EASTER 2015
THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE
Good Friday and
Anzac –
Father Forgive INSIDE: A SENSE OF COMING HOME
G
THE ANGLICAN GUARDIAN Published by the Diocese of Adelaide
Edited by Katrina McLachlan THE ANGLICAN GUARDIAN Phone: (08) 8305 9350 Fax: (08)of8305 9399 Published by the Diocese Adelaide Email: Edited by Katrina McLachlan communications@adelaide.anglican.com.au Phone: (08) 8305 9348 www.adelaide.anglican.com.au Fax: (08) 8305 9399 Email: Layout and design by WOW! Creative communications@adelaide.anglican.com.au Phone: (08) 8362 1533 www.adelaide.anglican.com.au www.wowcreative.com.au Layout by Writing by Ellie Benjamin vanCooper Caspel Phone: 0478 082 114 Photography by Brenton Edwards www.caspeldesign.com Phone: 0419 815 443 www.storieswelltold.com.au Photography by Brenton Edwards Phone:Subscriptions: 0419 815 443 Diocesan Office Subscriptions: 18 King William Rd, NorthDiocesan AdelaideOffice 5006 Phone: (08) 8305 9350 18 King William Rd, North Adelaide 5006 Phone: (08) 8305 9350 Advertising enquiries contact: Loan Leane Advertising enquiries contact: Phone: (08)Loan 7007Leane 9020 loan@joiecreative.com.au Phone: (08) 7007 9020 loan@joiecreative.com.au Printed by Lane Print & Post Phone: (08)Print 8179&9900 Printed by Lane Post
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THE WELL LOOKING BACK DavidColsey Thornton-Wakeford by Dawn back, WhereLooking water trickles constantly do you see some daft moments over the edge of the sandstone block, when symbolic of a you well,must have totally bees alight gently, lost the plot and had a take tentative sips brain freeze? at the water’s edge.
Looking back, If old ordo weary you wish you’d had the insight they risk drowning. to know you were barking I grieveup their corpses, thesad wrong tree wrapped in white algae shrouds without a prayer? round the base Looking of the well stone. back,
Looking back, you can’t change a thing and ‘the benefit of hindsight’ is poor consolation for your mistakes. Looking back: what’s the point? All you’ll really get at best is a sore neck or at worst a pillar of salt.
were you too impatient
Praise to to you, Godbig of bees see the picture; and wells, water driven to distraction with and purple bells of jacaranda. fleeting fancies? Praise that In such detail I can perceive you.
Ann Nadge is The Guardian’s poetry editor. Submissions of 20 lines or less are welcome.
HimejiSend Garden, Adelaide to the general editorial email address.
INVESTIGATOR COLLEGE 2 Glendale Grove, Goolwa. Ph: 8555 5755
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ANGLICAN SCHOOLS... the right choice Enquiries: Mr. Jim Raw, Anglican Schools Liaison Officer 18 King WIlliam Rd, North Adelaide 5006 Phone: 8305 9349
ST. JOHN’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL 29 Gloucester Avenue, Belair. Ph: 8278 2233
ST. PETER’S WOODLANDS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 39 Partridge Street, Glenelg. Ph: 8295 4317 TRINITY COLLEGE Alexander Avenue, Evanston South. Ph: 8522 0666 WALFORD ANGLICAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS 316 Unley Road, Hyde Park. Ph: 8272 6555 WOODCROFT COLLEGE Bains Road, Morphett Vale. Ph: 8322 2333
contents
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FA ITH
Archbishop Jeffrey Driver
In the more rural areas of Southern Sudan, there is a custom I found quite disconcerting. When a special guest arrives a heifer is brought forward and sacrificed; the animal’s throat is cut, and the guest must step or jump over the beast to be welcomed.
Dawn’s collection Pour a Libation will appear soon with Ginninderra Press.
The joy of learning
GOOD FRIDAY AND ANZAC – ‘Father Forgive’
Twice as I travelled through that country white heifers were brought forward ready to be sacrificed as an act of welcome for me. In both instances I was able to persuade my Sudanese friends to simply allow me to take a photograph of the heifer. Strange as the thought of animal sacrifice might be in our age and culture, there was one powerful aspect of those moments in Sudan that connects me with the story of Holy Week. It is the insight that turning strangers into friends is often costly. It often involves sacrifice; perhaps not in the form of a beast, perhaps not in any overtly religious way. This year Australians celebrate 100 years of the Anzac story. In this story Australians recognise the power of sacrifice, caught up in the tragedy of war though it was. Holy Week takes us to the greatest story of sacrifice. Through the story from Palm Sunday to Good Friday, through the machinations, plotting, betrayals and sheer human weakness, the Christ takes up his Cross. The physical extent of the suffering of Jesus was not unique; after all there were two others crucified with him. But for them it was punishment. In the person of Jesus his disciples came to recognise a quality of innocent self-giving that made his death not deserved punishment, but willing sacrifice. It is gathered up in those words uttered from searing pain:
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Easter eggs and all that
6. “Father, forgive them…”
Reconciliation a priority for Aboriginal Bishop
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A sense of coming home
True forgiveness is always costly.
10. Devotion to duty
Britain’s beautiful Coventry Cathedral is an architectural commentary on those words from the Cross. During the Second World War it was bombed into a charred ruin.
12. A Service of the Centenary
In time, a new cathedral was raised up, lovingly rebuilt, but in a corner of the old ruins, carefully preserved, there remains a charred Cross, and those same stark words:
Father, forgive. They were hard words to say after the devastation of war. They were costly because true forgiveness cannot simply brush aside the wrongs. True forgiveness takes what we do to ourselves, what we do to others, much too seriously to simply put aside all that has happened, to dismiss it with a shrug or sweep it away with as superficial smile. Even in our personal lives, forgiveness comes hard. It is far from easy to let go of grief or pain, particularly when we feel we are the ones who have been wronged. But the alternative is to continue through life forever a captive of past events.
True forgiveness is a costly grace. As costly as the Cross, as costly as a nail in the palm, and constructed out of wood and blood. Yet, like the Cross, it is the way to freedom.
13 MISSION 13. Celebrating a multicultural community 14. Making challenging lives more bearable 15. Lent fundraising is a flying success
16 FOCUS 16. Happiness for a helping hand 18. Celebrating our rich history 19. A musical feast serves up food for the soul 20. Call on the Quire
21 SCHOOLS 21. “Pilgrimage of Trust” visits St Columba College
22 COMMUNIT Y 22. God Words 24. Local, National & International News
On the cover: Walford School Leaders Erini Vrodos, Abeny Kuol and Zoe Hall (page 14)
26. People and Places
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F AITH
Easter eggs A N D A L L T H AT by THE REV’D SUSAN STRAUB
Long ago, when I was growing up in southern England, my family and friends celebrated Easter by presenting chocolate eggs to each other. My younger brother and I looked forward to visiting our grandparents to collect the biggest and best eggs we ever received. I had read that in bygone times, people would paint hard-boiled eggs and roll them down a hill, playing a game to see which one lasted the longest without cracking. That sounded fun a bit like playing conkers, so we tried it one year using the watercolours from our paint-boxes. The paint seeped through the porous shells and parts of the egg-white were faintly coloured. The eggs tasted all right, though we were glad that we still had chocolate eggs to unwrap from their brightly coloured foil. Then, at the age of 18, I landed a job in Geneva and, after a year or so, moved to work in Zurich. There I married and our first son was born. When he became a toddler, he and I were introduced to the notion of the ‘Oesterhaese’. It seemed a little strange to me, but I was learning the customs of continental Europe. This Easter Hare, it was said, hid chocolate eggs in the garden for children to find and collect on Easter morning. Eight years after that first journey to Switzerland my family arrived in Australia, and here the Easter Hare had become the Easter Bunny. Still, regardless of how the eggs of Easter were collected, the central message was
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the same – the freedom of new life, made possible by the death of Jesus of Nazareth. During Holy Week, we remember the days leading up to the death by crucifixion of Jesus. The evidence from sources outside the gospels indicate that Pontius Pilate was not a weak man who caved in to the demands of the chief priests for the execution of Jesus. Rather, he was a tough and astute Roman Governor who had learned from his previous mishandling of an uprising in the Judaic province. As Roman governor he enforced Pax Romana, the Peace of Roman rule, and that required, amongst other things, justice according to Roman law. When Jesus was brought before him, they stood face to face. He found the man innocent of any offence, yet he ordered Jesus’ crucifixion and would be forever remembered as the one who did so. As with Pilate, at certain times our lives and the way we shall be remembered are changed forever. Maybe we too have been brought face to face with Jesus and have had to decide whether or not we are prepared to believe in him and what we are going to do about him. In a little church, seven years after arriving in Australia, I looked at the figure of Jesus on the cross, “Son of God? How?” At such times, we have no idea how the world will be for us when we begin the process of knowing or, in other words, living into an understanding of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as the truth facing us. I had no idea back then. Nor had Pilate in his time, and he had much more than I did riding on the choice he made between conflicting values. Pilate had to act as Governor of Judea and Caesar expected him to administer law and maintain civil order. The gathered crowd of people were accustomed to having a prisoner released at the Feast of Passover. Pilate put the choice before them: release the prisoner Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah. Twice he put it to the people. A third time, he tried to save
Jesus, but the crowd cried “Let him be crucified!” When he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” they simply repeated “Let him be crucified!” Mob mentality had taken hold and at that point, Pilate knew that he could say no more on Jesus’ behalf without violence breaking out. Acts of violence, terrorism and war require an enemy. Sometimes, there is a person to be blamed and, in the case of Jesus, that person represented those who were suffering. In bearing and baring the truth of those who were suffering from legalistic co-religionists, suffering from a lack of forgiveness and mercy for human frailties, Jesus was punished as the enemy. He became one of those who were suffering. Pilate did not want Jesus’ blood on his hands. We do not know if he ever came to faith eventually in Jesus as the Christ. What we do know is that the accounts in each of the gospels witness to the inner conflict of this tough Roman ruler, torn between his integrity and his fear of another uprising instigated by powerful forces. We can read what counts in the end – his ultimate choice and action.
yet his humanitarian message of forgiveness and mercy had to go viral, as it were. It needed to confront, and be heard by, those at the centre of things in Jerusalem. At the same time, he had to continue believing in his disciples and the Father God to both of whom he was giving all that he had to give. So the process unfolds, Jesus was arrested and subjected to mockery, scorn and scourging, all the while found innocent, not guilty, of any offence. He did not want to be a victim, but he chose to be so for humanity’s sake, for our sake. If he had not so chosen, his life would have been at best incomplete, at worst a lie. So he lived and died true to that part of his nature, which we call divine, and did not act like a victim. He was uncowed and empty of a defending ego. He showed no anger, resentment or bitterness towards those who betrayed, tortured and shamed him. In Matthew and Mark we read that his last human cry was one of desolation to God, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani’, and what was left
was divinity. God on the cross. Jesus, Son of God, was taken down and laid in a tomb. When I eat hot-crossed buns this Good Friday, I will reflect on the reality of sin. Jesus was at one with those, including you and me, who suffer from the sins of others. I shall be reminded again that those who brought about the unjust execution of Jesus, equally could have been us, if we had been around then. However, the hot-crossed buns will also remind me that Jesus forgave his own people and the Romans, he let go of their sin that caused his suffering. In his spirit that kind of forgiveness is now available to each of us, both to receive and to give. The crosses on the buns are signs of hope that the quest for wholeness, holiness and Godliness can continue. On Easter Sunday, when I give eggs, probably made of chocolate and wrapped in brightly coloured foil, and eat those given to me, I shall be reminded of the life Christ
gives us with his spirit. God’s own life, full of loving kindness, flings off all that keeps us from him and from fulfilling the quest he calls us to share alongside him. It is powerful and unable to be contained by rules, sin or even the tomb of death. This exuberant life breaks out into freedom. Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball, has written on his gravestone:
‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on others’ lives.’ Such was the impact of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, that we claim him as Messiah, Christ our Saviour and Prince of Peace. As someone who has never really got over the joy of having been given the gift of life in the first place, I shall lift off the top of my egg and experience again the surprise, wonder and delight of the realisation that, in Christ, there is yet more – resurrection life.
