Guardian Easter 2014

EASTER 2014

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE

Grace Church on a

roll!

INSIDE: Where has the tree of crucifixion gone from Easter?

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THE ANGLICAN GUARDIAN Published by the Diocese of Adelaide

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LOOKING BACK

CROWN OF THORNS

David Thornton-Wakeford Out from the white bricks

of the church Looking back, Looking back, at the junction of orange clay and do you see some daft moments you can’t change a thing and a‘the neglected garden when you must have totally benefit border of hindsight’ lost the plot and had a is poor consolation for its spines brain freeze? yourstrike mistakes. into the blue afternoon Looking back, Looking back: EUPHORBIA SPENDEN and where do you wish you’d had the insight what’sthe theleaves point?fall away insignificant to know you were barking All you’ll really get at best

By Jeff Guess up the wrong tree is a sore neck or at worst but showy bracts without a prayer? a pillar of salt. of small red flowers are Looking back, like an irritation of blood spots were you too impatient to see the big picture; on an altogether driven to distraction with almost perfect fleeting fancies? autumn afternoon.

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contents

4 4.

FA ITH Where has the tree of crucifixion gone from Easter?

6. No going back I saw the movie “Long Walk to Freedom”, telling the story of Nelson Mandela’s journey and struggle from being a young black activist lawyer, to a political prisoner, then the president of his nation.

The movie makes the point well that the freedom Mandela sought was not just freedom from the confines of Robben Island, or even from the political bondages of the apartheid regime, but a freedom from the need for revenge and hate.

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

INVESTIGATOR COLLEGE 2 Glendale Grove, Goolwa.

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Archbishop Jeffrey Driver

There is a quote attributed to Mandela, as he walked free after those years of cruel imprisonment:

Ann Nadge is The Guardian’s poetry poetry editor. Submissions of 20 lines orlines less are welcome.

Ann Nadge is The Guardian’s editor. Submissions of 20 or less are welcome.

Send toSend the general editorialeditorial email address. to the general email address.

The joy of learning

A LONG WALK TO THE CROSS OF FREEDOM

Miroslav Volf talks about the danger of memory.1 He makes the point that while remembering is essential to protecting us from the repetition of past atrocities, that same remembering can justify us in committing present violence: “so easily does the protective shield of memory morph into the sword of violence”.

In the Good Friday story of Jesus Christ there is an end to this violent remembering.

On that day, after his friends had forsaken him, after they had they stripped him of his dignity, after the trial when everything was done according to the Law, after the soldiers spat on him and whipped him, they dragged him up a hill, nailed him to wood and left him to die slowly.

And as he hung there he cried out with the economy of words that goes with dying:

Father, forgive them.

Aggression was met with forgiveness, the cycle of retribution was broken. Violence was borne without revenge. Suffering was absorbed in vulnerability and self-giving.

Savagery was turned into sacrifice and the wheels within wheels of human vengeance came to a grinding halt, the eternal cycle of retribution was derailed, and the counting of grief and forgiveness.

With that cry, that prayer, the cherished remembering of violence is spent; our unnamed hatred, our human aggression, the grief begetting of grief is taken up into the offering of the Son of God.

8.

By the Grace of God

9.

Celebrating 60 years

10. Faith in the public square

12 MISSION 12. A St Elizabeth welcome 13. Anglicans helping to fund health equipment in Jerusalem 14. Ties that bind our South Sudanese family members 16. Exciting times for St Barnabas’ Theological College 17 An unlikely student

As Hans Kung put it:2

Love of enemies instead of their destruction, unconditional forgiveness instead of retaliation; Readiness to suffer instead of using force; Blessing for peace-makers instead of hymns of hate and revenge.

Here it is, on the Cross of Jesus.

+Jeffrey

Volf, M., The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2006.

2 Kung, H, On being a Christian, Collins, Glasgow, 1978.

1

On the cover: Sophia Bleby, Leng Hao and Hannah Bleby. Image by Brenton Edwards.

18 FOCUS 18. Liturgy and God’s grandeur 19. Nurturing essential partnerships 20. Feeding the historical soul

21 SCHOOL 21. Gospel in play dough

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F AITH

Where HAS THE

tree of crucifixion gone from

EASTER? Joan Riley considers the tree of crucifixion as a symbol of hope at Easter.

When I was a child Easter was about a long weekend filled with chocolate eggs and fluffy rabbits.

It began on the Thursday when school finished early and Dad had loaded up the boot of the four cylinder Chrysler Galant with esky and bags and fold–up barbecue.

He was already exhausted from working the early shift with overtime on the bread line at Tip Top, getting all those packets of hot cross buns and loaves of highly processed white bread devoid of fibre and nutrients out to shops and homes. It was a miracle we survived the four or five hour drives into the early night to reach our destination when he could barely stay awake. So much for the billboard campaigns that line the highways today, ‘rest every two hours,’ with an image of a tired man with matchsticks holding open his red rimmed, bloodshot eyes.

The long weekend away was always fun, but it was so removed from Easter. It really was just about chocolate and recreation. I began eating my stash of chocolate eggs on Thursday night, never imagining for once that this was the night Jesus instituted

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the last supper and gave the command to do this in remembrance of him. Or that this was the night he was handed over to punishment and death. I did know in vague terms what happened at Easter. There was a crucifix in our house, which I didn’t like looking at because Jesus had blood dripping down his side and he was wearing something that looked like a nappy. Dad used to be very solemn on Good Friday and only started drinking later in the afternoon.

He used to say we had eggs because it meant new life. It was all very distant to me. Dad had taken me to church as a very young child, he as a Roman Catholic of Irish descent from the east end of London, with Catholic education literally whipped into him. He didn’t want it to be that way for his children however. Isn’t it amazing how many people turn away from church when they’ve had a harsh experience?

So church going ended early in my childhood, Dad thinking he’d given me at least the basics. I left church with a faith partly formed through sketchy ideas of what Christianity was about, images of baroque Catholic statuary from the little church of St Thomas More in Elizabeth North, hard wooden kneelers on the backs of tightly crowded pews, the backs

of people’s heads, and putting 2 cent coins in the collection bowls. And I ate chocolate eggs all Easter weekend.

God however is the author of irony and deep humour, and three decades later I was ordained a priest in a church which whilst different, was hauntingly familiar.

No longer were the pews tightly packed with families. No longer did troops of children run wildly around together after services.

No longer did cars have to queue to get out of the carpark. And with the memory of chocolate Easter eggs and long weekend holidays as a reminder of my departure, and the departure of so many from the ranks of churches, God charged me to bridge the ever widening gulf between what happens in church and what happens out of church. I had eaten the eggs before Sunday, feasted on crème filled chocolate and hot cross buns in the preceding weeks. I had experienced Easter long weekend holidays without church. I knew what it was about.

The Easter bunny and the crucifix, the gulf between church and the world.

Easter now is very different. I am immersed in the liturgical remembrance of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, and with it comes a deep spiritual connection with Jesus, a longing for the presence of God, a desire to pray, to engage with the Bible, to feel close to the divine.

When I first became reacquainted with church after decades of absence I thought people needed to come into the church to experience God. After all, that was where I felt God’s call most clearly, so why wouldn’t others? But the people didn’t come. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in God, they just didn’t find God in the church. My initial enthusiastic invitations received either blank looks or wise, knowing excuses not to come. Perplexed, it made me look at the church a little more closely, to the point that some years later to my shame I would sometimes even cringe when new people came into the church because I knew they would not stay.

I live in Burnside. Recently an unusually intense windstorm wreaked havoc, knocking out most of the power grid of the eastern suburbs and felling great trees in parks, gardens and along roadsides. Burnside was a mess. The aftermath of fallen trees, uprooted like they were just weeds, made me think

that something very precious had been wrenched away from sight and presence.

Trees evoke all sorts of feelings in people. They are ancient, magisterial.

They watch over the world, passive sentinels of time and change.

Trees are also used by people for many things. They were once used as stakes where people were hung to die. Crucifixion was a barbaric and cruel punishment, an act of imperial power over the powerless that was surely an offence to God, even as God chose it as the instrument of death that revealed salvation to the world.

And so the tree of crucifixion became the symbol of hope for the followers of Jesus long after the ugly form of execution ceased and the blood and gore stained trees on the hill of Golgotha were taken down. The message of Easter is bound up in trees.

The fallen trees in the wake of the windstorm reminded me that for the world outside of the church, the tree of crucifixion no longer represented the hope of Easter.

How do we talk about resurrection to the

world without crucifixion? Good Friday is hard, but we have to get there before the sun can shine on the third day.

Now I look outside of the church to see the signs of God in the world. I look for the means to translate the message of Easter into the space where the tree of crucifixion once stood. God has called me into a type of faith expression that is liturgical, deeply sacramental, beautiful. It is a tradition that sometimes struggles to speak clearly in the world. But God has called me nonetheless into my beautiful tradition, and not to sit easily with its beauty and integrity, but to wrestle with its inhibitions and limitations, draw it into the world, replant the tree.

Yes, church goes in cycles, but that cannot be an excuse to lie back and sink.

