Tenth Sunday after Pentecost. St John s Anglican Church Toorak with All Saints Kooyong. 28 July

Transcription

1 St John s Anglican Church Toorak with All Saints Kooyong Welcome to The Anglican parish of St John the Evangelist 86 Clendon Rd Toorak VIC 3142 PH Vicar Archdeacon Dr Bradly S Billings our mission statement What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join us in the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ. 1 John July 2013 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 8am Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia page am Sung Eucharist A Prayer Book for Australia page 119

2 NOTICES Evangelical Catholicism A future direction for Catholic Anglicans, 15 August 6.15pm, St Peter s Eastern Hill. Dinner tickets $25 p.p. Please r.s.v.p by 10 August to St Peter s Eastern Hill sphoffice@stpeters.org.au. For further details see flyer. Southern Regional Council Nominations The SR Regional Assembly will be held at Christ Church, Dingley, 24 th August. Nominations are now open, close on August 1 st. Upright piano for sale For sale - small upright Bentley piano, mid 1950's, holds its tuning well and would suit school age piano student, $500. For more information please contact Mel Waters , or music@saintjohnstoorak.org WANTED! WANTED! WANTED! For YOUR Op Shop at 143, Canterbury Road, open 10-4pm, Monday to Saturday: - donations, especially of warm clothing for the needy this hard winter AND - volunteers to join us and help with sorting, ironing, storing, arranging, or sales. Please drop your goods in, or phone for a pick-up and join us!

3 NOTICES Sunday evening Holy Communion Will be held on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 5pm: 11 August 8 September 13 October 10 November 8 December LiveEventStream corporate event webcasting You can now watch every 10am service online, in real time, or view during the week at your convenience, by going to the link below. Courtesy of our partnership with Live Event Streaming. events/ / broadcast.php Music Ministry Appeal A special thank you to all who have donated so generously to our Music Ministry Appeal. Just over $8,000 has been received to date, which will help us to maintain and improve the high quality of congregational and choral music offered to God's praise and glory here at St John's. This appeal is ongoing - tax deductible donations can be made via the Anglican Cultural Fund, using the donation form available from the parish office.

4 WORSHIP at St John s Director of Music Professor Mel Waters This Sunday: 28 July Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (green) 8.00am - Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hymns: 141 v1-4&7, 215, 545 Hosea (E Pyper) Psalm 85 Colossians (B Mouritz) Luke Celebrant: The Ven Dr Bradly Billings Preacher: The Ven Dr Bradly Billings Intercessor: Carmen Papageorge Next Sunday: 4 Aug Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (green) 8.00am - Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hymns: 454 v1-3, 499, 427 Hosea (V Randall) Psalm , 43 Colossians (T Craddock) Luke Celebrant: The Revd Hilary Roath Preacher: Anglican Overseas Aid Intercessor: Ted Mouritz 10.00am - Sung Eucharist A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hymns: 141 v1-4&7, 76, 215, 545 Hosea (K Beecher) Psalm 85 Colossians (clergy) Luke Anthem If ye love me (Chilcott) Motet Jesu, lead my footsteps ever (JS Bach) Celebrant: The Ven Dr Bradly Billings Preacher: The Ven Dr Bradly Billings Intercessor: Keith Beecher 10.00am - Sung Eucharist A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hymns: 454 v1-3, 443*, 499, 427 Hosea (A Ankers) Psalm , 43 Colossians (A Mannering) Luke Anthem - God is love (Carter) Motet Locus Iste (Bruckner) Celebrant: The Revd Hilary Roath Preacher: Anglican Overseas Aid Intercessor: Claire Beecher 5pm evening service & Bible study 5pm evening service & Bible study

5 WORSHIP at All Saints Kooyong This Sunday: 28 July Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (green) 8.30am - Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hosea Ps 85 Colossians Luke Celebrant: The Revd Paul Bower Preacher: The Revd Paul Bower Next Sunday: 4 Aug Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (green) 8.30am - Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119 Hosea Psalm , 43 Colossians Luke Celebrant: The Ven Dr Bradly Billings Preacher: Mr Jonathan Chamberlain