The Rev’d Susan Straub reflects on the true gifts of Easter
What of Jesus during the days of Holy Week? Before the fateful events of Good Friday, we remember that Jesus of Nazareth wrestled not only with accepting God’s will for his life, but also with the impending problem of how his disciples would manage after his death. Foreseeing what would happen to him if he went to Jerusalem, he suffered an agony of inner conflict far worse than that of Pilate. He loved and delighted in his earthly life,
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F AITH
RECONCILIATION
a priority for Aboriginal Bishop by KATRINA McLACHLAN Towards the end of last year Archbishop Jeffrey Driver announced the appointment of an Aboriginal Bishop for South Australia. The Rev’d Chris McLeod who is of Gurindji descent and has been involved in ministry among and beside Aboriginal people in Anglican orders for more than 20 years, will be consecrated on Saturday April 11, 2015 at 9.15am in St Peter’s Cathedral. The Episcopal Ordination of The Rev’d Christopher McLeod, to be Assistant Bishop with special responsibility for ministry alongside Aboriginal people
in South Australia, will be a landmark occasion for the Adelaide Anglican Diocese and the Anglican Church across Australia and the world. The appointment of The Rev’d McLeod was made after consultation with each of the Archbishops of the Australian Church and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council, and representatives from all over Australia and further afield have been invited to attend his Episcopal Ordination. In his new role The Rev’d McLeod will be responsible for developing and overseeing ministry among Aboriginal people which Archbishop Driver says is an important step by the Anglican Church on the walk to reconciliation.
“This appointment is in response to a need as well as a statement of commitment,” the Archbishop says. “As a Bishop, Chris McLeod will have a role of listening, caring and advocacy. I know that he will be sensitive to the culture and story of the Aboriginal people. “My hope is that this will open up a new time for Aboriginal people in their relationship with the Anglican Church and that together we will enrich the life of our State.” Anglicare SA has given in-principle support for part-funding of The Rev’d McLeod’s appointment which has the blessing of both the Bishop of Willochra and the Bishop of the Murray. Listening to and engaging people from all corners of the Anglican community is a priority for Chris McLeod. “Walking alongside Aboriginal people, listening to their stories, listening to their dreams, their struggles, that’s the starting place,” Chris says.
“The aspiration I think we have for the future is to improve the connection of Aboriginal people with the Anglican Church in South Australia.
CARING for culture In his new position, Chris McLeod is encouraging the development and growth of relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of the Church. “We’re getting better at celebrating Aboriginal culture within the church,” he says.
Fletcher, the program aids in recognising, understanding and responding to racism, including institutional racism. Insight is given into the historical and ongoing effects of colonisation and dispossession, and the impacts of these experiences for Aboriginal Australians in their everyday lives. Peter Chilver, convenor of CISMU, attended the workshop and says the intention is to create a deeper understanding of different ideas and perspectives within church and society.
Aboriginal people,” Peter says. “Education becomes an important ingredient to a further growing dialogue.” The Rev’d Hilary Reddrop, also attended the sessions and gained valuable insight into Aboriginal experiences. “The workshop has opened my mind to think about how white values have caused so much grief to Aboriginal people,” she says. “It has opened my heart wider and deepened my compassion.
“There needs to be more work and people walking together – Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal.
“The workshops deliberately do not solely focus on Aboriginal culture, but more so on understanding cultural sensitivities,” he says.
“No matter how open you are to Aboriginal people, how accepting and non-racist you may think you are, the experience of the workshop can touch you.”
“Church is the place of reconciliation so it’s the perfect environment for that for to be fostered.”
“This process often begins with reflection upon the self and an overall view of what has happened when one culture does not respect another.
The development of skills and food for thought are vital steps in the right direction, and the workshop is a starting point for the continuing process of understanding and coming together.
Members of the Diocese of Adelaide, with support from the Church in Society Ministry Unit (CISMU) and Anglicare SA, have the opportunity to gain greater cultural awareness through special training that is being offered at particular times throughout the year. Fifteen Anglican Clergy and Lay Leaders participated in the first ‘Cultural Respect: engaging with Aboriginal Australians to ensure cultural safety’ workshop recently. Held at Tauondi College, Port Adelaide and facilitated by Sharon Gollan and Tony
“I think damage and abuse in all its many forms, some obvious and some not so, have ramifications which echo deep within an individual, group of people and wider community. “All human beings have a responsibility in learning what others hold sacred and then finding a way forward.” Achieving cultural safety requires knowledge of Indigenous values and principles to work towards overcoming cultural power imbalances. “The program assisted in examining how our actions, whether conscious or unconscious, affect
“The workshop doesn’t claim to have all the answers but does provide a place where a mirror is held up,” Peter says. “I think this is one of the hoped outcomes – to enter the story and be ok with not having easy answers, but not be ok with doing nothing to participate in the end of injustice.” These two-day Cultural Respect sessions will be repeated again around the middle of the year. They are open to clergy and lay leaders. If you would like to register your interest contact Peter Burke on 0411 872 461 or pburke@anglicaresa.com.au
“Assist those who have been Anglican to reconnect with their Anglican roots, those who are already attending church, giving them some support and encouragement. “I think it’s also about helping people who are Aboriginal, think about spirituality in their lives and their own stories, and where the Christian faith might fit into that as well. “And one of our aspirations is that we would like to see an Indigenous expression of the Anglican Church flourish within the Diocese and South Australia, so given time, we’ll be able to identify some key leaders who will help grow the Aboriginal expression of the Anglican faith.”
Caption required.
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Bishop Chris McLeod will listen, care and advocate for Aboriginal people
(L-R) The Rev’d Lyn McRostie, instructor Sharon Gollan, The Rev’d Hilary Reddrop, Anglicare SA’s Peter Bourke and Sonia Waters, instructor Tony Fletcher and Archdeacon Peter Chilver at the Cultural Respect workshop
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F AITH
coming home A SE NSE OF
by ASSISTANT BISHOP TIM HARRIS The experience of being on a journey is a major motif in Scripture. The bigger journeys are well known: Israel’s journey to the promised land, the return from exile, and of course our Lord’s journey to Jerusalem. A second feature of such journeys is less well recognised: the journey is very frequently an occasion to gather community. We travel in good company, and others are invited to join with us. There are lessons to learn as we travel varied landscapes, and as a community we support each other through the whole range of experiences and demands along the way. The journey experience has certainly been true of St Barnabas College over many years, and no less so in recent times. One of the truths about journeying is that you can’t see around corners, and most often we can’t see what is just over the horizon. This is where faith and confidence that God goes before us comes in—and makes life exciting! Our journey has taken quite a few unexpected turns over the past 18 months. At the time these have been disconcerting, and more than a little unsettling. We are enormously appreciative of the support and understanding of our students, as we have navigated a whole series of transitions. We are no less appreciative of our supporters as they have expressed interest in developments and exhibited significant patience and trust as we have worked our way through various options and major decisions. Our journey has been both a literal experience, from Brooklyn Park to Hindmarsh, and now to our long-term home in the St Barnabas Building, North Adelaide, and a spiritual journey of faith.
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God’s providential hand Now that we’ve moved through the doors and explored the possibilities for our new home, we have been struck by two powerful perceptions: a strong sense of at last finding a true ‘home’ (and of course coming home to where we first started) and also what a great fit the new building is for our needs as a College. To be honest, we never dared to hope for the ease with which we have been able to move in, get ourselves set up, and now open our doors. God is good! Through the twists and turns of the past year or more, God has guided us to a home that is more spacious and provides for our needs at every point. If we had a metaphorical wish list as a College, the new site pretty much ticks off everything on our list and more (well, perhaps except for onsite parking…)! We have seen God’s providence in other ways as well. Through a range of circumstances a new member of staff has come into our midst. Mrs Ros Devenish has moved to Adelaide from Melbourne as part of her husband Stuart’s work commitments. Ros has significant experience and understanding of theological colleges as learning communities, having worked at the Melbourne School of Theology for a number of years. More specially, Ros is an accomplished administrator within educational contexts, with an extensive background as an experienced librarian, including working with Chinese resources (one of our planned ‘niche’ areas). We are delighted Ros has accepted our offer of a combined role as academic administrator and voluntary librarian.
Joining of pathways and travel partners The journey motif applies no less to the convergence of pathways otherwise unknown when the journeys commenced. One of the costly factors that weighed on us as we left Brooklyn Park was leaving the ACD library conveniently on site.
In itself this was not a sufficiently large enough consideration to continue in a site that was no longer serving our needs as a College. The place of libraries is changing profoundly in the 21st century, but the ready availability of key books is nonetheless a significant concern. Little were we to know at that stage that for the past thirty years or so a private collector in Canberra had set about purchasing (almost) every English text published relating to biblical studies, theology and mission. It was the vision of Clive and Lynea Rogers to one day bequeath this remarkable collection of very up-todate theological books to a theological college, at that time as yet unknown. The hope to receive an extensively resourced contemporary theological library as a ‘package’ would defy the most ambitious of leaders in establishing a new home for a college, having just farewelled our stakes in another context. The gifting of this collection, and the enormous goodwill and support in which this gift is making its way to us is again a truly encouraging sign of God’s going before us. So, books were packed into many hundreds of boxes, placed into three shipping containers before making their way to Adelaide. As this article is being written we have just opened and inspected the shipping containers, and are planning the next stage of unpacking and getting books onto shelves. Let us just say that any volunteers with a love of books are most welcome to contact the College! Our plan for the library is to establish it as a research library. This means that the collection will be available for access and use within the St Barnabas Building, with the availability of study areas and workspace for students, researchers, writers and the general public.