The sacramental church must meet the exhausting blur of life where there is no church, where fluffy rabbits and chocolate eggs dominate the place of the tree of crucifixion and the vision of resurrection.

Recently when I was clearing out my parents’ house I found the crucifix that used to hang in my childhood home. I look at it differently now than then, give thanks that Dad took me to church for that short time, opening the door. And the call goes on.

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F AITH

NO

GOING BACK

by TIM HARRIS

As we consider the declining attendances that characterise most mainstream churches in western societies, and reflect on the golden eras when churches and Sunday Schools were full, we find ourselves asking (metaphorically): will the tide come back in? Will there be a sea-change that sees good numbers of people seeking out churches?

When I was preparing for ministry over thirty years ago, a book was just released by Anglican Bishop Bruce Wilson, provocatively titled Can God Survive in Australia? There have been many such books published since then on the significant decline in mainstream churches over the past half century.

The short answer is yes, indeed – God will not only survive in Australia, but flourish; yet there can be no assurances that all churches will survive into a new era of life and ministry.

The world around us is constantly changing, not just through changes in fashion and technological innovation, but far more profoundly in that the Church is no longer in a privileged position in society. We are well and truly in a post-Christian part of the world, and we cannot expect the wider community to beat a path to our doors.

We need to be much better at going out of those church doors to engage with people where they actually are—and not just to grab their attention with a view to encouraging them to come back to join us. Church can take root in any community and culture, and may adopt very different forms and patterns to what we have been familiar with ourselves.

Dual approaches Church planting and fresh expressions of church are not the same. Both approaches are valid and potentially effective, but different contexts and starting points require careful consideration of the most appropriate strategy.

Church planting is most effective when an existing church of a reasonable size and growing within itself might consider encouraging a group of church members (between 30-50 people) to relocate and become a core membership of a church plant in a particular location. It takes about a decade to see a church plant develop to the point when it might stand in its own right (crucial stages being leadership transitions and continuing the focus beyond the initial stage of energy and enthusiasm).

We only have a handful of churches in our Diocese in a position to consider church planting in this fashion, and the diocese is increasingly working with such churches to develop healthy partnerships and support in this area of ministry. The Kensington-Norwood Team Ministry (now the ‘Grace Network’) is one such instance, with the recently launched church plant in Trinity Gardens, and plans for Mile End, being two terrific examples.

So how does ‘fresh expressions’ of church differ to church planting? Generalisations always need care, but broadly speaking church planting places its initial focus on establishing a worshipping event.

The church gathers at a certain time and place, and seeks to attract people to join through this gathering point. An initial starting group and a highly committed team is vital to enable the organisation and logistics of creating and sustaining an effective church gathering.

Fresh Expressions (FX) of church (‘a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church’) starts at another point. The focus for this is on engaging and gathering community in a specific context (either a locality, or perhaps through a social connection), which may (or may not) develop in time into a worshipping congregation. Some may exist as missional communities that link into other worshipping congregations.

Others will develop from ‘fresh expressions’ to ‘mature expressions’ of church.

Missional church, pioneering ministry and fresh expressions of church Every mode of church ministry, regardless of church tradition and style, needs to be missional. That is in our essential DNA in being a church under our God of mission. To be missional is to understand that church is not all about us. We are called by God for a purpose, and that is to witness, minister to and engage the world beyond the church.

While all ministry is to be missional, not all people have the gifts and calling to be ministry ‘pioneers’, that is, to engage and gather community among those who have minimal or no contact with the church (a rapidly increasing number of people these days).

Getting to know and engage with our neighbourhoods and society more broadly is essential to being missional— and not just with a view to contacting people so that we can invite them back to church. We need to bring much more culturally diverse expressions of church to where people are, and by that I mean gathering church as community.

In short: we need to get a lot better at ‘being church’ seven days a week, rather than just attending church for an hour or two.

Our approach to ministry is ‘both/and’ – both in inherited modes of church (which includes ‘contemporary’ forms of church), and in innovative or fresh expressions of being church, shaped around the culture and interests of those outside the church. At present, our diocese is about 99 per cent addressing inherited forms of church, and about 1 per cent that might be categorised as FX. We need to work hard at introducing a lot more of FX.

Starting small One of the striking benefits of FX approaches is that they can start small. A recent study in the UK (where FX’s are far more advanced) has shown that most FX start with an initial team of 3-12 people, and over a ten year period have shown growth (on average) of 250 per cent. Of those people now attending FX’s, 25 per cent were already Christian, 35 per cent had some former church experience, and 40 per cent had no significant prior contact or experience of church.

There is much for us to learn from the UK experience – a summary of the report makes very encouraging reading: see further www.freshexpressions. org.uk/news/anglicanresearch Church planting and/or fresh expressions of church? We need both. Many more of both. Not just as a strategy to transition the church into more effective areas of growth, but more importantly as ways of introducing people to Christ—and especially those who would otherwise have no contact with church and the good news of Christ.

Welcome to the Church of the 21st century.

What will it look like? What will enable us (as churches) to become cross-cultural missionaries in our own neighbourhoods?

Much is being learned elsewhere in exploring innovative modes of ministry.

The goal is clear: we need to establish many more church communities, reflecting a much greater cultural diversity and variety in ministry.

How might we achieve this? Experience suggests two strategies that may serve us well in our own context: church planting, and ‘fresh expressions’ of Church.

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Images of Grace Church Trinity Gardens.

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F AITH

BY THE

Grace of God

60 When Bishop Keith Rayner was ordained 60 years ago, he could never have imagined the world that we all now live and worship in. Equally, he says, he can’t imagine the Anglican Church in Australia in 60 years from now.

by KATRINA McLACHLAN

“When I was first ordained, if I would have projected my mind 60 years forward I wouldn’t have envisaged a Church that has changed as much as we have. What is important though is that the Church tries to keep up with the intellectual challenges of the time; that we don’t allow ourselves just to repeat the same old words in the same way but that we consider the real questions that people ask us.”

Grace Church officially opened its doors on Sunday February 16, welcoming many people through them – Anglo Australians, Asian migrants, university students, children, people who have gone to church for years and a number who had never been to church at all.

Grace Church currently calls the Trinity Gardens Bowling Club home but began with a small group of people from St. Matthew’s Church praying in Sam and Hannah Bleby’s lounge room.

Grace Church Trinity Gardens is the first church planted in the ‘Grace Anglican Network’ and it’s mission is simple: Grace Church exists to glorify God, encourage one another to maturity in Christ, and tell out the good news in word and deed and do all of those things joyfully and well.

Sam Bleby, says the development of the new congregation at Trinity Gardens was a natural progression.

“We were asking God to stir in our hearts a love for the people we know who aren’t Christian yet, and lead us in how we could start a new Christian community in the area,” Sam says.

“After a few months of praying, we began exploring how we individually and as a group could serve those people. Some within the group knew some migrants who had moved into the area, and decided to start a fortnightly gathering giving them opportunities to meet Australians and practice their English, have a community of care with other migrants, and to hear about Jesus.”

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“And so Trinity Gardens International Fellowship (TGIF) began. To date we have had more than 60 people explore more about Christianity through this ministry.”

“Leng Hao or Mike as he is affectionately known came to Australia from China three years ago and was welcomed as part of TGIF,” Sam says.

Trinity Gardens is a multicultural area with many people originally from India and China, as well as anglo-Australians, living close by.

“It was so wonderful that he could be baptised at our first official gathering a few weeks ago.”

“We want to be a community that reflects that diversity, so we’re praying that God will help us to reach out to these migrant communities, as well as to other Australians who perhaps have never been to a church before,” Sam says.

“God has already been answering that prayer, bringing people from China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia through our door, as well as some locals from Trinity Gardens.”

One member of Grace Church who was originally part of TGIF is Chinese migrant Leng Hao.

As minister of Grace Church, Sam’s hope is that it will continue to grow to a point where he can start new congregations and churches.

“We’d also love to join with other Anglican Churches in the area to see how we can together be a part of God’s mission to Adelaide,” Sam says.

“The bowling club is proving to be a great place in which people can be welcomed, and in which a warm Christian community can grow.

“There are no barriers at Grace Church – we just focus on our love for Jesus Christ and have a passionate desire to see others know and love Him too.”

Grace Church is located at the Trinity Gardens Bowling Club, Canterbury Avenue, Trinity Gardens. The Sunday service is at 10am and includes a kid’s program.

More details can be accessed at www.gracechurch.asn.au or ring 8332 7715.

It’s a theological proposition thoughtfully considered by Keith Rayner AO as he celebrates his 61st year ordained in 2014.

Born in 1929, Bishop Keith Rayner’s career within the Church makes him one of the longest standing ordained members in Australia. In 1969 he became the Bishop of Wangaratta, the Bishop of Adelaide in 1975 – when he was appointed to be an officer of the Order of Australia – and from 1990 the Archbishop of Melbourne and ultimately Primate of Australia.

Change within the Church in Bishop Rayner’s time has been significant, with some of the local transitions championed by his sometimes controversial views. He was a strong advocate for the ordination of women, for example, during the time it was frowned upon by many in the Church and beyond.

