading would seem to suggest that we do not throw out the old, but that we find other ways of being Church in parallel ways to our existing faith communities, offering a choice without compromising theological or liturgical integrity.

Two separate congregations, sharing the same buildings, ministers and resources, with some cross-fertilisation of membership, opens up possibilities for reaching and making connections with a wider cross-section of new disciples without upsetting the worshipping style of existing congregations.

A lesson from my Grandmother

2006-11-27T22:27:00.000+11:00

I’ve been reading a lot recently about new ways of being ‘church’ and feeling a little uneasy that I may have to give up some of my familiar props if we are to be effective in our mission. But I had a revelation today.

Today is my grandmother’s 98th birthday – this morning, Melbourne time, I received an SMS from my family to say that they were in the midst of the birthday celebrations and it would be a good time to call and say ‘happy birthday’. So on the side of a dirt road, on the other side of the globe, I called my grandmother from my mobile phone and wished her a happy birthday. At 98 she takes this in her stride just as she is happy to look at pictures on a computer rather than pass around photographs.

I think what I am saying here is that the telephone greeting was a similar conversation to one I would have had with her on a local land-line thirty years ago. The pictures we looked at on a computer recently were the same family groupings we would have looked at on photo paper thirty years ago. Doing the same things in new ways strengthens the relationship; it doesn’t weaken or cheapen it. It allows it to continue in ‘real-time’ despite the tyranny of distance.

There are new ways in which we can be Church, we just have to be prepared to accept them.

Time Management in Mission Mode

2006-11-18T07:37:00.000+11:00

This has been a very demanding week for me, more so than usual. Some tension earlier in the week zapped my energy, produced a difficult to treat headache and left me exhausted, unable to do anything other than try to get some rest in the evenings.

During the week I only managed to attend one evening Parish meeting (Pastoral Team) and have not felt able to write until this morning. Fortunately, The Dean is coming to be our Guest Preacher this weekend and I don’t have to write a homily.

All of this lethargy and inertia was physical – it may have had a psychological causative element – but the result left me in a state where I had to make a real effort to get up and face each day. It was only my much-rehearsed morning prayer routine that enabled me to engage with the day. The question to myself then is this; having exhausted yourself on things of no real ‘eternal consequence’, what is left for those things that are?

One of the questions presented to the Pastoral Team on Wednesday night as it looked back over the year was this: ‘Have we tried to do too many events this year?’ This question arose partly because some events had not been as well attended as others, and as something to bear in mind as we were looking at next year’s diary.

Something that struck me as we looked at 2007 was the number of ‘conflicting’ dates with other community groups that we felt we had to walk around for fear of ‘getting them off-side’. Rotary, Lion’s Club, School events, Community Family Fun days, all taking some of the traditional place and presence in the community that the parish church did not so long ago.

Alongside this there is the rise in the 'number' of local community groups. This proliferation of service and sporting groups has seen a reduction in the time some parishioners have to give to their parish activities; some feel that to be involved in the wider community they must be members of these ‘Service’ clubs.

As I have said before, Christ’s instruction to us is clear, we are to ‘go’ and ‘make disciples’. Just being the Christian presence on various committees is not enough – we are called to change lives not committees.

As disciples we need to review our time management as part of our overall stewardship. We must not be so over-committed to the social life of the community that we have no time or energy left to build the Kingdom.

I will let Bishop Michael have the last word. This is a little from yesterday’s entry on his blog.

"...it is not easy being a disciple. It requires us to be prayerfully working away at allowing Christ to take over who we are and what we do, with the emphasis on “working away”. And that is where this idea of discipleship ties into our work of mission and renewal. Being baptised is not enough. Going to church on Sunday is not enough. What is required is for us to grow in our Christ-likeness. And what does that mean for Thomas? It means allowing ourselves to be taken over by the Kingdom within. We face up to our sinfulness, acknowledge our needs and work on changing the things we need to change. We pray, we expose ourselves to the Word of God in the Scriptures and we reach out in love to the poor and needy around us."

A hungry and receptive Wilderness

2006-11-11T10:28:00.000+11:00

In a few weeks we will begin the liturgical season of Advent . John the Baptist’s cry to “Prepare the way of The Lord” rings loud through those opening weeks as we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s Nativity.

Reports from Britain this week bring hope that the wilderness into which John cries, whilst still a wilderness, is a more receptive wilderness today. A multi-faith think tank called ‘Theos’ issued a report in London this week claiming that most people in Britain now saw religion as a force for good.