The new building as symbol The new configuration of the St Barnabas Building now stands as a profound symbol
St Barnabas’ Theological College Vice Principal Rt Rev’d Dr Tim Harris and Principal Rev’d Canon Dr Matthew Anstey delight in the wealth of knowledge held in the library of books that have been donated to the College.
for our life as a Diocese, and our various ministries in that capacity. The default mode for many theological colleges is to be relatively independent and located at some distance from other centres of ministry. While the benefit may be in gaining space for reflection and uncluttered thought, the downside is that some ‘distance’ may develop between colleges and other branches of life as a Diocese. No location is perfect (what is close for some is distant to others), but the colocation of St Barnabas sharing the same reception and common space as diocesan office is more than a convenience: it represents a significant closing of any gaps between the College and the life of the wider Diocese. We are partners in the same mission and ministry, and looking to be as supportive of each other in any way possible. Add to that the Cathedral and St Mark’s College over the road, and quite a precinct is being developed. The vision is for the St Barnabas Building to also be a hub for a range of diocesan ministries, including Diocesan Archives, ABM-SA, and also a redeveloped resource collection for the viewing and use by our many parishes and other areas of ministry. Our hope is to improve communication, and to provide an Anglican marketplace with space for faceto-face meetings and other gatherings.
plaque immediately to your right. This plaque acknowledges the ‘Former St. Barnabas College’, built as it was in 1880 to provide a home for local candidates training for Holy Orders at that time. It is good that this former life of St Barnabas College is acknowledged, and it does represent a wonderful ‘full circle’ in the life of the College. In a literal sense, we are coming back to our roots, to where it all started. It is no less significant to look to the future. We now occupy a very different world, and life outside our doors has changed dramatically since 1880. Yet we proclaim the same good news of Jesus Christ, and the precious gospel traditions passed on and entrusted to us are grounded in truths that are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
fellow travellers and a community of the people of God drawn from a rich diversity of cultures and personalities. We would not be where we are without the generous support of many, including those who have gone before us and in whose foresight we now enjoy the resources we do. Yet there is much to be done, and we need our supporters more than ever. It is our intention to reconstitute the ‘Friends of St Barnabas’, and as we explore possibilities in deepening and extending our ministry as a College community, we ask all to consider becoming a partner in this vital area of ministry and as we seek to leave a great legacy for generations to come.
We do not live in the past, and our calling is to represent Christ in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. Equipping all who have a passion for ministry, lay and ordained, with an understanding in equal measure of gospel traditions and life in all its dimensions and experiences is the vision that lies before us.
Our need for Friends
Coming home and new beginnings
The people of our Diocese are our primary stakeholders. We are here to serve the Diocese, and especially in equipping lay and ordained people for whatever sphere of ministry God calls them to.
As you come in the main door to the St Barnabas Building there is a heritage
As our journeying continues, we continue the process of gathering a company of
Visitors at the recent St Barnabas’ Open Day
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F AITH
DEVOTION to duty by SARAH BLACK
War changed everything. In 1914, Australians were racing to prove themselves for King and Country. But also, the Church and its members were racing to find service to God in the midst of the unfolding cataclysm. Early in 1914 The Rev’d Frances Durnford had come out from England to the parish of St Mary’s, Burra, where he proved a busy and popular assistant curate. Once war broke out, however, he was determined to become a military chaplain. He departed for the Front in July 1915. Military chaplaincy was an ill-defined role at this time. The chaplain’s only official duty was to hold regular church parades, but, as chaplain K Henderson from Western Australia remarked, “It is in … personal dealings far more than in parade services that a padre will find his vital work.” Rev’d Durnford was one of 14 clergy from the Diocese of Adelaide who worked as padres to the troops during World War One. The others were WA Moore, HE Sexton, FW Samwell, EH Fernie, WH Edwards, TP Wood, WT Strahan, WN Higgins, HH Coles, WH Miller, WH Johnson, AM Webb and WH Irwin. Durnford was attached to the 22nd Battalion and saw action in France and Belgium. At Bullecourt he won the Military Cross for “conspicuous bravery and most honourable devotion to duty”, ministering to the wounded while under heavy fire for 48 hours. “By his fearless conduct and his cheerful bearing he helped to maintain the spirit of the Troops in a most valuable manner,” the official communiqué noted. Chaplains were friends and confidants of the troops. They were ministers to their spiritual, emotional and physical needs. They could and did help with a wide array of daily necessities, such as delivering food and water to the front lines, entertaining the soldiers, counselling
and supporting them, retrieving the dead and wounded, giving succour to the dying. Naturally they were responsible for conducting burials and funerals - at times of very large numbers of men. Chaplains were all too often the bearers of sad tidings. Rev’d Durnford wrote to Mrs Brown of Oakleigh, Victoria, “You have my very real sympathy on the death in action of your gallant and brave son. I am afraid the mothers and wives and sisters back in Australia are having a very trying time, and have a real cross to bear... may every comfort that religion and the sympathy of relatives and friends can give be yours. I am sending you what information I can. [Your son] took part in the attack on the Germans on 3/01/17. He… was one of the first to rush over when the signal to advance was given. He had only gone about 10 yards when he was struck by a bursting shell, and killed instantly. You will be glad to hear that he suffered no pain. A cross was erected on the spot some time later by his comrades.” Lieutenant Macindoe wrote of Rev’d Durnford “If ever a man won distinction in our last show, he did. All the time we were in the firing line this chap would carry up water through terrific shell fire, and then help to bring wounded back. He did 12 trips in one day and then at night went out with the pioneers to bury dead. There is no doubt about it - he is a beauty. Naturally he is a great favourite amongst us now.”
To share the life of the soldiers was to share their fears, tensions and horrors as well.
Durnford commented, with some restraint, “It is rather sad being an army chaplain … one misses men a good deal when they have been killed in action. One lives with, eats with, sees a good deal of some fine young fellow and gets to know him a bit and then comes the action, and perhaps he gets knocked out by a shell and one goes along to the next place without him.”
For himself, he wrote, “It will be a great joy if one gets through the war safely, to come back to the Diocese again and I can only say that I am looking forward to nothing so much as resuming work again in South Australia.” After the war Rev’d Durnford did indeed return to country curacy, spending some years back at Burra before accepting a call to develop the church in the soldier settlements of the Riverland. He remained a staunch supporter of returned servicemen, being active in educational initiatives, a leading light of local Anzac Day celebrations and a frequent correspondent to the newspapers on the needs of returned soldiers, particularly those who had difficulty in adjusting back to civilian life. Having shared the soldiers’ lot in wartime, borne witness to all they had gone through and committed himself to support and serve them, Durnford, like many others, effectively remained in the role of padre to the men long after the war was over. Communicating the love and presence of God was then, as it is now, a matter for action as well as for words.
ANZAC SERVICE AT ST PETER’S St Peter’s Cathedral is to host a special commemorative service. While the Anzac tradition and observance continues to grow with ever-increasing numbers, the battles at Gallipoli are, in fact, testament to monumental disasters and appalling loss of life.
Remembering 100 years of Anzac bravery and sacrifice
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The service aims to capture the bravery and the heartache, as well as a call for
us all to work towards the peace for which the Anzac soldiers fought.
hope and resurrection, and lead people in making a commitment to peace.
Candles will be lit while wartime poems and extracts from diaries are read. The Litany of Remembrance will be sung as the congregation place sprigs of rosemary onto a cross, followed by the Ode and the Last Post. The Archbishop will light the Paschal candle, symbolising
With colour, traditional hymns and music, time for reflection and movement, Anzac Day at St Peter’s Cathedral is an opportunity to honour the past and pray for a peaceful future. The service will be held on Sunday 26 April at 6pm, all are welcome.
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F AITH
MISSION
A Service of the Centenary
CELEBRATING A MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY
by ELLIE COOPER The Anzac Centenary is a time to remember and honour the sacrifice made by service men and women for Australia. St Bede’s, Semaphore will commemorate the occasion on Sunday 3 May with the Day of National Intercession service, first established during the World War One to pray for soldiers and the Allied effort. The event is an Australian first and it is recognised as part of South Australia’s About Time History Festival held throughout May. The Rev’d Ken Buchez, who will perform the service, says veterans from the St Bede’s congregation and the Semaphore community inspired the idea. “The honour roll board has got so many people from the local community who went away to war, many of whom didn’t come back,” he says. “St Bede’s has got a very strong focus on history and Semaphore itself has been a place where there’s been a lot of significant
input into the growth of the state. “I think it’s part of our place as the Church at Semaphore that we recognise the Centenary.” Senior Lay Assistant, Colin Lehmann, along with other members of the St Bede’s History Committee, have worked tirelessly to recreate spirit of the occasion. “We want to reconduct the full service as it was first held on the 3 January 1915,” Colin says. “We also want to take into account building the local community and helping them understand the importance of it. “Of the 188 people listed on the honour role, 144 were there when the board was first blessed in 1915.” The service will be performed at 10am and Ken says the spiritual aspect of the day is paramount, “remembering what has been and bringing it into the present”. “It’s about reflecting on the futility of war and the pain of war,” he says. “There’s a tendency in Australian culture to almost glorify war sometimes.
“The service is a poignant reminder of ‘the war to end all wars’ that didn’t end all wars.”
are creating a database for locals to discover their family history.
St Bede’s will also pay homage to the historical significance surrounding the Centenary, bringing together a memorial from Friday 1 May to Monday 4 May.
“The character of Semaphore is very strongly about its history and the Church is a substantial part of the community as well as the building,” History Committee member, Ros DeGaris says.
The RSL, the State Library and the Red Cross are among more than ten groups that will exhibit wartime artefacts for the community event. “We want to get the locals involved, as well as people from other parishes who may have a connection with St Bede’s and anyone who may be interested in the event from a historical perspective,” Colin says. “Members of the Victorian Society and Costumers Guild will dress in period attire and military personnel will be in uniform, including a Light Horse mounted soldier.” Traditional treats will be served, Anzac biscuits, scones and Jubilee cake, and the Choir of St Bede’s and St Nicolas Quire will perform traditional anthems and hymns. Historically, the Intercession was to be performed on 3 January each year of the War, but services were held throughout the conflict by the major Christian denominations.
“There’s a lot of people in the district who still connect with St Bede’s as not just a worshipping parish but an outreach parish.” Schools in the area are also encouraged to engage in the community’s history through the ‘adopt a World Ward One hero’ program. They are investigating the stories behind the names on the honour role, and what they discover will contribute to the RSL’s virtual memorial and ensure the Anzac history lives on. “We want to make the children aware of the importance of the event as part of the local history,” Colin says. “And also make them aware that these veterans went away to provide them with the life they have now, that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
The relationship between the Diocese of Adelaide and the Diocese of Bor in South Sudan already stretches across continents, but greater bonds between the two communities are needed at a local level.
been in the pipeline for the past four years. The Archbishop and other pilgrims will travel to South Sudan in August where it is hoped the clinic will be opened. The funds have largely been raised, and Emma says the most important thing is creating support for the project from Adelaide Anglicans.
The Bor Bash, an Australian and South Sudanese friendship night is an opportunity for both groups to come together. To be held in the beautiful grounds of Bishop’s Court, North Adelaide on 28 March, the open invitation event will be a vibrant evening of entertainment and learning. “At the moment we don’t have a strong connection between the different communities here,” ABM Board Member Emma Riggs says. “The Bor Bash is about bringing the two groups together and really capturing the relationship between the two Dioceses – between the people.” Australian and South Sudanese inspired performances will foster a cultural connection. With mentoring from Sudanese representatives, Anglican school groups will recreate a traditional Dinka song and dance. “Their presentation will be the grand finale of the evening and we’re thinking of having a winner based on the audience applause,” Emma says.
On 26 December 1914 The Observer printed: “The subjects concerning which special prayer is to be offered are the King, the Empire, our Allies, and our soldiers and sailors. The day will also be one of remembrance of our soldiers and sailors who have fallen in battle.”
“We’ll also have an Australian barbeque for dinner and the Sudanese women making their traditional food, most of it will be rice and casserole dishes. “We’re hoping that, through the shared mediums of music and food that everyone can relate to, relationships will be formed as well as an understanding of cultural differences.”
The service was hugely popular in Adelaide, with more than 1,500 people turned away from St Peter’s Cathedral, and St Bede’s, established in 1878, also performed the service.