“Here in Adelaide, the 1980s were a very tense period on this issue,” Keith explains.

“A vote was taken by orders on one of the questions relating to the ordination of women - I can’t remember exactly which one now - but the House of Laity and the House of Clergy voted against.

So it was only the House of Bishops, which was me, who voted in favour.”

By the time Bishop Keith Rayner left Adelaide, he recognised a “swing” in perception, which ultimately led to the first Anglican female clergy being ordained in 1986. It was an interesting evolution to witness for the university history graduate, who candidly admits he initially didn’t even

In December last year Bishop Keith Rayner AO celebrated 60 years ordained. The Guardian spent time with him recently as he reflected on the changing face of the Anglican Church.

question the omission of women clergy.

“When I first became a Bishop I hadn’t thought about it very much I suppose. I just took it for granted that women couldn’t be ordained; that it was just the tradition of the Church and that was that,” he says.

“But soon after I became a Bishop I got involved in serious discussions at a national level… and my attitude changed completely so I came to recognise the value and theological correctness of ordaining women.”

Bishop Rayner continues to be a supporter of diversity in the Church.

“Diversity is so important and now promoting cultural diversity is absolutely essential if Australia is to remain celebrated as a multicultural nation,” he says

“We minister to a dynamic society and when that society changes the church has to change its methods and constantly reinterpret it’s teaching. It doesn’t mean the old has to be thrown out, but the particular things that we emphasise in the Gospel have to be related to the questions that people are raising now, which often are different to the questions that were being raised half a century ago.”

Today Keith spends his time cherishing moments with family, including his three children and eight grandchildren. He’s an avid reader in his down time and even since his retirement in 1999 he continues to counsel and connect with people spiritually.

As a retired Bishop he is also enjoying observing the changing face of the Anglican Church. Changes that he, in part, is responsible for setting in motion in what has been an epic 60-year reign.

“One of the things that has held back the Anglican Church has been the perception of Englishness. As more and more people have come into Australia from Europe and Asia, the Anglican Church in its composition became less and less representative of Australia.

“Things are very different now because the Anglican Church can’t just be the English Church in Australia it’s got to be a truly multicultural church in Australia.”

Perhaps it is these progressive views that best express Keith’s belief that being ordained was his true calling.

“I don’t have a distinct recollection of the moment I realised I wanted to be ordained but by the time I was in my early teens I was conscious of a real call,” he says reflectively.

“The past 60 years of service to the Anglican Church has been a remarkable journey.”

9 25/03/14 10:57 AM

F AITH

faith

in the

PUBLIC SQUARE

So how will ‘Faith in the Public Square’ seek to facilitate such a prophetic engagement with the Inasmuch Sermon?

by REV. DR. LYNN ARNOLD AO

Following my ordination last November, the Dean of the Cathedral, The Very Rev’d Frank Nelson and Archbishop Jeffrey Driver proposed to me that I take up a part-time role at the Cathedral under the title “Faith in the Public Square”. I was immediately taken with the proposition as it seemed to be the sense of calling I had been awaiting since seeking a new direction in my life.

After fifteen years in politics and a similar time in the not-for-profit sector (first with World Vision and then with Anglicare), in 2012 I commenced theological studies to prepare myself for this new direction.

Reflecting upon the term ‘Faith in the Public Square’ it soon seemed to me that I should be taking guidance from Jesus’ Inasmuch Sermon (Matthew 25: 31-46). We often hear these verses read in church; so often in fact that they can easily lose their potency.

The key theme of the verses is “inasmuch as you did these things to them, you did them to me; and inasmuch as you didn’t do these things to them, you didn’t do them to me”. And who are they to whom these things are being done or not? They are the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger at the gate, those without clothing or shelter, the sick and the imprisoned. In other words,

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those living perilously at the margin of our world. Furthermore, these marginalised people consist of the prevailing culture and circumstance might regard as ‘acceptable’, worthy of help; but they also consist of those whose very situation might be confronting – the prisoner and the stranger at our gate.

As we seek to respond meaningfully to such people and situations, I believe we can consider three types of response – reactive, proactive and prophetic.

In the reactive response, we encounter need and seek to mitigate it. We bring food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, succour to the sick, the imprisoned and the refugee. These are all very important – the personal encounter of brothers and sisters in Christ being there at a very personal level as was so well articulated by the parable of the Good Samaritan.

However need is often the result of flawed systems and processes in our world. When this is the case, we should feel called to respond more than just reactively. We should also feel impelled to take on those flawed systems and processes in order to change the aspects that generated the need.

This is a proactive response that calls us to lobby, to suggest changes, sometimes even to protest. It calls us to the halls of power.

Reactive and proactive responses can and should be done by those of faith, but they don’t actually require belief in order to be done. Many agnostics and atheists are committed and effective helpers in both reactive and proactive ways. So what is it that we believe can bring that is qualitatively different, as opposed to just quantitatively?

I believe it is the ‘prophetic’ response, forth-telling the way the world can be in the sense of ‘Your Kingdom come’. In Judaic theology there is the concept of ‫הקדצ‬ (tzedekah), a concept of justice, fairness and righteousness. It is this concept that underpins such phrases as Micah 6:8:

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? And Matthew 22:40 about loving God and one’s neighbour:

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

In the context of ‘Faith in the Public Square’ what would this ‘prophetic’ response look like? There are two key elements I believe it should encapsulate, both based on hope in the Biblical sense:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see [Hebrews 11:1] The hope, in this faith-founded and prophetic context, is a hope that no person is beyond hope and that no circumstance is beyond change. The secular worldview, more often than not, accepts neither which is why utilitarianism pragmatism predominates in much of our modern and post-modern thinking.

So how will ‘Faith in the Public Square’ seek to facilitate such a prophetic engagement with the Inasmuch Sermon?

I am proposing a number of things in the months ahead. On February 20th we held a very successful forum in the lead-up to the state election, where candidates from all sides of politics discussed ‘Social Justice and Inclusion’; while the audience, many of them Christians, had the chance to reflect

on the significance of what they heard and how it might inform their voting decisions.

In the months ahead, and in consultation with the Church in Society Ministry Unit, the Dean, the Council of the Cathedral and others, I am putting together a program that will include more forums, conversaziones, social issue-focussed Bible commentaries and a book club.

Forums currently in the planning include one to occur in Reconciliation Week (May 27- June 3) and another in Anti-Poverty Week (October 12-18). The Conversaziones will be a regular series of evenings under the title ‘Thinking Aloud Allowed’ which will be convened around specific topics of social importance in the faith context.

On each occasion, after a period of silent prayer, and a short, thought-provoking presentation by an invited speaker, there will be free-ranging discussion amongst those present to enable us all to grow in our understanding of the issue and how we are called to respond in faith. These will be in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13:12 – ‘for now I see through a glass darkly’ – we all see through the glass darkly, but the key is that we do so differently. I am hoping these conversaziones will enable us to bring our differently seeing through the glass darkly together in a grace space where we can seek a deeper understanding of God’s will

about key issues facing our world today.

As to the Book Study group that I will be convening after Lent, the first book that we will be looking at will be Mark Labberton’s “The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice”.

I have purchased twenty copies for sale to those who want to participate. Here is an extract to whet your appetite: Many of us want to remain asleep. Pastors have in part fostered this somnambulating life with preaching that avoids problems and prophets, controversy and complexity.

When preaching plays to the culture without substantially critiquing and engaging it, it becomes part of the problem. Sermons that only apply to the individual and to the inner life of the disciple without raising biblical questions about our public lives are also a factor. So, too, are worship services that offer little more than comfort food: the baked potatoes of love, the melting butter of grace, with just enough bacon and chives of outreach to ease the conscience.

All this becomes a churchly anaesthetic.

Intrigued by this? Challenged? Why not be part of the process of Faith in the Public Square? I look forward to being on the pilgrimage with you.

God bless.

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MISSION

A St Elizabeth

WELCOME

When Jeff Oake first came to St Elizabeth’s at Warradale as the parish priest, ‘new arrivals’ were not on his agenda.

It wasn’t because he didn’t support them, nor was it that he wasn’t empathetic to their readjustment, he simply didn’t think they would be as interested in parish activities as they have proven to be. Now, he concedes, they are its future, with a recent award-winning event cementing their place in parish life.

“It’s interesting that ‘new arrivals’ were not on my radar when I came to the parish in 2004,” Jeff says.

“But one by one, family by family, they have come along, and stayed - a testimony I believe to the welcoming and embracing nature of our parish family.

“Now the first new arrivals are bringing more new arrivals.”

St Elizabeth’s Anglican Church is constantly looking for different ways to evolve their programs and engage the community.

It was this ethos, in fact, behind its ‘Welcome to Australia’ event, which earned it the City of Marion’s Community ‘Event of the Year’.

The initiative, funded by Marion Council’s ‘Building Healthy and Vibrant Communities’ program, was introduced to provide new arrivals with a platform to interact with their neighbours.

With a sports theme, 80 people enjoyed a series of activities including Australian Rules Football, swimming, cricket and basketball.

“We focused on bringing together local sporting clubs to the Council and the Marion Rotary Club to provide opportunities for new arrival families,” Jeff says.