In a joint foreword to the report, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (head of Britain’s Roman Catholics) said that those who want religion removed from national life are themselves guilty of an intolerant position. They write that "Religiously inspired public engagement need not be sectarian and in fact can be radically inclusive”.

An article in ‘The Tablet’ says that “the report itself argues that religion will play an increasingly crucial role in society, because of growing interest in religion's part in promoting happiness and well-being”.

With Interest Rates up, the drought, talk of Victoria entering a recession, a retail slow-down over this traditionally busy next few months, limited employment and a general uncertainly about the future, John’s words speak to us today.

John’s 'prepare and repent' is a call to return to basics, to the key things that matter, to faith in a loving and forgiving God whose promise for the Earth is in the Rainbow and for us is in His Son.

Making Disciples

2006-11-09T11:13:00.000+11:00

I have been engaged in a dialogue on a UK site about evangelism. I took issue with a blogger who stated that he “bulked at Christians who ignore the simple instruction to ‘go into all the world and preach the gospel’.”

I responded that the instruction is not “a simple instruction to go into all the world and preach the gospel” but to “Go therefore AND MAKE DICIPLES of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit” - Matt 28.19 - The task is clearly defined and not easy. The promise is of course “and lo I am WITH YOU always.

If the church is going to rediscover its effectiveness and stand up in the world it needs to be a church of ‘disciples’ not just ‘believers’.

I know many people who believe in God and accept the Christian story but who are not active disciples of Christ. I think that this is why the Catechumenate process for adults, leading to Baptism and Confirmation, is right for our times. Alpha, Credo and the others have their place but we can learn much from the Early Church and their preparation for discipleship.

We must remember the instruction to us is to Go!

We can no longer just wait for people to come to us.

Evangelistic Walking - God Help Us!

2006-11-07T20:10:00.000+11:00

Dave Walker of the CartoonChurch.com has an article on Evangelistic Walking (if you have read my comments on this on my main site, skip to the next post). This has apparently been given the blessing of the Mission Department of the Diocese of Chichester, UK. I can now confirm that this has now arrived Down-Under. Having just arrived back from the UK a few weeks ago, I went with my companion for lunch at a neighbouring village. There was a mixed group (ages, backgrounds ,drinking habits) at the next table, talking over each other and generating much don’t-get-smart-with-me banter. After fighting over the division of the bill, refusing to leave any tip, they got up to leave. As they left an older member of the group approached me, she stroked my dog Glastonbury, who was on my lap, and still looking at the dog, invited me to the old blue stone church around the corner, passing me a coffee-stained handbill that had the other information she failed to communicate – they were having a mission. When I explained that I ministered in the parish next door she apologised, explained she was from Sydney (as if I hadn’t guessed), that she was just here for the mission and then, with out looking at my friend asked me “would he like one?” Well if that didn’t confirm his views on foot-path evangelism.

Yes, I think I would hide if this group came chasing me along the street. At least with the Hari Chrisners (sic) you here them coming!

I’m waiting for Dave’s cartoon about this. I will post a link here when he publishes one.

Time for the Church to Speak Out

2006-11-07T19:32:00.000+11:00

Although this is not directly on the subject of mission, it is about the church taking action and being a voice. I have been following the reports in the UK press today regarding the requests from at least 3 British university research departments to mix the cells of animals and humans. Both The Times and The Telegraph have covered this and I have made comments on their sites.

The thrust of my argument is this:

Any reasonable argument against the creation of Chimeric embryos is going to get shot down by various attempts to appeal to our post-modern need for absolute health.

Hollywood Stars, cut down in their prime by disease, will tug at our communal heart strings and plea for this research to proceed so that they can return to the Silver Screen and entertain us as before.

My fear is this entire debate will be focused on any potential life-saving or life-enhancing benefits the research might bring. The real issue, blending human and animal into one being, will be glossed over until we find that some notoriety chasing
scientist has gone too far and produces a humanoid rabbit.

This has must be stopped.

I trust that the religious leaders will speak up and speak out against this.

Welcome - The mission shaped Church

2006-11-07T19:23:00.000+11:00

I have decided to create this blog as an independent instrument away from my main website. I hope that this will enable greater interaction and reach a wider group of interested people than my website. I will post a link to this on my main site and have back-linked that site here. I have also been able to link this site with Technorati for easier searching and theme challenging and this will hopefully increase the ‘hits’ and cross exchange of ideas and information.

I look forward to your comments and sharing ideas.

Kevin