Money raised from cost of tickets will go towards the Bor health clinic, which has
“The people in Bor are quite attached to it, and the South Sudanese here are quite attached to it,” she says. “But in the Adelaide Anglican community only a few know about the clinic in Bor, and none of them really know what it’s about.” The Bor Bash is about creating personal connections and building a community that includes both groups. “We could have an afternoon where we get people to come along and talk about the horrendous health conditions in Sudan,” Emma says. “But the relationship between the two Dioceses requires that personal connection if it’s going to be a longstanding relationship. “We’re hoping to achieve education and cultural awareness through bringing the two groups together.” A connection will also fostered between Adelaide Anglicans and the people in Bor. “It will be a good message to send to the people in Bor, they’re all connected to Facebook and we can put some pictures of the event up,” Emma says. “If we can show the two Anglican communities here are having a fundraiser for the clinic in Bor that will do a lot for the people on the ground as well.” The Bor Bash is 4-8pm on the Saturday 28 March at Bishop’s Court, North Adelaide. 150 tickets are available for $10/person or $20/family with dinner included. Contact Margie Messner bishopsoffice@adelaide.anglican.com.au
Colin unearthed the original copy of the service, decreed by King George Fifth, in the Church crypt, which will be used on the day. “The services would have been conducted by Canon Swan, parish priest at the time,” he says. “He had family members killed in France so he was very much aware of the significance.” For the past two years, the Committee has been researching Semaphore’s past and those connected to the Church through their contribution.
The Barossa Light Horse Historical Association’s Bruce Naismith rides Jack outside St Bede’s
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Combing through historical documents, as well as the State Library’s birth, death and marriage records, they
Empire Intercession Day: observed throughout the British Empire on Sunday, January 3 1915. The military marching from the parade ground to St. Peters North Adelaide between 600 and 700 officers and men and hundreds of civilians attended the intercession service. (Krischock Photos) Source: Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954) 9 Jan 1915 nla.gov.au/nla.news-page8645529
Dau Atem, Leek Agoth, Geu Apech, Madit Kur and Abraham Deng from the House International Youth Choir
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MISSION
Making challenging lives MORE BEARABLE
by KATRINA McLACHLAN
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty – Mother Theresa This powerful quote beautifully presents the sentiment behind St Martin’s Backpack Project that is providing backpacks of necessary items like soap, towels and torches for young homeless people in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs so they know that someone cares about them. While the number of people receiving support from homelessness services around the country rose last year the number of people whom services could not assist also continued to rise. With so many people in need The Rev’d Mara Di Francesco approached the Campbelltown City Council Manager of Community Services & Social Development, Tracy Johnstone to try and develop an opportunity for community outreach. “Issues that the Campbelltown Council identified were social isolation and youth homelessness and they suggested we contact the Service to Youth Council to see if a project could be developed,” Mara says. “We visited the Service to Youth Council
and have formed a great link with Alison Douglas, the worker for the Eastern suburbs. We developed an approach that also incorporated our desire to engage more fully with the local community and develop improved mission and outreach. “We know that people in our demographic area want community, friendships and hospitality.” The Backpack Project sits under the “St Martin’s in the Community” umbrella thanks to a Parish Community Engagement Fund grant of $5000 from Anglicare SA. Anglicare SA Director of Mission and Anglican Community Engagement, Peter Burke, says the Backpack Project is the latest of many parish projects supported through the Parish Community Engagement Fund (PCEF) since it commenced in 2008. “The aim of the PCEF is to enable parishes to identify and respond to community needs as part of local mission,” Peter says. “St Martin’s Campbelltown began the process by consulting with the local community to find out what they could do to connect with young people at risk of homelessness and this is the result.
‘survival kit’ style backpack is a good example and possibly also a way to deepen our positive engagement with the needs and hopes of young people.” Since 2008 the PCEF have provided over 25 parishes with grants of up to $5000 adding up to a total of over $100,000 for projects. This has included projects to engage with and support youth, families with children, and isolated and older people in the community.
Lent fundraising is
A FLYING SUCCESS Making a sacrifice during Lent, however small or temporary, helps us to appreciate the abundance in our own lives. The opportunity afforded us in Australia is something Abeny Kuol, 17, doesn’t take for granted, understanding firsthand that not everyone is as fortunate.
All of the projects have provided a tangible expression to the vision of local churches as a place and network well connected with the local community and its people.
At the age of three, she and her family left war-torn South Sudan for Cairo, Egypt, before beginning a new life in Adelaide as refugees in 2003.
The backpack project has the commitment of the whole St Martin’s parish with the coordinator of the project, Lesley Charlesworth, ably assisted by many parish members who volunteer their time running trading tables, garage sales, coffee and scone mornings to raise money for the items that they then spend time packing into backpacks.
“My parents chose to get us out of the country to somewhere safe where we would be able to live without violence and have the best possible chances of succeeding in the future,” Abeny says.
Lesley Charlesworth is thrilled with the support she has received and the way the project is going.
“The giving of backpacks will provide a much needed service as well as send a message that the local church is interested in the well being of young people in the area, are willing to listen, engage and support where they can.
“It is a project that we can all contribute to in a variety of different ways and if we continue the way we are, we will meet our commitment of ten packs per month for twelve months and hopefully a little longer,” Lesley says.
“One thing can lead to another and a simple gesture of support such as a
“We are so grateful to all who are contributing. If this work catches the imagination of everyone we can achieve great things.”
“I almost feel it’s my responsibility to help all those who were not as fortunate to have been presented with the opportunities that I have been given. “More than anything I want to make my parents proud, they have sacrificed so much to get me to where I am today.” This passion for making a difference in the community is something she brings to the role of School Captain at Walford Anglican School for Girls. Abeny is Walford’s first School Captain of refugee background and made a striking impression among her peers, being elected to the role after only six months at Walford.
With two terms of her tenure remaining, she is putting her energy into raising $3,000 for the School’s Lent Campaign. Abeny, along with Vice Captain, Eirini Vrodos, were pleased when the community chose to focus on local charity, the Royal Flying Doctors Service. “We’ve always been taught that it’s important to give back to others because we are privileged to go to such a good school and live in such a good country,” Eirini says. “We thought this year especially that, while it’s important to sponsor people from overseas, it’s good to support local causes. “It’s important to get the girls to be aware that even within South Australia there are people who need our help. “In the rural areas it’s a big issue that people don’t have access to doctors and medicine.” To launch the Campaign at the start of Lent, February 18, Abeny had the students fly beautifully coloured paper planes to highlight how small gestures can make a big difference. “It’s symbolic in a sense – they’re little paper planes and they come out of nothing, but when all of us work together we can make a change,” Abeny says. “One person’s idea can set off a chain reaction and make a difference.” Mini-fundraisers are planned over the duration of Lent in collaboration with
by ELLIE COOPER other schools, including Prince Alfred College, St Peter’s Boys and Wilderness. Abeny, Eirini and Student Council Captain, Zoe Hall, have endless ideas for activities to engage the students, including netball matches and battle of the sexes quizzes. “For the whole six week period of Lent we try to encourage all students and staff to show their support for our charity and do what they can to help us raise awareness,” Zoe says. “It’s a cause that we feel really strongly about, especially since we have a lot of boarders who live in remote areas, such as Renmark and Port Lincoln, where the Royal Flying Doctors provide a lot of help.” Abeny says Walford students are always willing to get behind these causes and help people in need. During Lent their personal sacrifice will be used to help others and create a positive impact that lasts beyond 40 days. “I think because the Walford community is so close knit everybody really cares about others, whether it’s their friends or people in countries that they’ve never been to,” she says. “It’s embedded into us that, while it’s great to have an excellent education, it’s also so, so important to look outside yourself and support those who, if it wasn’t for us, wouldn’t be given the opportunity to have lives as privileged as ours.”
The St Martin’s Backpack team hope to take the project to the next level and work in a more practical way with disadvantaged youth in the Campbelltown area, by offering basic cooking skills or even becoming accredited providers for vocational training. Wherever it ends up the Backpack Project has opened the St Martin’s community up to the exciting possibilities that can be formed through simple acts of generosity an kindness.
The Rev’d Mara Di Francesco and Lesley Charlesworth
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If you would like to get involved with the project or just learn more about it go to http://saintmartinscampbelltown. com/community-involvement or contact St Martin’s on 83372993 Walford Student Council Captian Zoe Hall, School Captain Abeny Kuol (centre) with Vice Captain Eirini Vrodos.
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Happiness for a HELPING HAND by ELLIE COOPER
Without the selflessness and hard work of six million Australian volunteers each year, emergency services, sports, art and community programs would not be possible. Their contribution will be honoured in National Volunteer Week, 11 to 17 May, the largest celebration of volunteers in Australia held annually since 1989. This year’s theme, Give Happy. Live Happy., is inspired by research that shows even a few hours of volunteering each week increases happiness, health and longevity. Since retiring 14 years ago, Elizabeth (Betty) Edwards has been volunteering far more than a few hours of her time to keep busy and stay active in the community “I’m not the sort of person who likes to sit at home and do the cooking and cleaning and dusting,” she says. “I’d rather be out and about and doing things that I enjoy because I like being part of something.” Turning 76 this year is no deterrent, and Betty spreads her time across many different projects and organisations (and still practices yoga). On Thursday mornings she volunteers at Trinity College, Blakeview, assisting Year 2 students. “It just gives me the biggest joy – I help the slow learners, the ones who need that bit of extra attention,” Betty says.
“I get more out of it than they do – that’s why I do it, because I get something out of it.” Betty says there are endless ways to volunteer and everyone can find the right outlet for them. “There are lots of opportunities to volunteer if only people would look and feel that they can do something,” she says. “People think ‘I couldn’t do that’, but they would be surprised what they can do.” She turned her passion for knitting into a way to give to the community, including the animal sanctuary. “When they give animals away they like to give a little rug with the animal, so I knit the squares,” Betty says. “And at Easter and Christmas I knit little items and give them to the kids at school, to the Parish, people in Church Office, people at the Cathedral and the two Anglican nursing homes in Elizabeth.” Anglicare SA volunteer Adrienne Williams is also determined to keep busy and found volunteering was a way to maintain skills and help the community.
“I was immediately attracted to the idea of continuing to assist those who needed a helping hand or an encouraging word,” she says.
“I play little games with them or I listen to them read and make jokes about being old.”
“I’m involved with our church projects at St Mark’s, Golden Grove, as well as chairing several committees for a women’s service organisation called Zonta International.”
Betty has been a member of the St Catherine’s, Elizabeth Downs congregation since 1967 and is dedicated to the Anglican community.
One of her most significant contributions has been volunteering as an emergency assistance interviewer at the Magdalene Centre for the past seven years.
She is Diocesan Secretary of the Mother’s Union, and organises morning tea at St Peter’s Cathedral on Tuesdays and is a welcomer at the Cathedral in the afternoon.
“I talk to each client about the issues they face in their lives and work out ways to help them,” Adrienne says.
“The people who you meet are just wonderful, you get people from
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overseas, people from South Australia, from Adelaide, who have never been in the Cathedral before,” she says.
“This can be in the form of food, clothing, toiletries or a referral to other Anglicare SA agencies for more specialised assistance.