“One Afghani family went swimming for the first time, several boys joined the sports clubs youth teams, and one Afghani woman, her daughter, and two of her friends made contact with a migrant women’s support group which is a Council project,” Jeff says.

“They subsequently brought along 10 other women to the group.”

Jeff Oake, Marlon Giks and the St Elizabeth’s Welcome to Australia team.

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Event attendees then had an opportunity to catch up around the BBQ with an Australian sausage sizzle, complete with Hallal alternatives.

Understanding that some cultures fear police in their native countries, the event also introduced representatives from the South Australian Police as the friendly face of law and order.

As SAPOL Police Chaplain Jeff Oake was the perfect person to initiate this contact.

“Winning ‘Event of the Year’ was a pleasant surprise and a great opportunity for us to develop other assistance for new arrivals,” Jeff says.

“We intend to use what we’ve learnt from this experience to repeat this event annually.

“We’ll also explore opportunities to organise other events with a different focus in building community - a purpose which we regard as central to our mission as the church in this place.”

Marion Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis praised the St Elizabeth initiative and says the community should always aim to include those who are new to Australia and therefore not familiar with the country’s customs.

Marion, she says, is a very multicultural community with many new arrivals joining the surrounding suburbs throughout the year.

“These people bring with them their own traditions of celebration, which we are learning about and participating in,” she says.

St Elizabeth‘s parish is leading the way with positive inclusion activities for new arrivals.

ANGLICANS HELPING TO FUND HEALTH EQUIPMENT

in Jerusalem ABM’s partner in Jerusalem reports that the health of families will be at risk if their local clinic is unable to purchase new machines due to a lack of funding.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East healthcare department identified diabetes and related complications as the most pressing healthcare issue of their local population.

Responding to this issue, the Bishop of Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev Suheil Dawani, saw a need for a subsidised clinic as many of the young children, the elderly and families face chronic disease and grinding poverty.

The parish hall of St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Ramallah has been extended by adding a two story structure to make room for the clinic.

ABM’s Fundraising Manager, Christopher Brooks says, “Unfortunately funds ran out shortly after construction, leaving the clinic without the specialised equipment for diagnosing, assessing and treating diabetes.”

“This Good Friday Appeal aims to raise $42,000 which is still required to buy equipment.”

The clinic allows for improved early screening and detection of diabetic complications, ensures timely management of the diabetes and improves the patient’s knowledge.

Health education sessions and associated materials will be provided to families in the West Bank area. The clinic will also be used as a referral centre for the management and treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular care.

Some equipment has since been added to the clinic though there is still a long way to go before all of the required equipment can be purchased.

ABM is also raising money for its general fund this Easter season.

This fund supports the general work of ABM and helps strengthen all of the relationships with Anglican agencies around the world.

Please show your support for this campaign, donate to the Easter and Good Friday Appeal at www.abmission.org.

Jeff is ably supported by Marion Giles and a team of helpers who will continue to welcome new arrivals in 2014 as their programs develop.

“Far from feeling threatened by these other cultures, our established group is viewing them as the future of the parish,” Jeff says.

A similar initiative that Jeff is considering is ‘Welcome to My Place’ which asks Christians to help break down barriers by hosting asylum seekers and refugees in their homes for dinner.

“The program sounds interesting - this is already happening amongst our parish family but we are looking at how we might extend it to wider community.”

‘Welcome to My Place’ will run during Refugee Week, June 15 to 21, and will incorporate the theme “Restoring Hope”.

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MISSION

Ties that bind

OUR SOUTH SUDA NESE family members

Many South Sudanese people have lost one or more members of their family in a recent and ongoing senseless conflict in the world’s newest nation.

It has created more tension and hatred among the more than 60 tribes of South Sudan, especially the two major tribes, Dinka and Nuer. Many people outside South Sudan are trying their best to send money for the day-to-day survival of all the displaced people.

The money helps them to obtain some food, clothing and other humanitarian basic needs to support their basic living needs. The disintegration of families and communities, the displacement of populations and the destruction of educational and health services and of water and sanitation systems, have taken a heavy toll on all everyone living in the three great Upper Nile states.

Makuach M Deng (Abraham) and Garang Yiyieth

In February this year a number of female church workers were massacred as they sought refuge at a church in the central South Sudanese town of Bor.

of some level of food insecurity, with 3.7 million people facing emergency or acute levels. About 900,000 people have fled their homes since December.

Life can be challenging but it’s never been to many around the world like it has been to my family over the past three decades. I will never forget nightmares brought on by the recent senseless war in South Sudan.

As shocking as this event is, it is only one of the many senseless killings of innocent South Sudanese since violence broke out in December last year.

Although the conflict is largely viewed in ethic terms, church leaders have called for peace and reconciliation, and stressed that the roots of the crisis are political with both the army and rebel forces accused of abuses.

I have experienced hell-like horror and death around me from the age of 10. They shot my dear father to death in broad daylight and I narrowly escaped death, abduction and kidnapping. I was terrified; I could not believe my lovely father was gone. We lost all our family wealth, many family members and houses. I was lost for two months. My family did not know I was alive. I followed the crowd trekking to the camp at Malek along the Nile River. There were dead bodies decayed around us everywhere. Vultures were feeding in every corner and lots of human predators like hyenas and lions were everywhere at night. I was as sick as dog with the fear that I would die or never see my mother and siblings again.

The victims of the recent atrocity had fled rebel attacks and hidden in the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church compound until rebels descended on them, raping several of them before shooting them at close range.

“The women were from different parishes in the diocese and had converged in the church compound when they were killed,” the Anglican Bishop of Bor, Ruben Akurdit Ngong, said.

“This is very painful. They destroyed most of the churches in the diocese, but God is with us.”

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South Sudan has been in turmoil since December 15, when a dispute within the army sparked fierce fighting in the capital city, Juba. Fighting spread quickly across the country and soon took on an ethnic dimension after President Salva Kiir alleged that his former vice president, Riek Machar, was planning a coup.

The fighting has pitted army forces loyal to President Kiir, who is a member of the Dinka tribe, against rebel forces aligned to Machar, a member of the Nuer tribe.

The most affected areas of South Sudan are the northeastern states of Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile. Bor, the headquarters of Jonglei State, has been totally destroyed, with houses, food stores, shops, banks and churches burnt down and looted.

The United Nations has estimated that up to 7 million people, nearly two-thirds of the country’s population, are at risk

The Adelaide South Sudanese community has been devastated by the recent violence and many who share worship time with us have lost friends and family. On Christmas Eve last year many from the Adelaide South Sudanese community marched from the city to St Peter’s Cathedral - Dinka and Nuer together – in a statement for peace.

With many of our South Sudanese family members devastated by the violence and bloodshed back home, Garang Yiyieth and Makuach Deng (Abraham), two young members of our local Anglican community, have opened their hearts and shared their stories with the Guardian so we can better understand the conflict in their country….

My family was hiding along the River Nile in the swampy area. Exposure to deadly mosquitoes, Malaria, other water borne diseases and starvation was constant as was the sound of guns everywhere. They lived on water lily seeds and roots because they didn’t have fishing nets or hooks.

The impact of the conflict has been devastating and will be long lasting.

– Garang Yiyieth

I was too young to find safety out of South Sudan without my cousin and uncles who have tragically died in recent violence.

I used to have a hope for South Sudan but the deaths of my cousin and uncle and many more has been devastating. My stomach always hurts when I think about them. The worse thing is that others will never have even a grave to visit in future because no one was able to bury them. The vultures, hyenas and other while animals fed on them exactly as I saw in 1991.

Recent tragedies have left many in my family on the run and others missing. It broke my heart to hear a young South Sudanese boy say recently: “why can’t God let me see my father at least once?”. We are now the lost generation forever. The little hope for our new born Country of South Sudan has been taken away. My brothers and sisters who are engulfed in that conflict shall once again be internally displaced people or refugees like we have been over the last three decades as the war rips through the already troubled Jonglei State of South Sudan.

– Makuach M Deng (Abraham)

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MISSION

Journey through Lent to Easter

Wendy Morecroft and The Rev’d Dr Matthew Anstey

Holy Week and Easter Services Palm Sunday 13 April

10.15am Blessing of Palms and Procession 10:30am Choral Eucharist &

Dramatic reading of St Matthew Passion,

Cathedral Choir - Darke in E 2.30pm Kapelle Singers - Handel: Messiah 7.00pm Choral Evensong

Preacher - The Precentor Weelkes: Hosanna to the Son of David Weekday morning services continue as usual Holy Monday 14 April 7.30pm

Eucharist followed by 8pm Recital

Holy Tuesday 15 April 11:30am Eucharist, Blessing of Oils and

Renewal of Ordination Vows 7.30pm Eucharist followed by 8pm Recital

Holy Wednesday 16 April 7:30pm The Service of Shadows (Tenebrae)

Certaine Notes Choir

Maundy Thursday 17 April 7:30pm Choral Eucharist

Footwashing and Stripping of the Altars

Cathedral Choir - Pellegrini: Missa Brevis Good Friday 18 April 10.00am Good Friday Liturgy:

Preacher - The Precentor

Cathedral Choir - Stewart: The Ninth Hour

Poulenc: Timor et Tremor 3.00pm Mozart: Requiem

St Peter’s Cathedral Choir with Elder

Conservatorium Chorale and Orchestra

Conducted by Carl Crossin

(free tickets from the Cathedral Office)

Easter Day 20 April 6.00am Great Easter Liturgy and Exultet

Preacher – The Dean

Cathedral Choir - Matthias,

Carter: Joy is come 8.00am Eucharist with hymns

Preacher – The Dean 10.00am Choral Eucharist & Children’s Programme

Preacher – The Archbishop

Cathedral Choir - Darke in F,

Dubois: Alleluia 7.00pm Festal Choral Evensong

Preacher – The Precentor

Cathedral Lay Clerks - Wood in F Koehne: Toccata Auora

Join us...

at St Peter’s Cathedral Adelaide, South Australia

“Professor Charry will be the keynote speaker at both of our conferences but is also here to study, write and reflect.”