6 PRAYER NOTES World & Nation: We pray for Anglican Christians working for peace in so many troubled parts of the world. The Diocese of Phulbani, India (Bp Bijay Nayak); Anglicare Australia (Bp Chris Jones, Chair; Kasey Chambers, Exec Director); GFS (Alison Benfield, Chair); All Saints Rosebud with St Katherine s McCrae (Stephen Pollard). Those being baptised: Hunter Bryant; Milla Sedgley. For schools in the community Geelong Grammar School Toorak Campus (Glamorgan), Head of Campus Garry Pierson; St Catherine's School, Principal Sylvia Walton AO; CRE program and teachers at Toorak Primary School. The Toorak Ecumenical Movement: Pray for our partner churches: St Peter s Roman Catholic Church, Toorak Uniting Church, The Swedish Church. For those who lead us in the Anglican Church: The Most Revd Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne The Right Revd Paul White, Bishop of the Southern Region. For our CMS Link Missionaries: Andrew, Helen, Jacqueline and Alyssa. For the sick and all in need: Sophie; Matthew; Hazel Lord; John Saunders; Susan; Jenny Williams; Ann Brewer; Alan; Paul Dalton; Reverend Keith Pritchard; Helen Chang. For those in nursing homes and those who are house bound: Nan Milner; Randall Watt; Lorna Mirfield; Dorothy Hughes. Give thanks for those whose Anniversary of death is this week:. Robin Beall; Gwenneth Kaye; Edmund Rouse; Helen Best; Dorothy Johnson; Janet Wicking; Yasuko Myer; Joan Wilson; Kathleen Clarke; Eril Dickson; Sashie Earle; Sheila Kimpton; Ralph McCann; Steven Nott; Wal Baker; Florence Bride; Wilfred Brookes; Gladys Forster; Sandra Stewart; Ruth Swanton; Noella Ashley; Joanna Klingender; Doris Divers; Phyllis Ham; Mavis Hunt; Lola McNeice. Flowers by the Book of Memory are in loving memory of my very clever brother John McPherson Tomlinson. Claire.

7 We rejoice in the news this week of the birth of a royal prince, son to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, future heir to the throne, and future head of this church. St Paul's Cathedral London issued this prayer of thanksgiving. Heavenly Father, whose Son Jesus Christ was born of Mary your handmaiden, we give you glad and joyful thanks for the safe delivery of a Prince; send down your blessing upon him, and surround with your love William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, that faith and hope and gentleness may strengthen them all the days of their lives; for the sake of the same Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, Amen.

8 Pastoral Letter July 2013 As you know, we have recently returned from some time overseas in England and France. During our stay in London we had occasion to see, for the first time, the long-running musical Les Miserables. This was largely at the urging of our daughter Rebekah (18) who had studied the French revolution as part of her Year 12 history classes at St Catherine s school. Having seen Phantom of the Opera four times on different excursions to London in recent years, I was very pleased to make my way to the Queen s theatre to see Les Mis for the first time! I know many of you will have seen the theatrical production, and perhaps also the recently released movie which brought the stage production to a whole new audience. Some may even have read the nineteenth-century French novel by Victor Hugo (perhaps in French!) on which the musical is based. Those who have will recall the wonderful scene that occurs early on, whereby the central character, Jean Valjean, is a guest in the home of the impoverished bishop of Digne, who alone among the countless others who have turned him away, offers Valjean kindness, refreshment, and hospitality. Desperate, Valjean, who has served nineteen years of hard labour and is free on parole after stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister s starving child, steals the bishop s only possessions of value, some silverware, in the dead of the night. Arrested, he is brought to the scene of his crime, his sack full of incriminating evidence (the bishop s silverware). However, instead of pressing charges against him, as Valjean fully expects, the bishop not only forgives him, but bids him to take the most valuable possessions of all, his silver candlesticks, which Valjean has left behind in his haste. After the police have left, accepting the bishop s story that the silverware was a gift from him to the hapless Valjean, the bishop implores the recipient of this grace to live a new life, dedicated to God. In that moment, the life of Jean Valjean is changed.