Betty Edwards with her beloved knitting
“The focus of our work is to provide the resources to empower clients to help themselves wherever possible. “The blessing for me is when a client asks if they can give me a hug as a thank you for the help and kind words they have received.” Of the more than 600,000 not-for-profit organisations in Australia, only 60,000 – 10 per cent – have paid staff, highlighting the importance of volunteers. The Magdalene Centre requires nine volunteers five days a week performing roles from serving food to supporting clients. “With welfare budgets being reduced, the number of paid staff is being eroded,” Adrienne says. “Without volunteers, the huge number of disadvantaged people who come to our Centre could not be provided with the assistance they need.” Like Betty, Adrienne believes, with awareness and encouragement, everyone
Above: Anglicare SA volunteer Adrienne Williams
can be inspired to volunteer. “First, people should think about their skills in a positive light and recognise they have something to offer,” she says. “And with some planning most of us can free up a morning or afternoon through the week. “Then think about a role that will provide the incentive to get out of bed and go.” Eric Smith, 26, volunteers with ABM, his local parish and student radio, and says a value can’t be placed on donating time. “A lot of people say things like ‘why would you spend $5,000 to go to Africa, why wouldn’t you just donate $5,000?’” he says.
“I believe in building a relationship and being there is important, and people appreciate that a lot more.”
In 2009 Eric took part in the Archbishop’s pilgrimage to Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. “Visiting is important because you can really understand what’s happening, you can feel the weather, you can be bitten by mosquitoes, you can see firsthand what others go through,” he says. “In the Western World we have lots of ‘stuff’ but we also have a lack of spirituality in our lives and we’ve missed non-physical things. “You can donate ‘stuff’ to Africa, but being there, showing solidarity, building communities and making friends has a greater impact. “We spent a week in Sudan and we saw the same people every day and we really started to know each other and they showed us what to do and how to help and what they wanted done.” As Eric discovered, volunteering is a way for young people to see the world and gain experience for the future.
“I’ve always liked travel, I think that’s a benefit that gets a lot of people to do it,” he says. “There’s a lot of work out there that no one can pay to do that needs to be done, and I think it’s a great way for people in any career to acquire skills. “It’s a really good experience careerwise, but also very fulfilling.” For people considering volunteering, Lent is a time of year when a sacrifice can be used for the good of others. “I don’t buy chocolate, so something sweet would be easy for me to give up,” Betty says. “What would hurt me more would be to stop volunteering for the six weeks. “If I had to stay home and look at the dust, that would be more of a sacrifice than coming out and being part of something. “But I normally take something extra on for Lent, rather than give something up.”
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CELEBRATING OUR RICH HISTORY South Australia’s History Month celebrations - About Time 2015 - has something for everyone, with all kinds of events – tours, talks, walks, exhibitions, concerts – about all kinds of history being held in May.
Historians of the Christian Church have usually written history from the top down, focussing on the people who ruled and on the debates and decisions of councils, synods and assemblies. These are essential components in the story. However, to understand fully the history of the Church we need to explore Christianity as it was lived by ordinary people, often without much drama, at the local level. For the great majority of Christians the focus of their religious life has been a local church.
David Hilliard OAM reflects on the important role parish histories play in our understanding of the rich heritage of the Anglican Church in Adelaide.
Through the history of a single church or parish we can learn about how and why a congregation was formed and the ways in which it has changed over time, the influence of individual clergy and
Many Anglicans are interested in the story of their own church and how it came to be the way it is. Reflecting this, at least fifty churches in the Diocese of Adelaide have published accounts of their history, either as a book or booklet, often to commemorate a jubilee or a centenary. One of the first of these was produced in 1906 to mark fifty years of St Luke’s, Whitmore Square. A few years later, in 1914, St Andrew’s Walkerville (opened in 1848) published a history ‘by a warden who dates from 1872’. Since the 1950s the number of Anglican parish histories has multiplied. These range from four-page leaflets to substantial works of several hundred pages. The most notable of these is Brian Dickey’s scholarly history of Adelaide’s first Anglican Church, Holy Trinity, which in 2013 was revised and updated.
A seriously gorgeous festival in the city’s southeast corner has quietly grown into the go-to event before Adelaide’s festival season begins. The St John’s Feast of Music is proof perfect that good food, fine music and an enthusiastic community can nourish the soul. In 2015, the St John’s Feast of Music was bigger and better than ever. The event, which ran in early February, attracted a capacity crowd to a dinner in the beautiful St John’s garden and full houses to three concerts in the historic St John’s Church. “It’s a far cry from when we started out four years ago,” Fr Christopher Myers says. “We struggled to get an audience of 50 to a concert, but we knew we had the makings of something special, starting with artistic director Sergio de Pieri and his access to acclaimed national and international artists.
“In our second year we were able to host a dinner, funding concerts and securing our audiences, and year by year we’ve built on this formula to create an event adds real zing to the city precinct,” Christopher says. The Feast of Music kicks off with a “soft opening” – a dinner at Chianti Classico for the 20 table hosts and their partners, who each year make up tables of 10 for the Feast of Music dinner. Some of the table hosts, like author Dr Peter Goldsworthy and his wife Lisa Temple, who live in the precinct, have been supporters from the beginning. Peter Goldsworthy’s links with the Feast of Music don’t stop there. He and Emeritus Professor Michael Morely conduct the sing-along between courses at the Feast of Music dinner, and his daughter Anna heads the Seraphim Trio, which opened the Feast of Music in 2014 and returned by popular demand in 2015.
Make sure you send a copy to the State Library of South Australia so it can live on for posterity and be available to all.
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Without church and parish histories we would have a very incomplete understanding of the history of the Anglican Church in Adelaide. They are a valuable resource and we need more of them.
By Marie Danvers
“Through Sergio we formed a number of fruitful partnerships – with his brother, gourmand and brewer, Stefano, and with Maria and Frank Favaro of multi-award winning restaurant Chianti Classico, which is down the road from St John’s.
Has your church produced a parish history in recent years?
Parish histories rely on the existence of parish archives! The Diocesan Archives Office can advise on management of historic parish records, which are looked after by parishes until they are lodged with the State Library. If you need advice on dealing with your parish records and keeping them safe and in good order, contact the Archivist, Dr Sarah Black: archives@adelaide. anglican.com.au (08) 8239 1249
prominent lay people, styles of worship and music, fashions in church furnishings and architecture, the relationship between the church and the local community, fundraising and how church buildings were paid for, the transmission of faith to the young through Sunday schools and other agencies, and the emergence (and decline) of parish organisations for women and men, youth groups and sporting clubs.
A MUSICAL FEAST SERVES UP FOOD FOR THE SOUL
“The Feast of Music is Adelaide in microcosm—fine food, music, company and Italian connections,” Peter says. “The acoustics in the church are wonderful, as is the variety of music, from classical, to baroque, to jazz.” One of the most recent parish histories to be complied is Celebrating our Centenary The Anglican Church of St Theodore Toorak Gardens 1914-2014 by Dr Richard Keene
The Feast of Music dinner, prepared by Stefano de Pieri and co-owner and Chianti Head Chef, Toby Gush, heralds the official start of the Feast of Music. This year, 200 guests sat down to four
Hundreds feast in the beautiful St John’s grounds at dusk
courses— antipasti, pasta in a light tomato sauce, beef cheeks for main and a desert of filo, crème and berries followed by cheese from Smelly Cheese in the Central Market. Each course was partnered with fine wines by Fox Creek Wines. Over the past two years, the Feast of Music has perfected its operations, securing the services of students of the International College of Hotel Management, which has its head office nearby, as well as the College’s top Food & Beverage Lecturer, Richard Hunter. Held at 6.30pm over three consecutive nights in early February, to make the most of Adelaide’s summer evenings, the concerts run for just over an hour. After each concert, guests spill out into the garden to enjoy bruschetta by Sergio de Pieri, fine wine and convivial company. The Feast of Music came about from a chance meeting between Christopher and Sergio in Melbourne in 2010. Sergio is artistic director of the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival and other small festivals in Victoria. Shortly after meeting, the pair struck a deal where musicians in Australia for Sergio’s festivals, who also regularly tour around the world, would come on to Adelaide and perform at St John’s. “From the get-go we based our thinking around the Italian ideal of communion,” Christopher says.
“A coming together of the community for the enjoyment of fine food, music and good company—in beautiful surroundings.” Maria and Frank Favaro, and Sergio and Stefano de Pieri hail from the same region in Italy, just outside Venice, and their Italian heritage continues through the Feast of Music. The Feast of Music has run every year since 2011, and indications are that this year’s table hosts and their guests will enthusiastically return in 2016 when the event is again scheduled for early February. The 2015 St John’s Feast of Music featured: • Seraphim Trio • Anna Goldsworthy piano • Beethoven’s Piano Trio in G Major Op. 1 No. 2 & Piano Trio in B flat major Op. 97 ‘Archduke’ • Bowerbird Ensemble • Brendan O’Donnell recorder, Simone Slattery violin and Glenys March harpsichord • Graupner’s Trio Sonata in B, Telemann Sonatina 11 in C minor, Couperin’s Les Langeurs-Tendres, Lully’s Trios pour le coucher du Roy, Veracini’s Sonata X11, Vivaldi’s Trio Sonata in D major • Joe Chindamo piano and Zoe Black violin • Chindamo, and a new ‘jazz’ take on Puccini, Chopin, Handel, Bach, and Gershwin
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CALL ON THE QUIRE By Katharine England What do you do if you’re a small congregation without a choir, but you want to make a particularly joyful noise before the Lord in honour of an anniversary or a patronal festival? For the past 50 years the Quire St Nicolas has been the answer. Parishes in the province of South Australia – and even some churches further afield – have been able to call upon the Quire to sing a festival mass or special evensong. Members drive out from Adelaide, often on a Friday night after work, and bunker down in the shearers’ quarters of Bungaree and Belcunda, or the football club in Gladstone, ready to practice on Saturday afternoon and perform on Sunday morning.
S CHOOLS and Christ Church North Adelaide, and has now returned to St John’s.
frequently been to country parishes in the dioceses of Willochra and the Murray.
Cliff intended 24 choristers to make up the group, six to a part, although the numbers have fluctuated over the years – it’s interesting to note that a quire of paper is 24 sheets!
Since 1965, whether it is a confirmation at Burra, a workshop and evensong at Kapunda, the laying of the 50th anniversary foundation stone at St Nicholas’, Beachport, St Silas’ Day at Crystal Brook, Trinity Sunday at Holy Trinity, Lyndoch, or the dedication of a new pipe organ at St Hugh’s, Angaston the Quire has gone where it’s needed.
After Cliff retired in 1989, Stewart Perkins ably conducted the Quire until 2004 when the baton was taken over by Lesley Lewis. Although the Quire puts on an annual Christmas festival of lessons and carols, hosts the occasional Pleasant Sunday Afternoon and has enhanced hundreds of weddings, it’s above all a liturgical group. The mission of Quire St Nicolas has always been to take music – particularly the distinctive and beautiful choral music of the Anglican tradition – to churches that don’t have a choir of their own. The Quire has sung at a great number of suburban parishes, competently replaced the Cathedral choir every January from 1967 to 2006, and its ministry has
The members are volunteers and cover their own travel expenses for each trip and in March this year the group will sing at Maitland on Yorke Peninsular. They all feel their efforts that are well repaid by warm, country hospitality and a lavish feast after the festival service. Quire St Nicolas will be celebrating its 50th anniversary on 24 May at 4.00pm at St John’s, Halifax Street. Bishop Garry Weatherill will perform the service, followed by a shared tea in the hall. Everyone is invited, particularly one-time members of the Quire.
Founded in 1965 by Clifford Boyd, then organist at St Cuthbert’s, Prospect, the group was named for Nicolas, patron saint of choirboys, using the old spelling - quire (“In quires and places where they sing …” 1662 prayerbook).