The focus of Professor Charry’s research has been the powerful notion of Positive Theology and Matthew Anstey is keen for St Barnabas’ to be at the forefront of this research in Australia.

“The church has written a lot about the problems with human life and sin,” Dr Anstey says.

“Professor Charry is leading an emerging group of theologians who are interested in what Christianity has to say about human flourishing and wellness and St Barnabas is really wanting to make this a focus of our college.”

Last month the St Barnabas’ community celebrated the beginning of the academic year with its Commencement Service at St Peter’s Cathedral.

Exciting times for St Barnabas’ Theological College

by KATRINA McLACHLAN

The 2014 academic year is shaping up to be a watershed time for St Barnabas’ Theological College.

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Past and present students and friends of the College were welcomed by The Rev’d Dr Matthew Anstey and The Right Rev’d Dr Tim Harris.

The Rev’d Dr Dorothy Lee, Professor of New Testament at Trinity College School of Theology, then gave the Commencement Address before graduates were acknowledged and the following academic prizes were awarded:

The Albert Reginald Thrush Prize for Theological Studies for 2013: With two conferences planned and Professor Ellen Charry spending five weeks visiting as their inaugural Theologian in Residence, College Principal Matthew Anstey and his staff and students are going to be very busy.

“We are delighted to have world leading theologian and critical thinker Professor Ellen Charry visiting from Princeton Theological Seminary later this year, “ Dr Anstey says.

“Having Professor Charry come to St Barnabas’ is an example of the partnerships we are now forming with national and international scholars and theologiocal communities.”

GRANT MOORE

The St Barnabas’ Prize for Academic Excellence (Postgraduate 2013): LYNN ARNOLD

The Anglicare-SA Prize for Ministry for 2012: WENDY MORECROFT

The St Peter’s College Prize for School Chaplaincy 2013: SONYA PATERSON

The St Peter’s Cathedral Prize for Best Commencing Student 2013: JOANNA SMITH

www.stpeters-cathedral.org.au

Tel: +61 8 82674551

An unlikely

STUDENT

Wendy Morecroft considers her unique path towards theologicial study.

It took me 49 years to discover a love of learning and a subject that I am truly passionate about. I have always regretted that I had not been to university like so many of my post-school friends and even my children, but when I was a school leaver it seemed to me that my choices were either teaching or nursing, and I really wanted to be a secretary. No-one in my family had ever been to Uni, so it was never something that I aspired to, despite being an above average, but by-no-means brilliant, student.

I grew up in Port Pirie where I regularly attended St Paul’s with my family, and then worshipped at St Martin’s Campbelltown when we moved to Adelaide in 1976. I have often been to Bible studies over the years but when the Rev’d Dr Warren Huffa arrived as Rector of Holy Innocents’ Belair in 2006, I became aware of a whole different level of study, where no question went unanswered, and I was encouraged to think more deeply about my faith. The more I learned the more I wanted to know.

It was when the new principal of St Barnabas’ College, The Rev’d Dr Matthew Anstey began worshipping at Holy Innocents’ that I realised how accessible

theological study could be for me. I attended two of Matthew’s public lectures and was fascinated about the depth of meaning in Hebrew poetry, and the soap opera of Tamar in Genesis 38, complete with Matthew’s illustration using reference to a scene from Monty Python.

I enrolled in a single subject, Introduction to Christian Theology in 2011, and managed to pass comfortably. I was then accepted to study for the Bachelor of Theology and have been increasingly encouraged by my results and how increased knowledge has strengthened and deepened my faith. I undertake one subject per semester and am currently undertaking my 6th subject. I work four days per week as a Sales Manager for Print Matters, am very active in my parish, and love to spend as much time as possible with my husband Andrew, our family and friends.

I would encourage anyone who would like to deepen or understand their faith more fully to at least audit a subject, or to dip their toe in the water and try a single subject.

The community of the college has been equally enriching as the study, and age is no barrier.

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F OCUS

on the Cross, spiritual nurturing through the hearing and reading of the Word of God and faithful, prayerful surrender to God. An over-emphasis on informality, freedom of expression, individualism and a desire to get something out of the service (all characteristics of 21st century, Western thinking), sadly deprives our younger generation and newcomers without a church background, of the corporate memory of the Church, of significant passages of Scripture, psalms, eloquently structured prayers and credal statements of faith.

by SANDY MITCHELL

Prayer Book services are always objectively God-centred, not sentimental and selfcentred. The elevated language reminds us of the One before whom we stand – the Sovereign Lord of All – a fact that much modern idiom fails adequately to convey in its attempt to make worship relevant.

The revised Anglican Prayer Book provides us with wonderful patterns of words and actions to use when Brothers and Sisters

in Christ come together to worship. The patterns make corporate worship possible whilst, at the same time, create a foundation for individual thought and reflection. Our Lord Himself created the precedent for liturgy when He provided his followers with a pattern prayer – the Lord’s Prayer – on the basis of which we, as individuals can pray our own specific prayers. The Prayer Book offers us, (to use the words of Christian theologian, Richard Foster) a “celebration of discipline”. Its eloquent language, when understood and appreciated, opens up for us depths of meaning that motivate us together to worship Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

An ex-student of mine, on an exchange to France, wandered into a Roman Catholic Cathedral whilst the Eucharist was being celebrated. She was not a Christian, she had no idea what was going on, but she sat at the back of the Cathedral as members of the congregation repeated and responded to the known and loved words of the liturgy.

She told me on her return that she had an overwhelming sense of the presence of God and of her own unworthiness in that place as she sat among the faithful, even though she could not comprehend what was happening; she later became a genuine seeker and is now a beautiful, alive young Christian woman. I was reminded of St Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:24 where he writes of an outsider coming into an ordered service of worship and “after the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.”

The Anglican Prayer Book offers a consistent living witness to the worship of God, even at times when leadership has been less than faithful; so is Anglican liturgy boring and irrelevant? Only if we do not make the effort to “read, mark and inwardly digest” the wonderful truths encapsulated in its eloquent language language worthy of God’s grandeur.

NURTURING ESSENTIAL PARTNERSHIPS appointment of the Reverend Ken Bechaz as Chaplain in the Central areas in 2012. There is now a full complement of AnglicareSA Staff Support Chaplains following the appointment in 2013 of the Reverend Michael Lane in the Northern areas and the Reverend Peter Simmons in the Southern areas through the Diocese of The Murray.

A few years ago, I commenced a semester unit on poetry with my Year 11 English class by reading Gerard Manley Hopkins’ wonderful poem “God’s Grandeur”.

words of this beautifully crafted work of art.

that the majority of students were beginning to enjoy ‘unpacking’ the meaning contained in Hopkins’ words and could appreciate the fact that only elevated language could begin to do justice to God’s grandeur. A sense of satisfaction developed as together, they learned about the power of figurative language, of metaphor and simile, of symbols and alliteration. Slowly, as the semester developed the students were being empowered to embrace depths of meaning hitherto hidden from them. At the end of the unit on poetry, most of them indicated how surprised they were to discover that poetry was not the dull, boring and irrelevant “stuff” they had originally thought it to be.

However, this conclusion could only be reached after the students had been taken on a journey of discovery. Understanding and appreciation came with explanation and application of the language of poetry.

I was not prepared to let them off the hook, so we began by reflecting on the title of the poem and discussed the meaning of the word “grandeur”. It soon became evident

The liturgy of the Anglican Church may appear both boring and irrelevant in this age of rapidly changing technology and “text-speak”, but, as in the case of Hopkins’

At the conclusion, I asked my students what they thought of the poem and several voiced the opinion that it was boring. Some suggested that the language was completely out of date and asked why they had to read “stuff” written in language that was unfamiliar to them. The words “boring and irrelevant” slipped off their tongues very quickly, but the real problem was not that the poem itself was boring and irrelevant, it was rather, that they did not understand the

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poem, the real problem is not so much that the liturgy itself is boring and irrelevant, rather it is a lack of understanding of the significance and purpose of the words and accompanying actions.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Prayer Book of 1662 sought to provide worshippers with the opportunity to remember all that is helpful and uplifting from the past whilst at the same time recognising the need for appropriate updating of the liturgy. Article 34 of the Anglican Prayer Book indicates that everything done in the worship of Almighty God must edify the worshippers and be in accordance with God’s Word. Hence there have been two revisions of the Prayer Book in Australia – An Australian Prayer Book in 1978 and A Prayer Book for Australia in 1996.