“Pilgrimage of Trust” VISITS ST COLUMBA COLLEGE On Friday 13 February, St Columba College had the privilege of hosting three Brothers from the Taize community in France as part of their “Pilgrimage of Trust” in Australia and New Zealand. The Taize community, founded in 1940 by Brother Roger, is an ecumenical community of Brothers from different countries and Christian denominations who share monastic life. The community attracts people from all over the world who wish to take part in their unique style of worship, focussing on prayer, music, silence and bible study. Many people find this is a community where they can rediscover the presence of God in their lives and find inner peace.
It was conceived as a forum for eager choristers to tackle more challenging music than the repertoire of a parish choir.
In 2015, the community celebrates the movement’s 75th year, and it
Careful to avoid any suggestion of poaching parish singers during a time when most choirs were still singing evensong each Sunday, practice was held at 8.30 Sunday night after parish duties were finished.
is also 100 years since the birth of the founder, Brother Roger. The day at St Columba was organised by an ecumenical group, including people from Anglican, Catholic and Uniting Churches and invited Senior School students from across the state to attend and gain insight into the worship of Taize. Bishop Tim Harris, from the Anglican Church, and Dr Diedre Palmer, the Uniting Church Moderator for South Australia, also took part in the day and share in the liturgy and workshops led by the Brothers. The day began informally with get-toknow-you activities followed by a singing practice for music that was used in prayer that began and ended the day. A Bible Study session was led by Brother Matthew, which enabled students to work in groups to discuss passages for the bible and share their ideas and philosophies. It was wonderful to see so many young people debate some quite profound ideas and share their understanding of their faith with each other.
by JANE BAILEY
Three workshops enabled students to explore Christianity and their personal image of God – Brother Alois led a workshop on reconciliation, Brother Ghislain explored finding God in beauty, focussing on visual art and dance, and Brother Matthew led a workshop delving deeper into the concept of what God wants from us. Throughout the day students were able to talk to the brothers about their life at Taize and learn more about the call to monastic life and the distinctive ecumenical community. The Brothers enjoyed working with the students as part of their pilgrimage around the world, spreading the word of God and building solidarity between people. Brother Matthew wrote afterwards: “The gathering at St Columba was very beautiful. Many of the things that the students shared remain with us. It was important to be there.” It was a worthwhile event and one that will remain in the thoughts of St Columba students for a long time.
This tradition began at St Paul’s, Pulteney Street, then at St John’s, Halifax Street St Nicolas Quire ready to sing wherever they are needed
PROSPECT CITIZEN OF THE YEAR Treasured St Cuthbert’s parishioner, Audrey Hale, was recently awarded 2015 Prospect Citizen of the Year. Audrey’s association with St Cuthbert’s spans 74 years and she is currently on the parish council, does the reading roster and is a part of the pastoral team. For the past 15 years she has assisted in providing services for residents at Kiandra and formerly at the Lima Nursing Home that was on Le Hunt Ave. Her service also extends into the wider community where she has been an active member for the past 13 years at “Cosy Club” Uniting Care Communities, knitting and distributing garments for the needy in the community. She also volunteered for 28 years at Calvary Hospital. Well done Audrey!
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Audrey Hale is a cherished member of the Prospect community
St Columba students share ideas with Brother Matthew
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C OMMU NIT Y
GOD WOR DS
GOD …AMEN
In the name of
creating, redeeming, sanctifying
by THE REV’D CANON JENNY WILSON
Only a little over a week before Christmas last year, a number of people found themselves held captive in a siege in a coffee shop in the central business district of Sydney. Less than 24 hours later, two of those people were dead, together with the gunman who held them captive. It is not often that I quote politicians. But the following words, spoken by Malcolm Turnbull after he attended a memorial service for the victims of the Sydney siege, seemed to capture something that we might want to ponder. With his voice breaking, Malcolm Turnbull said this: “I was on a train this morning, and you could feel the numbness in the carriage. “Everyone was thinking the same thoughts: shock, horror, imagining how those people suffered during that terrible night. “Thinking about the courage of the two young people that were killed. “And yet I feel that everyone was also filled with love. There was something of determination on that train; a determined love; a recognition that it’s love for each other, it’s love for our country which binds us together and makes us the most successful, harmonious society in the world.
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“I felt that there was, as the train rattled across the Harbour Bridge, I felt that there was a quiet determination that we weren’t going to be intimidated by such hatred. “I thought today’s service was so beautiful. Because it was all about love. It was about that love, that love of God ... the loving example of Jesus that should inspire us all not to be corrupted by hatred and violence, and to remain united as Australians, now and forever.” These words were spoken on the day after we witnessed such terrible events in Sydney. These words were also spoken on the very day that a brutal attack on a school in Pakistan killed 148 people, most of them children. These events are not about, or of, politics – those who work in and think about the world through political eyes were united in shock and horror at this. These events are not about religion – people of faith – and differing faiths – were united on their knees in prayer at this. These events are about the worst that human beings can do, and be, and about the best that human beings can do, and be. These events reveal the darkest places of the human heart and they bring to light the love, grace and the courage that may be found in the human heart. They bring to light the human capacity for “determined love”. On the day of the Sydney siege, we saw the attempt to exploit social media for evil and we saw social media empowered for good. We saw a hashtag that said “I’ll
Canon Jenny Wilson outside St Peter’s Cathedral
ride with you” - a message to those in the Muslim community who might feel anxious about going about their daily tasks in public after the violent events in Sydney. A message to any one of us who have felt that same anxiety, anyone who has felt threatened by virtue of their race or religion or gender, the message “You are not alone. Someone will ride with you.” The message of determined love. It seemed utterly fitting that in our churches the following Sunday morning, the Sunday before Christmas, we found ourselves reflecting on the story of the Annunciation. This story tells of a young girl, Mary, who finds herself encountering an angel, Gabriel. Mary is often portrayed as a gentle person, but I do not think this is so. What God asked of her was dangerous. God asks of Mary a profound question. “Will you bear my love to the world?”
A love that we believe will redeem the world. Like Mary, we might wonder how this can be, especially in the light of recent events in our own country and across our world. Like Mary, we may well be almost too afraid to allow the possibility. But she does allow it. And so Jesus was born. This Jesus was truly his mother’s son. We see this in the way Jesus lived his life, in his teaching and healing, in his welcome of those whom society shunned, and most profoundly in the way in which he faced his passion and death. After the time of ministry which Jesus clearly saw as heralding the Kingdom of God, Jesus turned to face Jerusalem. He embraced the truth of every aspect of what lay on that journey – the fear that engulfed him in the Garden of Gethsemane, the shame and lies of his trial, the betrayal by, and denial of, those who promised faithfulness to him and finally
his death, a death in which he sensed his God and Father as absent. Jesus wrestled with the darkest places of the human heart and in those places he brought to light the love, grace and the courage that may be found in the human heart. Jesus’ life was, above all, one of determined love. A friend of mine told me that the day after the siege in Sydney, she went into a cafe on her way to work to buy a cup of coffee. She went into that cafe as she did every day of her working week. The cafe owner looked at my friend as he handed her a cup of coffee and said, “Thank you.” My friend said she looked a little puzzled at this. The cafe owner continued, “Thank you for buying a cup of coffee”. How do we live in a world where ordinary life can, without warning, be so invaded by terror and threat? How can we live in a world where innocent children are
killed as they go about their business at school? How do we live in a world, this world, where human hearts are capable of such evil and yet such good? Scripture gives us stories to place alongside impossible questions. The story of the annunciation, the stories of Jesus’ ministry and, most significantly, the story of Jesus’ passion and death are no exception. God sent his Son Jesus to us to bid us not to be afraid - not to be afraid as God asks us to bear God’s love to the world. God’s very being is about bearing love, but God cannot do this alone. There’s one thing we need to remember, though. God promises us one most profound thing. This promise is found in the word Emmanuel which means “God with us”. God says, “You won’t do this alone, you know, this bearing of my love. I don’t ask you to do this alone. I’ll ride with you.”
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C OMMU NIT Y
LOC A L , NAT IONA L & I N T E R NAT IONA L N E WS
DIVESTING IN OUR FUTURE by Katrina McLachlan
As people around the world prepared to host hundreds of rallies for the first ever Global Divestment Day on 14 February, the General Synod Public Affairs Commission released a short paper to assist Dioceses in considering the matter of divestment from fossil fuels and responding to climate change. This paper was foreshadowed in Dr Beth Heyde’s speech in July last year when moving a motion at General Synod that was passed without dissent on responding to climate change. Dr Heyde’s speech and the recently released paper consider some of the key findings of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which outlined compelling reasons for urgent action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming and climate change. The global climate movement continues to demand what scientists say is necessary that 80 per cent of the fossil fuel industry’s current reserves cannot be burnt if the world is to avoid more than two degrees warming and consequent dangerous climate change.
The follow statement appears in the General Synod Public Affairs Commission paper: “For us as Christians there is a theological and moral imperative to act, reaffirming the call of the Lambeth Conference 1998 for us to recognize the rights of future generations and our responsibility to make personal and corporate sacrifices for the common good of all Creation. “The Resolution of the General Synod has a section requesting each Diocese to review the criteria for its investments and explore removal of fossil fuel industries from Diocesan investment portfolios. “This is a moral and theological issue for the Anglican Church in Australia; action is needed to underpin expressions of concern about climate change. “Through moving investments away from companies that are substantially involved in fossil fuels, the Church can more effectively send a message to the wider community about the dangers to humanity, and other forms of life, of continuing heavy dependence on fossil fuels.” The paper expresses the importance of creating a tipping point for largescale action on climate issues. “A widespread, firm expression of resolve is required. Divestment and reinvestment
“Over the past century various religious groups have divested from industries including tobacco, alcohol, weapons manufacturing, gambling etc. One of the most quoted successes was divestment from companies operating in countries whose governments systematically abuse human rights – notably apartheid South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is one of those now calling for divestment from fossil fuels. “Reasons why religious groups have divested have consistently been to respond to intentional, grave, large-scale harm to respond to intractable resistance and to redefine society’s moral code. “The urgently needed rapid shift away from a carbon-intensive future will not occur without intense, sustained public pressure. An important aspect of caring for both people and planet is to ensure that our investments are consistent with that responsibility,” Dr Heyde says. The paper is available on the General Synod website: http://www.anglican. org.au/governance/commissions/ Pages/public_affairs.aspx
GILL HICKS TO ABSEIL FOR ANGLICARE SA On Friday 10 April, Gill Hicks will boldly step off the top of Adelaide’s tallest building and abseil 34 storeys below to raise funds for Anglicare SA’s autism specific early learning childcare centre. Ms Hicks is known as a survivor of the 2005 London terrorist bombings— when she lost both her legs from below the knee and suffered severe and permanent injuries. Showing great strength to survive and fight for her life, Ms Hicks defied the odds and learnt to walk again using prosthetic legs.
It provides valuable, high-quality early education for up to 50 children each day, while supporting their parents and carers through therapy, assistance and education. Each child has a unique learning plan that caters to their individual developmental needs, which has been prepared by specialist educators and Allied Health practitioners. Featuring goals developed by specialist case managers in consultation with parents, the plans are used to measure the child’s progress as they develop their motor, communication and social skills.