The structure of all liturgical services in our Prayer Book is Gospel orientated: a rehearsal of God’s Law, acknowledgement of sin and confession, assurance of God’s gracious forgiveness through Christ’s death

Pictured some of the members of the AnglicareSA Mission and Anglican Community Engagement Team: Reverend Michael Lane, Staff Support Chaplain, North; Jill Rivers, Parish Community Engagement Worker; Peter Burke, Director Mission and Anglican Community Engagement; and Reverend Ken Bechaz, Anglicare Staff Support Chaplain, Central.

Peter Burke examines AnglicareSA’s commitment to Mission and Anglican Community Engagement

to provide small grants to parishes seeking to offer services to people in the local community through parish outreach programs. The fund has to date provided small grants to over 20 parishes amounting to over $100,000 in grants.

Since the appointment of Reverend Neil Forgie as AnglicareSA’s first Chaplain in 1996, AnglicareSA has been increasing its focus on connecting with the Anglican Community in the provision of community services to promote social justice. Chaplaincy in AnglicareSA began with the pastoral care of AnglicareSA staff and the appointment of Chaplains in residential aged care. In mid 2005 a new focus on parish development was added with the appointment of Peter Burke as AnglicareSA Coordinator of Chaplaincy and Parish Community Work.

In 2010 the Pastoral Care and Parish Development Bureau was created with the goal of appointing a full time Parish Community Engagement Worker and regional Staff Support Chaplains in the North, Central and South.

In 2008 the ‘Parish Community Engagement Fund’ was established

The appointment of regional Staff Support Chaplains was an important goal which began to come to fruition with the

Jill Rivers commenced as Parish Community Engagement Worker in December 2011. Since this time Jill has worked with many parishes to identify community needs, establish locally based programs and nurture partnerships with AnglicareSA.

In January 2014, AnglicareSA announced a name change to “Mission and Anglican Community Engagement” to further enhance its focus on being part of the wider mission of the church and its connection with the Anglican Community as a whole.

As the announcement document states: ‘The purpose of this name change is to more fully identify the function of this part of the CEO Directorate as connecting operationally the Vision, Mission and Values of AnglicareSA with the wider Anglican Community through chaplaincy, spirituality and parish community engagement.

Through this connection these functions are understood as part of the mainstream of what AnglicareSA is and does.

The four primary functions of Mission and Anglican Community Engagement across AnglicareSA are Pastoral and Spiritual Care; Theology and Spirituality; Parish Community Engagement and Partnerships; and Organizational Leadership.

AnglicareSA’s Mission and Anglican Community Engagement Statement is available as is the AnglicareSA Covenant Template for the development of covenants with parishes and Dioceses. Contact Peter Burke, Director Mission and Anglican Community Engagement pburke@ anglicaresa.com.au or 8305 9295.

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S CHOOL

Feeding the historical soul

GOSPEL in

play dough

by CRAIG LOVEDAY

Year three students at Trinity College North have been enjoying the opportunity to discover more about Jesus with play dough! In this hands-on approach, students learn about Jesus as they create different Biblical accounts and then re-enact all the action.

A number of our students at Trinity aren’t familiar with the Bible, so the Gospel in play dough is a great way to introduce them to who Jesus is and what he has done for them.

Joseph says, “It’s really fun and everyone gets a shot at doing it.” Each time I visit the year 3’s I read an account from Jesus’ life from the Bible, each of the different characters and props are formed out of play dough, and one student moves the play dough creations around as the story is re-told. This student then becomes the new story teller. The students then give a final recount as some play out the action.

The key teaching idea is discussed and students share their thoughts, questions and prayers related to each Gospel account.

Sarah Black considers an important aspect of the Anglican Church’s social history - the Cookbook Collection in the Anglican Archives.

Have you ever contributed to the making of a church cookbook? Have you ever contributed to fundraising by buying one, maybe at the church fête?

I have one on my desk. It was produced by the Anglican Church of Whyalla maybe ten years ago. Already it has turned into a piece of living history – our history. The Anglican Church of Whyalla Cook Book tells me that the ladies of Whyalla follow a varied cuisine that includes everything from Beef Strogonoff through Cowboy Chilli to Thai Chicken Salad. They make Fairy Bread for their children’s parties and Diabetic White Christmas as a

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seasonal treat for Grandma. It’s a lovely little book, produced on a shoestring, and I hope it did a good job in raising funds for the Whyalla Anglican Church.

which was a great cookery book, famous in its day, and also raised considerable sums of money for social projects supporting disadvantaged young women in our city.

If I look at more than just one Anglican cookbook, I start to get a picture of the social culture of the church across time and space.

They may seem inconsequential – often just a few pieces of paper folded together, with recipes that may seem very familiar to many of us. But they record aspects of our life and work and spirit that don’t get captured in meeting minutes or yearbooks.

St Columba’s Soup on Sundays, produced as an adjunct to an eco-theology seminar series in 2009, tells me not only that they know how to feed you well, they also place a great premium on caring for the earth and being a good steward of God’s creation.

These cookbooks have a long history.

A century ago, the Anglican ladies of Adelaide worked together under the leadership of Lady Victoria Buxton to produce the Kookaburra Cookery Book,

What’s so exciting is that all four visual, verbal, aural and kinaesthetic aspects of the learning are working together to reinforce the truths that Jesus shows us of the Heavenly Father’s power, love and compassion throughout the Gospel accounts.

When re-creating the Easter narratives students saw the different people gathered at the scene and heard Jesus’ words to the two thieves. Jesus’ cry, “It is finished!” came to life as well as the response of the centurion, “Surely, this was the Son of God.” The action continued as Jesus was placed in the tomb and the guards stood watch. The women’s surprise when the

angel proclaimed, “Jesus is not here, he has risen!” was the climax of the re-enactment.

A demonstration of the oral tradition alive and well in the classroom - the children’s recount accuracy was quite superb!

Following the play dough action, Maesie commented that, “Jesus took away our sins when he died on the cross…

Jesus is special and when he rose from the dead he showed his power over death. If we believe in him we’ll live forever as well and have a new life.”

They express the grassroots energy of the Anglican Church, the engine that drives our life together. They tell us what Anglicans (and particularly Anglican women) have considered important to support, and they also tell us about the changing social conditions that we live and work in.

Here at the Anglican Archives we have a growing collection of Anglican community cookbooks. Maybe you have some you’d like to pass on? All donations will be gratefully received!

Joseph Cox, and Maesie MacGillivray.

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C OMMU NIT Y

GOD WOR DS

BOOK S

The Bible According to Gen Z The Bible According to Gen Z explores why most young Australians never read the Bible and considers teaching techniques used by highly successful youth ministries.

Holy Week and Easter The Rev’d Simon Bailey, St Saviour’s Anglican Church Glen Osmond.

The events of the first Holy Week and Easter when Our Lord entered into Jerusalem were full of drama and incident! The liturgies (church services) of Holy Week and Easter are so designed to enable us to enter into the spirit of the first Holy Week and, by entering spiritually into the journey that Jesus made, deepen our awareness of the ‘highs and lows’ of the week and the meaning of the different events for our own lives.

So we begin Holy Week on Palm Sunday (red is the liturgical colour) with the Procession of Palms and the dramatised reading of the Passion which sets the scene for the days that follow. We are encouraged to join in the reading of the Passion as the voice of the crowd and of other groups as the story unfolds.

On Maundy Thursday evening (wearing white) we recall The Last Supper at which Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, to illustrate his new commandment that they should love one another as he loved them, and then commended them to break bread and

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Greg Lock from St Mattis Kensington with Samuel Rijken and Molly Brazil.

If you want to know just how many young Australians read the Bible daily, the answer is four per cent. At the other end of the scale, 70 per cent never read it at all. In between are young people struggling with the language of the Bible, and with the rituals, miracles and seemingly strange laws within its pages.

share wine in remembrance of him. We ‘reserve’ extra wafers at this Eucharist for use on Good Friday and these are placed on the Altar of Repose in the chapel, which is decorated to remind us of the Garden of Gethsemane. Here we kneel in silent adoration and wonder of Our Lord’s presence in the Holy Sacrament, and then ‘watch’ with him in the Garden, recalling his words to his disciples that they should stay and pray with him. The rest of the church is stripped bare and Prayer at the End of the Day ends the evening.

Good Friday (again wearing red, purple or black according to local usage) is a solemn and simple day with liturgy to match. We reflect on the suffering and trial of Jesus and his crucifixion, then pray at the foot of the cross, and receive the Sacrament in one kind if we wish to or receive a blessing.

The service is characterised by silence and simplicity (the singing is unaccompanied).