Now an internationally successful motivator and inspirational advocate for peace, Ms Hicks will boldly abseil 132 metres to mark 10 years since the London bombings and 10 years of gaining in strength and confidence, while raising funds for children living with autism. “This year, 2015 is special so what better way to commemorate than facing fear, finding confidence and being strong,” Ms Hicks says. “I could never have imagined losing both legs, to never feel the ground beneath my feet or to walk without a single laboured thought. I could never have imagined my reality, my ‘new’ normal and my life now.” The event, Abseil for Anglicare SA is the first of its kind in South Australia and will coincide with International Autism month. All funds raised will go towards Anglicare SA’s Autism Specific Early Learning Childcare Centre and help children with autism and their families live life to the full. Anglicare SA’s Daphne Street Early Learning and Child Care Centre was the first in Australia to offer specialised education and care for children aged two to six who have been diagnosed with autism.
WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: “RIGHT TO HOPE” DESPITE CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES
WORKING TOGETHER TO BUILD RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS
FROM ACNS
By Katrina McLachlan
In a high level panel on Climate Change and Human Rights held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev’d Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that despite all negative conditions “we have the right to hope” – not as a matter of passive waiting but as an active process towards justice and peace, in which human rights should play a key role. The panel held on 6 March was part of a one-day discussion on climate change at the 28th session of the Human Rights Council. “The climate change data enable us to know as fact what we already believed in our different religions looking at the world as ‘creation’ – making us accountable for how we steward it,” Tveit said. “We are together in this blue planet as one humanity. Our actions have a positive or negative impact on the basic
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are uniquely effective to signal such resolve. Religious communities have a long history in divestment and many are now addressing fossil fuels,” Dr Heyde says.
conditions for the life of others – of all. Therefore, we need to see this in the perspective of universal human rights. “I have realized that for many communities climate change is a terrible threat. They are suffering some of its consequences: the rise of sea level and salinization of fresh water, the increase in frequency and intensity of tropical storms, the change in rainfall patterns, droughts and floods, and changing temperatures which have direct impact on their food security and sovereignty.” While the WCC general secretary focused on the “right to hope”, he also reaffirmed the call to establish a Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights. He stated that Human Rights Council resolutions have highlighted effects of climate change on human rights, and Special Mandate holders have reported on climate change in relationship to the right to food, right to water and sanitation, the rights of indigenous peoples and migration.
The Diocese of Adelaide’s Mother’s Union Lady Day will be celebrated on Wednesday 25 March in St Peter’s Cathedral. Archbishop Jeffrey Driver will be attending the service and commissioning Mrs Marion McCall as South Australian State President. And following the service MU Australia President The Rev’d Libbie Crossman will speak. Mother’s Unions around the country work together to support people in their marriage and family lives, especially through times of adversity.
Mother Union members are not all mothers, nor are they all women. Single people, married people, parents, grandparents, and young adults provide a network of socially conscious people serving Christ in the community. “Our vision is of a world where God’s love is shown through loving, respectful, and flourishing relationships,” Mrs Marion McCall says. “I have been an active member for many years and can sum up my experience with the three L’s, loyalty, love and laughter!
“Our members simply try to live out the vision of MU. They are loyal, attending meetings, diocesan functions, quiet days and generally “pulling their weight” in the parishes. “That is most evident in their care for each other and in the way they “reach out” and are always looking for new projects to give and care for people.” All are welcome to be part of the service and the Mother’s Union and more information can be sourced at http://www.muaustralia.org.au
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CHRIST AND THE CHOCOLATERIE By Jenny Wilson On Ash Wednesday we wear the sign
of the cross made from ash on our foreheads and say, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. Lent encourages us to pause and reflect on being made from the earth and returning to the earth – to reflect on being finite. We are also encouraged to remember that we are prone to temptation and, at times, we give into temptation and we do sin. The temptations that Jesus experienced, after his baptism during his time in the wilderness, were temptations to betray his identity as beloved Son of God. It is that same temptation that haunts us – to be less than the beloved child God calls us to be.
There is another truth that we might spend time with during Lent. There is a deeper truth that of creation – being made from and returning to dust. And that is that we are made in, and will return to, God who is love: Remember you are made in love and for love - and to love you shall return. We pause to reflect in many different ways – some of us spend time alone, some of us gather in groups to engage in Lenten studies. A very different Lent Study took place at St Peter’s Cathedral this year. Two groups studied Hilary Brand’s Christ and the Chocolaterie, based on the film Chocolat. Set in a French village, the film takes place during Lent and ends at
Easter. A visitor, Vianne, arrives in the village and sets up a chocolate shop. The film explores different responses to the new resident, from those, like the Mayor Comte de Reynaud, who disapprove of her, to the many villagers whose lives she sets free. Members of the Cathedral Lent groups studied excerpts from the film alongside passages from scripture. They discovered that the things that bring us to life are often found in the most unlikely places. And everyone even enjoyed indulging in a strawberry dipped in chocolate, or two!
GIVING THANKS FOR THE WORK OF ABM By Bishop David McCall Sunday 15 February was designated as ABM Sunday in the Dioceses of Adelaide, Willochra and The Murray. On this day clergy were invited to have a special focus on the work of ABM. ABM is a Board of the General Synod of our Church and was established by our Bishops in 1850. Since that time it has had the responsibility of spreading the Gospel of Jesus both within and beyond Australia. The Board has been faithful to its charter for over 163 years and continues to support the work of the Church amongst the Indigenous people of our land and in the Churches of Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Jerusalem, Egypt and a number of dioceses in Africa.
As followers of our Lord Jesus we all have a responsibility to make known the good news far and wide, both within our own communities and in other lands. ABM is committed to this task and invites us to share in this work. We have a number of speakers who are available to visit the parishes on Sundays during the year and we invite you to contact Bishop David McCall to arrange a speaker. For ABM Sunday, eight different speakers visited parishes with information about ABM’s work. Each time a speaker visits a parish an ABM project book is made available so that Parish Councils can consider if they wish to support an ABM project. There is a strong tradition that, during Lent, individual parishioners give the money they
have saved through their Lenten self-denial for the missionary work of the Church. ABM guarantees that only 10 per cent of the money given for particular projects is for administrative purposes. This means 90 per cent of money given to projects directly supports those projects. If money is given to the general funds then that money is used to ‘top up’ any shortfall for the projects and to meet some of the remaining administrative expenses. During the past 15 years ABM has had a policy of placing bequest money into an endowment fund to cover the costs of administration. We invite you to remember ABM in your will. Your bequest will ensure that the Board can maintain the present very low charge for administration.
GENERAL SYNOD DOCTRINE COMMISSION MEET IN ADELAIDE
Pauline Brooks OAM, Canon Jenny Wilson and Rosie Hamilton
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The General Synod Doctrine Commission was held at Bishop’s Court 12-13 February. Pictured (L-R): Rev’d Canon Dr Mark Thompson, Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, Dr Claire Smith, Rev’d Canon Dr Matthew Anstey, Rev’d Canon Dr Dorothy Lee, Rev’d Dr Michael Stead, Rev’d Dr Gregory Seach
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100TH ANNIVERSARY In April 1915 a procession moved slowly along Prospect Road. It was less than a year since the beginning of the war that would change the world forever. It was barely two weeks before the Gallipoli landing which would become so much a part of Australian self-definition. The procession of clergy, including our Bishop Arthur Nutter Thomas, and people of standing in the local community, including the Mayor of Adelaide, gathered and walked together. This was not a funeral procession. There would be far too many of those as the war progressed. Instead the gathered crowds were midwives witnessing and sharing new birth. From at least 1879 members of the Church of England had gathered for worship in the area of Prospect. In 1883 they moved
from a local school to their first church building, a solid structure still standing in Clifton Street and now a family home. The procession on 10 April 1915 began at this church building, then barely 30 years old, and ended on Prospect Road where the foundation stone was laid for a new large building designed to be a statement and an open invitation to the local community. Nearly 800 people gathered to share the event followed by afternoon tea in the front yard of the Rectory next door. Before the year was over the building had been completed, services had begun and the new St Cuthbert’s, Prospect had begun to grow. In the 1950s the church building was filled to capacity, more than 450 people, three times each Sunday, making this among the largest parishes in the Diocese at that time. On Sunday 19 April a procession will again make its way from the old Clifton
MAKING TIME FOR CURSILLO Street Church to the ‘new’ St Cuthbert’s. The procession will begin at 9.30am and the service of celebration and thanksgiving, led by our Archbishop Jeffrey Driver will begin at 10am. Looking back, yet also looking forward, this will be an opportunity to share again in the joy of new birth. The service of celebration will include confirmation and welcoming of new members into the Anglican Communion and shared reaffirmation of our faith and trust in God who accompanies us still on the continuing journey. All are welcome to share in the celebration. Throughout the year other events will be held, including display of photographs and other memorabilia depicting the life of church and community through this past century. Anyone with photographs or memorabilia to share in invited to contact the Parish Office on 8342 3108 or the Parish Priest Archdeacon Paul Mitchell on 0400 411 055.
by KATRINA McLACHLAN The Rev’d Sonya Paterson has recently become one of two Adelaide Diocese Cursillo representatives. For those who are not familiar with Cursillo it is a worldwide movement of the Christian Church which seeks to make it possible to live out what is fundamental to being a Christian. Cursillo is a Spanish word meaning short course. In this case it is a short course in Christian living. As a movement, it had its origin on the island of Majorca, Spain, in the late 1940’s as a means for reviving commitment in the Roman Catholic Church. Its method has been adapted by a number of denominations throughout the world. The Anglican Cursillo Three Days is open to all practising Anglicans through a sponsorship program. Separate weekends are held for men and women as it has been found that people are less inhibited in same-gender groups. There are two sessions scheduled for the coming year – May for men and October for women. Sonya Paterson provided the following comments about her commitment to Cursillo: I made my Cursillo on the Anzac Day weekend last year. I went to check it out and see whether it was something worth encouraging my parishioners to engage with.
NEW MUSICAL DIRECTOR FOR QUIRE ST NICOLAS Quire St Nicolas, which was established in 1965 to perform music traditional to the Anglican liturgy, is seeking a new Music Director. The Quire has a broad repertoire of ancient and modern sacred works, and a busy schedule of engagements at various churches in metropolitan and country South Australia.
who founded the Quire in 1965, followed by Stewart Perkins, and more recently Lesley Lewis, who is well known for her work with Adelaide Baroque. It is envisaged that the new Music Director will have some understanding of the Anglican liturgy, and will be able to work with parish representatives to meet their choral requirements.”
The Quire specializes in unaccompanied singing, and styles itself with a well-blended sound characteristic of a fine Cathedral choir, assisting congregations in their worship by singing to the glory of God. It is available for services in churches of all denominations, as well as weddings, funerals and other festive and musical occasions.
Weekly rehearsals are held at St John’s Church Hall, Halifax Street, Adelaide, on Sundays from 7.00 to 8.30pm, and choral workshops are usually held in the latter part of each year to prepare for the Quire’s annual ChristmasService of Lessons and Carols.
The Secretary, Susanna Bragg, says “We are seeking a new Music Director to follow on the fine work of previous directors Cliff Boyd,
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Remuneration will be by negotiation with the Quire committee and any person with an interest in this position should contact Susanna on 8391 5291, 0402 647 023 or email susanna.bragg@gmail.com.