Early on Easter morning, the women went to the tomb to find that it was empty and that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

So we gather early on Easter morning (wearing gold or white) to light the new fire, to prepare and light the Paschal Candle, to renew our Baptismal Vows, to baptise

and confirm if we have any candidates, and to join together in joyous and exuberant celebration of the Resurrection which lies at the heart of our faith. The contrast with the solemnity and simplicity of Good Friday is marked and is uplifting for all. We round off our Easter Day celebrations with Easter Eggs and a Parish Barbecue Breakfast.

This is how we ‘do’ Holy Week and Easter Day at Glen Osmond. Obviously, each and every parish church and cathedral will have its own traditions, different services and slightly different emphases, but all will be endeavouring to bring alive the story and truth that lies at the heart of the Christian faith. May Holy Week and Easter be meaningful, uplifting and joyous for us all!

The Bible According to Gen Z is a key resource for those at the coalface of engaging young people with the Scriptures. It takes findings from a Bible Society study conducted by the Christian Research Association and presents them in an easy to read form. Editor Adrian Blenkinsop couples that with practical, proven methods on how to engage young people with the Bible. He examines what Christian groups are doing, as well as what works and what doesn’t. Drawing on the experience of youth practitioners, he provides comprehensive case studies of Bible engagement methods that are working effectively with young people.

“Bringing decades of wisdom in youth ministry, and leaning on significant original research by the Christian Research Association, the book’s contributors present a positive message in some sobering tones,” Bible Society CEO, Greg Clarke says.

“If Bible engagement is to grow among our youth, a lot will have to change. This book asks whether we are willing to make those changes.”

Adelaide Anglican Diocesan Youth Facilitator and Youth Minister at St Matthew’s Church, Kensington, Greg Lock says “the findings presented in this book resonate well with my own experience of over 13 years of youth ministry”. “ Teenagers today desperately need to know the God of the Bible, yet so few of

them are actively engaging with the Bible – they are mystified with it. While we face significant and new challenges, there is also a new Spiritual hunger that is emerging.

“We, as churches, schools, and parents, need to be actively encouraging and equipping youth to read, understand, and apply the Bible for themselves as well as in community. They need to know that God’s eternal word is relevant and applicable – indeed, essential – to contemporary life, and that only by putting its wisdom into practice, is it transformative. I commend this book to anyone seeking to respond to the widespread cultural challenges that we face in regard to helping youth engage with the scriptures.”

If you’ve ever found it hard work to engage your church’s youth with the Bible, here for the first time is a resource that presents the hard facts, and how to address the

need. Glean from the experience of others to find ways you can adapt and use in your own ministry, whether in a school, home or church setting. This is a resource for anyone wanting to see young people engage deeply with the Bible.

The Bible According to Gen Z is published by Bible Society Australia.

ISBN 9780647518830.

2013 publication RRP: $10.00 Hardback, or under $6 for the e-Book version Please call 1300 139 179 or visit shop.biblesociety.org.au

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C OMMU NIT Y

LOCAL, NATIONAL

LOC A L , NAT IONA L & I N T E R NAT IONA L N E WS

Dr SARAH MACNEIL INSTALLED AS 11TH BISHOP OF GRAFTON The Diocese of Grafton made history with the election of Dr Sarah Macneil as its 11th bishop and in the year of it’s centenary the Diocese installed Dr Macneil as the first woman to lead an Anglican Diocese in Australia last month.

Other women have been consecrated as assistant bishops within Australian Anglican dioceses and, overseas, women have been made diocesan bishops but Sarah’s consecration and installation as Bishop of Grafton is a national first for Australia.

Dr Macneil is a former Dean of Adelaide and archdeacon in the Diocese of CanberraGoulburn and is married to Ian, a priest and has a son and two step children.

Colleagues describe Dr Macneil as having a servant heart, being prayerful, possessing insight and humour and delighting in diversity within the church.

Dr Macneil described being elected as the first woman diocesan bishop as “surprising, overwhelming and humbling”.

“I am delighted by the invitation to become the 11th Bishop of Grafton and am awed by the confidence placed in me by the appointment board and by their willingness to be trail blazers.”

10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches

Providing the ingredients CITY OF ADELAIDE for success

The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches will take place in Busan in the Republic of Korea, from 30 October to 8 November 2013 thetimes Primate Archbishop Jeffrey “Inand recent youand have faced testing Driver are amongst a party of Australian experiences which you have met headChurch on with courage,attending. honesty and a confidence in representatives

model where people are supported to The 2013 Friends of the Coopers Foundation Celebration was held on build their own future.

Tuesday September 10 and Archbishop “Anglicare provides some of the Jeffrey Driver was thrilled to receive ingredients and support for Generate a donation of $80,000 to support the clients to grow their own future while also Admirers of theprogram.

City of Adelaide clipper Archbishop’s Appeal Generate “Lord of the oceans, of whipped out their smartphonessupporting at Port their families.

Every year the Coopers AdelaideBrewery on February 16th to capture an journeys through storms “Generate is a unique program that iconic piece of South Foundation strives to improve and Australia’s history. and days of full sail, we pray works with young people to combat protect the quality of life of Australians It was in sharp contrast to any intergenerational charcoal you will bless employment.

It offersthis project by providing support charitable sketchto that may have recorded her maiden marginalised and vulnerable young and bless this clipper. voyage, in 1864,strengths from the docks in London. organisations with recognised people and their families a place to come in medical research and healthvessel, care, inwhich arrived The 450-tonne “City ofskills, Adelaide, we for guidance and workplace helping youth education andthe aged and in from UKcare, at the beginning of welcome you. May God set the path for a meaningful future. will remain on a barge until fostering familyFebruary and community support, bless this historic icon and her final home is determined. “So in a sense it is a true home brew based on Christian values. all that she represents.” modeloldest of care.”

At Dock One at the Port, the world’s Since 2006, the Foundation has surviving clipper was welcomed and In its 3 short years of operation, more distributed more than $2million to 120 Between 1864 and 1886, the iron and blessed

by Anglican Bishop Tim Harris and thanAngus.

100 young people Australian charities.

This year the Coopers woodhave ship already brought 889 settlers and Catholic seafarers’ chaplain Brian gained employment with the support thousands of tonnes of cargo to SA. Foundation very kindly directed the Dr Harris said the City of Adelaide had of Anglicare and the Generate program. proceeds of their Golf Day to Anglicare About 250 people attended the blessing probably received a blessing before she There’s more work to be done though SA’s Generate program. ceremony, which began with bagpipes and began her 23 trips bringing settlers and closed theany Lord’s Prayer and a walk and as Generate does not with receive supplies to the South Australian colony.

“It is a delight to receive a grant from the on the the support barge which holds the clipper. government funding of “(The for ship) represents something very Coopers Foundation what we regard thehistory Cooper Foundation will make an www.news.com.au significant about who we are, our as one of our premier “home brew for the enormous difference to the quality of life and our roots,” he told those gathered. future” programs,” the Archbishop says. of young people who are striving for a “The Generate philosophy of caring is not chance to succeed. patronising but actually an empowering

God’s redemptive action,” Dr McNeil said.

“I am looking forward to meeting as many Diocesan people as possible, visiting parishes and ministry units and gaining a clear understanding of the hopes and aspirations of North Coast Anglicans.”

Dr Macneil’s election comes almost 20 years to the day since the first ordination of a woman in Grafton diocese and fittingly her consecration in Christ Church Cathedral drew a large number of people who have been prominent in the advocacy of women in leadership within the Anglican Church during the last 3o years including Archbishop Jeffrey Driver.

In an open letter to all Anglicans in the Diocese Dr Macneil said her participation in the discernment process had led her to see and respect the many strengths of the Grafton Diocese.

The Assembly of the World Council of Churches “The openness, collegiality and (WCC) has the mandate to set the future agenda prayerfulness of the Bishop Appointment of Board the Council, speakto ofelect your governance faithfulnessofficials as and to speak publicly on behalf of member disciples of Jesus Christ, as does churches. the workOccuring that hasonly beenevery doneseven to years, the encourage mission in the Diocese. for the Assembly is also a unique opportunity whole member churches to You come “Thisfellowship will be anofhistoric appointment. together prayer and celebration. will be in the first Diocese in Australia to have a Diocesan Bishop who is a woman.

The theme of this year’s Assembly is “God of life, “I suspect thatand thispeace” may beand unexpected lead us to justice the program is and perhaps unwelcome for some of you. designed to engage participants in a response my hope over time, five we dimensions to “It thisisprayer.

Thisthat, theme covers will nonetheless be able to journey of being the church together in the world today together,(one cherishing each other’s in gifts – koinonia faith and fellowship Christ), and commitment to the Gospel. martyria (witness in the world), diakonia (serving “I will seek to lead you, prayerfully and(for justice and peace), ecumenical formation with a servant heart, delighting in the (a leadership) and inter-religious cooperation Diocese’s diversity, resilience, godliness common context). and warm-heartedness as we work together

to faithfully in Christ’s footsteps.”

Along with thefollow WCC member churches, partner organisations and other churches will have a strong presence at the event. This will make the Assembly of the WCC the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world and a unique opportunity for the churches to deepen their commitment to visible unity.