They say everybody’s experience of Cursillo is different. Although I didn’t know what to expect from the weekend, I still came away surprised and delighted. It was led by lay people with all sorts of different kinds of experience and levels of education, who shared their own experience and understanding of our relationship with God in ways that were genuine, supportive and encouraging of our faith. Two ordained spiritual advisers were also there to provide further support as needed, and to lead some of the worship activities. It was a pretty intensive residential weekend, with regular worship, a number of talks about different aspects of our faith journey, with small group activities following up on those talks, as well as sharing good meals and having some quiet time. One of the things that I found particularly refreshing was that this was not a slick,
professionally-presented, academicallyoriented program, but a heartfelt gift of love from a committed and pretty broad team of people with a very diverse range of skills, abilities and experience. Some of the most powerful talks were given by people who clearly found public speaking difficult, and the courage with which they shared from the heart was both moving and inspirational. We sang, we prayed, we listened, we learned, we laughed, we cried, we shared both joy and pain as we faced our issues in a supportive environment. We ate, we drank, we sang and laughed some more. We were lovingly nurtured and supported, and we also cared for one another. We also enjoyed some very special surprises along the way. I went into that weekend with a bit of a cold, exhausted, anxious and performance orientated. I came out with no voice, a revived and energised spirit, a whole new network of friends, a very special relationship with two new sisters, a heart bursting with joy and love, and a sense that this was a movement that could contribute significantly to people’s spiritual growth, a movement that I was being called to take an active part in. Three things I love about this movement are that it is led by lay people, that it is open to and relies on the Holy Spirit, and that it empowers people to move beyond a privatised relationship with God and become more active in their own parishes, building up fellow Christians and reaching out to others in love. Since that weekend I’ve attended most of the monthly Ultreya gatherings, which provide ongoing support for cursillistas through shared worship and fellowship, as well as getting together from time to time in small groups with some of my companions from the Women’s 25th Cursillo. When Peter Miller told me he was retiring from his role as spiritual director and asked if I was interested in taking it up it seemed to me like a natural next step. All are welcome to take part in a Cursillo weekend and it is on my list of things to do this year. So watch out for my article about my experience in a coming edition of the Guardian. For further information contact the Lay Director for Cursillo in SA Ian Walsh ian.walsh54@gmail. com or the continuing Spiritual Director Gary Priest fathergary@bigpond.com.
A NEW HOME AWAY FROM HOME On Sunday 1 March the new St Mark’s College “East Wing” was opened. His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le AO, Governor of South Australia performed the official ceremony. The four-level building provides students with a state-of-the-art Academic Centre, accommodation to enhance College life for residents, an undercover car park and a fully equipped gymnasium. Designed to foster a positive academic and social experience for the university students who call St Mark’s home, the new building provides a well-balanced and stimulating experience. The Academic Centre is an open-plan hub and delivers immediate access to University resources while student rooms cleverly combine modern yet personalised facilities. St Mark’s College Master, Rose Alwyn, says the College has a diverse population, with students hailing from all over the country and overseas, and the new building will bring everyone together. “Students and staff learn from one another, through experiences of common life, through tutorials and through personal mentoring that has driven the construction of the East Wing,” she says. Special mention was made of benefactors, including Ian Wall OAM and Pamela Wall OAM, who enabled the plans to become a reality. The opening of the East Wing coincides with the College’s 90th Anniversary, and it is recognised as one of Australia’s leading university residential colleges.
Archbishop Jeffrey Driver with College Club Secretary, Heidi Hutchesson, and President, Nick Holloway
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~ MARTIN CAREW CHITTLEBOROUGH ~
~ GEOFF GORDON ~
4.8.1936 – 17.9.2014
9.6.1936 - 15.1.2015
(An extract from his obituary) Martin Carew Chittleborough was born to Rev’d Colin Chittleborough, then rector of St Jude’s, and Winifred. He also had two older sisters. Martin’s church life had a slow start when, as a child, he refused to go to Sunday School. Nevertheless he was confirmed just one day shy of the regulation minimum age of ten. He grew up in Brighton before his family moved to Port Adelaide, and it was here that his love of sailing and boats was born. He also had his first contact with refugees at the Pennington hostels. He completed secondary school at St Peter’s College and then went on to study at the University of Adelaide. In 1957, with St Barnabas’ Theological College closed, he went to St John’s Theological College at Morpeth, New South Wales and graduated with a Th.L. He was ordained deacon on 20 February 1960, St Matthias Day, and was sent to the parish of Mount Gambier. He was priested a year later and his first parish was in the Murraylands. On 15 January 1964 at The Church of the Epiphany, Crafers, Martin married Anne Bleby. Following in the footsteps of his father, Martin and Anne entered missionary service in the Diocese of Popondota in Papua New Guinea, where they remained for ten years. Their first posting was at Agenehambo, on the road from Kokoda. He helped
oversee 23 village parishes and their congregations, and the schools in the area. It was here that Martin and Anne’s two children spent their first years.
Geoff was born, and began his schooling, in London near Crystal Palace but was sent to Norfolk in 1944 to escape the bombing. Two months short of his 16th birthday in April 1952 he joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice technician. Three years later he was a fully qualified Junior Technician working on Canberra Bombers. A year later he was promoted to Corporal and was posted to Australia, where he met and married Joan.
On return from leave in 1969 Martin was asked by Bishop George Ambo, the first indigenous bishop in Papua New Guinea, to become Archdeacon of Northern Papua. The family returned to Australia in 1976 and in 1978 he was appointed as Director of World Christian Action within the World Council of Churches and, in this capacity, represented Australia at a UN conference. Passionate about social justice, in 1980 he was arrested and jailed with five other clergy and Aboriginal people in their support of a land rights dispute at Noonkanbah, Western Australia. In 1981 he was instrumental in the establishment of the Refugee Council of Australia and the Australian Disaster Response Organisation. In 1983 he accepted the parish of St Jude’s, Brighton where he had grown up, as well as continuing as Director of Austcare and Chair of the Refugee Council, and contributing to other refugee advocacy groups. With a team of like-minded people he established STTARS, the Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service. In 1990 he resigned from the parish of Brighton to become STTARS’ founding director until his retirement in 1998.
In 2007 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. But in 1969 he had been awarded an otohu, the traditional honour of the Orokaiva people in Oro Province in Papua New Guinea – one he regarded above all others. He is survived by his wife, Anne, son David and daughter Kirsty, six grand children and one great-grandchild.
His ordination as a priest took place in St Paul’s Anglican Pro-cathedral Hay NSW on the Feast of St Thomas, Apostlea and Martyr, Saturday 21 December 1964. Fr Bart O’Donovan was the celebrant of the Jubilee Mass and more than 30 people gathered with him and his wife Archdeacon Prue O’Donovan, daughter Estelle, son BJ and grandson Lachlan. Members from congregations Bart had previously served in the Adelaide Diocese were present along with
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HOLY WEEK AND EASTER AT SAINT CYPRIAN’S 68 Melbourne Street, NORTH ADELAIDE
retired Bishop of the neighbouring Diocese of Willochra, Bruce Rosier.
We invite you to join us as we walk with our Saviour from Palm Sunday to Easter Day.
During the sermon, Bart spoke of the journey from his deaconing in 1963 in the Church of St Alban the Martyr, Griffith NSW to his ordination as a priest one year later in and the first few days of his new ministry.
PALM SUNDAY
9.30am – Blessing of Palms and Sung Eucharist
HOLY THURSDAY
During the reflection time, Bart’s son, BJ played devotional music on the euphonium. He has just graduated with honours at the Elder Conservatorium. Lunch was served in the Hart Memorial Hall, speeches were given, and a celebration cake cut. A large wooden box, beautifully made by parishioner Bill Clarke, was presented to Bart.
Geoff remained at WRE for the next 27 years. In Gawler Geoff and family attended St George’s Anglican Church. He served on the Parish Council as a warden for many years, actively participating in all aspects of church life ranging from chief bell ringer to lay preacher, and synod delegate to working bee organiser. Geoff came to a significant understanding while at Gawler.
Martin Chittleborough finished his autobiography Chit Chat: Speaking for myself a few weeks before his death.
SACERDOTAL JUBILEE – Fr Bart O’Donovan A celebration of the Sacerdotal Jubilee of Father Bart O’Donovan was held in St Paul’s Anglican Church, Two Wells on Holy Family Sunday 28 December 2014.
They returned to England for 10 years where they raised Teresa, Helen and Jo-Anne. In 1964 Geoff went to work at Woomera, setting up long range tracking cameras. In 1972 the family settled in Gawler and Geoff began work at Weapons Research Establishment, now DSTO, working on supersonic wind tunnels. The family became six, with Alistair born in Woomera.
7.00pm – Eucharist of the Last Supper
GOOD FRIDAY
9.30am – Good Friday Liturgy
EASTER DAY
9.30am – Lighting of the Easter Candle and Sung Eucharist Bill Clarke and Fr Bart O’Donovan
“Although I had various spiritual gifts to use at different times, I did not really appreciate what Christ’s sacrifice really meant,” he said. “I came to understand what sacrificial love really was, and that through Christ’s sacrifice I was forgiven all my sins and was going to heaven.” Through Geoff’s involvement with the Parish of Gawler he was asked in 1983 to be on a committee to start a Christian school in Gawler. That led to a 30 year involvement in Trinity College, the first 10 years as its foundation Council Chair. The leadership of an evolving Anglican school presented Geoff with many challenges, all met head on with a style grounded deeply in Christian commitment to social justice, service and student welfare. During his time on College Council he was able to lend his experience to other schools as a member on the boards of St Columba College, Investigator College and Evanston Gardens Primary School. Geoff served on the Trinity College Council for 21 years, 1982-2005. He witnessed a school of 27 pupils in the Gawler Parish Hall develop into Trinity College with its Montessori Kindergarten, four R-10 schools, Senior School and Starplex
educating over 3,700 students. Geoff Gordon’s life truly was one of service to his community whether it was RAF, WRE, the Anglican Church or Trinity College. His attention to detail, positive attitude and humble leadership will be long remembered. A copy of the funeral service organised by Geoff himself with photographs at various stages of Geoff’s life can be found at www.gawler.nowandthen.net.au
PALM SUNDAY TO EASTER DAY SERVICES PALM SUNDAY 29 MARCH 8.00am Holy Communion BCP 10.15am – Procession to Cathedral (starts at water feature in Pennington Gardens) 10.30am – Choral Eucharist Dramatic reading of the Passion according to St Mark 6.00pm – Choral Evensong Preacher: The Very Revd Frank Nelson MONDAY 7.30am – Eucharist 6.30pm – Eucharist TUESDAY 7.30am – Eucharist 11.30am – Chrism Eucharist 6.30pm – Eucharist
WEDNESDAY 7.30am – Eucharist 10.00am – Holy Communion 6.30pm – Tenebrae – Service of Shadows, Certaine Notes Choir MAUNDY THURSDAY 2 APRIL 7.30am – Eucharist 6.30pm – Footwashing, Eucharist and Stripping of Altars Cathedral Choir GOOD FRIDAY 3 APRIL 10.00am – Good Friday Liturgy Preacher: The Very Revd Frank Nelson St Peter’s Cathedral Choir 3.00pm – Miserere – An hour at the Cross, St Peter’s Cathedral Choirs
HOLY SATURDAY No services EASTER DAY 5 APRIL 6.00am – Easter Vigil Preacher: The Very Revd Frank Nelson 8.00am – Holy Communion Preacher: The Very Revd Frank Nelson 10.00am – Choral Eucharist Preacher: The Most Revd Dr Jeffrey Driver 6.00pm – Choral Evensong Preacher: The Revd Jenny Wilson
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