BELOW: Bishop Sarah Macneil (centre) with Assistant Bishops (left to right)Kay Goldworthy, Perth, Genieve Blackwell, Canberra and Goulburn, Barbara Dowling, Melbourne, and Allison Taylor, Brisbane.

The WCC was established at its 1st Assembly in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1948) and since then assemblies have been in held in Evanston, United States (1954); New Delhi, India (1961); Uppsala, Sweden (1968); Nairobi, Kenya (1975); Vancouver, Canada (1983); Canberra, Australia (1991); Harare, Zimbabwe (1998); and Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006).

The Guardian has working The Australian delegates tobeen the WCC Assembly in hard on a very exciting story that Busan, Korea are:

• • • •

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will be published in the April

Mostedition Rev’d Dr Aspinall, ofPhillip SA Life.

So keepDelegate your Archdeacon Karen Delegate eyes peeled forKime, the next edition Ms Alison Delegate whichJane hits Preston, the shelves on April 5th.

MostThis Rev’dimage Dr Jeffrey Driver, to should give Advisor you a clue…

Delegation

CLIPPER SHIP RECEIVES BLESSING FROM ANGLICAN BISHOP

By Katrina McLachlan

YOUNG ABORIGINAL LEADERS INSPIRE

By Christobel Mattingley

Aboriginal students Chaise Eade (PAC) and Tikari Rigney (Seymour) were welcomed back at St David’s, Burnside in February to share the experiences of their December Nation2Nation journey to the US. Both congregations were delighted to see how they had gained in confidence as they gave The Most Rev’d Drtheir Jeffrey and Dr Tim Cooper 15 Driver minute power point presentation.

Their key objectives included learning about leadership from political, cultural and business leaders and cultural exchange with Native Americans.

Tikari Rigney said, “As I stood in the corridors of power in the White House I became overwhelmed that these rooms hosted world leaders of nations and that this is where wars were planned and peace negotiated. I believe the more we learn about leadership the more we realise how to cultivate it. This why studying leadership matters and why growing youth leaders is critical.

“We met key inspirational leaders achieving terrific humanitarian work, including the Australian Ambassador Mr Kim Beazley, the Native American Youth Council and the Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim.

“Meeting Congressman Cole was a highlight. He is the only Native American in Congress, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and a Yale University graduate.

Cole shared his vision of leadership that includes being proud of your culture, having confidence in taking calculated risks and striving for excellence.

“The most valuable lesson I learnt is that leadership starts with self. Reflecting on my experience I believe I have grown as a woman of strength, optimism and justice. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in the N2N tour and hope this inspires other Indigenous students to strive for leadership excellence.”

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C OMMU NIT Y

PEOPL E & PL AC E S

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS

By Marie Danvers It was known in the early years as St John’s in the Wilderness. Today, this historic church continues as a place of worship, but also as a venue for fine music in the southeast corner of the city.

Now in its fourth year, the St John’s Feast of Music is growing a reputation as the go-to festival before Adelaide’s main festival season.

Father Christopher Myers, priest-incharge at St John’s, says the Feast of Music is based on the Italian idea of communio—a coming together of the community to enjoy good company, food and wine in beautiful surroundings.

“St John’s has all of the elements: an enthusiastic community, a Steinway piano, wonderful acoustics and an aesthetically pleasing environment,” he says.

Held over three nights in early February, the Feast of Music this year attracted 160 guests to two feasts and as many again to the concerts, which featured a line-up of outstanding artists.

The Seraphim Trio opened the concert, and Italian baroque violinist David Monti and harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil followed.

It finished with Melbourne-based jazz pianist Allan Zavod playing Gershwin, accompanied by Jeremy Alsop (electric bass) and Gerry Pantazis (drums).

The Feast of Music has a strong Italian connection: three of the main players hale from the same Veneto region: artistic director Sergio de Pieri, famed gastronome and chef, Stefano de Pieri and Maria Favaro from Chianti Classico, St John’s partner in the event. The de Pieri and Favaro families are firm friends, mutual admirers and supporters.

Guests are treated to a feast by Stefano de Pieri and Chianti Classico; three concerts, each of approximately 90 minutes duration; and bruschetta and a glass (or two) of wine after each concert in the botanic setting of the St John’s garden.

An alliance with the International College of Hotel Management was another productive partnership in 2014, with students from the renowned Swiss

Hotel Association School serving guests at the dinner and after concerts.

Held in late February, Gospolicious was the second event on the St John’s calendar and a musical treat of a different kind.

The high-powered contemporary gospel attracted sell-out crowds to six concerts and an encore performance. The music was arranged and conducted by Elder Conservatorium teacher Charmaine Jones and performed by a dozen lead singers, backed by 70 male and female vocalists from six of Adelaide’s high schools, plus a six-piece band.

Father Christopher Myers says that both events of uplifting performances are ‘food for the soul’, breathing new life into St John’s.

“In its 175th year, St John’s is strengthening its place as a fine music venue in Adelaide, and with the backing of the community, especially our partners in the events, we expect to move closer to realising our parish vision as a focus for artistic life for the precinct,” he says.

CHURCH IN SOCIETY NETWORKS

ADELAIDE ANGLICARE CATHEDRAL SUNDAY 2014 ART SHOW 2014

The Church in Society Ministry Unit is the auspice for four networks across the Diocese of Adelaide and beyond.

The Adelaide Cathedral Art Show is a significant event in the arts calendar in South Australia. Held in the iconic sacred space of St Peter’s Cathedral over eight days in October, the Show highlights the artistic talent of established and emerging artists from Adelaide and beyond. Now in its 11th year the Art Show has gone from strength to strength, presenting high quality exhibits, welcoming artists and art-lovers and supporting the mission of the St Peter’s Cathedral and its overseas mission projects.

This includes the following networks: • Anglican Refugee Network • Anglican Emergency Assistance Network • Anglican Opportunity Shop Network • Anglican Ecumenical Network Network meetings are held regularly and new participants are welcome. For the first two networks contact Jill Rivers, Parish Community Engagement Worker, AnglicareSA jrivers@anglicaresa.com.au or 8305 9295. For the last two networks contact Peter Burke, Director Mission and Anglican Community Engagement, AnglicareSA pburke@anglicaresa.com.au or 8305 9295.

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The Cathedral Council is looking for dynamic people interested in being part of the organising committee, including chair and vice-chair, for this year’s Art Show as it enters its 11th year. Interested people are invited to express interest by contacting the Dean, Frank Nelson.

Email: dean@stpeters-cathedral.org.au

Anglicare Sunday this year is on Sunday 12 October 2014. This is also the commencement of Anti -Poverty Week.

On Anglicare Sunday or any time during the traditional Anglicare Quarter from October to December, parishes are encouraged to focus on the work of Anglicare as part of the mission of the Anglican Church in the wider community.

If you would like a speaker on Anglicare Sunday or at any other time contact Peter Burke, Director Mission and Anglican Community Engagement at pburke@anglicaresa.com.au or 8305 9295. Liturgical resources for parishes are also being developed and will be made available in advance of Anglicare Sunday.

A FOND FAREWELL TO THE REV’D DAVID THORNTON-WAKEFORD

By Dianne Bradley On Sunday 16th February the people of the Parish of Parkside gathered with David’s family and friends from around the wider diocese and Australian Church to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood and to farewell him from his ministry in the parish. About 80 in all were present.

At the Eucharist, which preceded the splendid party, Archbishop Jeffrey Driver preached and David presided. The occasion was a very happy one for all the obvious reasons but especially because all could see that David was well on the road to recovery following his recent surgery and from his two years and more of pain and frustration at not being able to engage with so much of what he loved. His relaxed and smiling face was a gift to all.

of the parish. This David took to heart and was to initiate the formation of The St Oswald Centre for Spirituality which was launched in September 2009 and has flourished ever since.

Diana reminded us of the much more of his ministry, of his “random acts of kindness, amazing acts of hospitality and his ability to spot and encourage the gifts and talents of people in the parish, gifts which were yet unrecognised” and that “David’s vision for the parish has been felt even when he was not physically present.” Both he and Deborah were thanked for all they have done, for their love, their capacity to recognise and

share joy, and David especially for his “quite wicked sense of humour”.

David has written since: “Sunday 16 February is a day that will remain fixed in our hearts. The Eucharist was beautiful; the flowers, the band, the prayers and singing. Thank you for the very special lunch and the many arrangements behind the scenes. ... The Parish of Parkside has been a blessing from God to us in our final years of full-time ministry. You are a breath of fresh air! May the Spirit of God continue to inspire you all deeply in the years to come. Much love and every blessing.” The people thank you David and Deborah.

The Archbishop, Warden Diana Bleby and Dianne Bradley each spoke recalling his ministry in the parish, the wider diocese as Archdeacon here and in Perth and in many parishes. Letters of gratitude from Perth for Deborah’s and David’s ministries and friendship were read to the gathering.

In 2008 David responded to the call to minister in the Parish of Parkside. He and Deborah arrived in October where the parish was calling for a priest, who amongst other things, would nurture and deepen the spirituality of the life ABOVE (left to right): Phil Williams, Tony Wainright, David Thornton-Wakefield, Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, Caroline Pearce and Dianne Bradley.

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