9 Les Miserables, as a whole, and not just this little vignette in the overall whole of the narrative, can, in fact, be read as an extended parable on law and grace, undergirded by this theological theme at every juncture. I don't have time here to expound on how and why this is so suffice to say that the policeman, Javert, represents the law (broadly speaking, the Old Testament) which demands punishment and retribution for wrongs committed; whilst Valjean, the guilty man freely forgiven, represents Grace (New Testament). St Paul conducts an extended discussion, contrasting Law and Grace, in his letter to the Romans. Here is the potted version - the wages of sin (Law) is death, but the free gift of God (Grace) is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6. 23); so we, as Christians, having believed in Christ and having been baptized into the faith of Jesus Christ (Rom ), are no longer under law but under grace (Rom 6. 14). In Les Mis, Javert is the man under law, who cannot tolerate or countenance that someone not be held accountable, and pay the price, for a breach of the law. Valjean is the man set free, who knows he is guilty and fully expects to be punished, but is transformed by the free gift of grace which he experiences as unmerited forgiveness. In addition to being a wonderful spectacle, filled with memorable music and powerful songs, together with outstanding acting, not to mention it being one of the world s great stories I found Les Miserables to be also a very powerful portrayal of the Christian message. I m sure my family (Karen, and two of our children, son Kyle and daughter Rebekah, were with me) tired quickly of the theological dissertation on the tube ride back to our apartment. I have no idea what others on the train thought of it either! Even so, notwithstanding the rich, theological layers present in the narrative, the thing that really stood out for me, and which still resonates, about Les Mis, is the manner in which, in the context of the story, grace changes everything in the life of one man. The act of grace comes from the kindly bishop of Digne, and the recipient of that grace is Jean Valjean. Without it, Valjean would probably have lived out a life of petty crime, and perhaps worse, in and out of the prison labour camps, dying young and impoverished, had the course of his life not been changed by the bishop s act of grace early on in the story. This is exactly what the gospel, the good news, about Jesus Christ does it changes people s lives! And the great news is, the agents of change are you and me.

10 Valjean would never have encountered the love and grace of God, if he had not encountered a representative of the church (a Christian believer) in the form of the bishop of Digne. The lesson for we Christians is this - having once been like Valjean (guilty) and having been set free by the free gift of God in Jesus Christ (grace), we are called to act out the part of the bishop of Digne in our daily lives, making the grace, the love, and the forgiveness of God, known to others. In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us (2 Cor ). The Vicar.

11 MID YEAR UPDATE St John s now has a strong Ministry Team who are, together, looking forward to the second half of the year. In the light of our new addition to the team, and having now assumed responsibility for the Sunday service at All Saints Kooyong, it seems like a good time to update the parish on how we are planning to make the best use of the skills and resources we have, to further our aims and goals. The Team! Sally Robertson keeps the office open for business and keeps the vicar sane, in the dual role of parish administrator and vicar s PA. Sally is full time and the office is open Monday to Friday during business hours. Sally is supported by some enthusiastic volunteers. Gay Djumas continues in her part time role liaising with all couples being married at St John s, and conducting the marriage preparation courses, for which we continue to receive excellent feedback. Milton Robinson continues as parish accountant and keeper of the finances. We could not do without him! The Revd Hilary Roath continues a wonderful ministry of care to all within the parish, and often to those beyond with whom we are in contact. Hilary is part time (Monday, Thursday, Sunday) and spends most of her time out and about conducting pastoral visitations with the support of her pastoral care team. The Revd Kirsty Ross our newly installed and welcomed Assistant Curate & Children s Minister is with us full time (please note that Wednesday is her day off). Kirsty will be taking part in the Sunday services, with particular areas of involvement in all aspects of children s ministry, the kindergarten, and local schools. Jonathan Chamberlain is with us part time, dividing his time between completing the diocesan requirements for ordination at St John s and working towards completing a mission action plan for the Kooyong plant. Jonathan will now be at Kooyong most Sundays for the 8.30am service there, returning to St John s for the 10am service. Professor Mel Waters is our musician, choir leader, and organist extraordinaire! With the choir having now returned from the winter recess, we look forward to the tradition of excellence in church and choral music continuing to flourish in our parish. Of course, you have a Vicar too!

12 You will see, and hear, each of the team who have a liturgical role on Sundays. A complex roster has been developed to enable each of us, and especially those in training positions (Kirsty and Jonathan), to gain experience in leading different parts of the service, however this will not impact on the roles led by laypeople your ministry is equally as valued and will continue as previously! You will also have the benefit of hearing sermons from each of us on different Sundays, over time. Finally, a word about All Saints Kooyong. Although I have formally been Priest in Charge of All Saints since September last year, St John s has only very recently now assumed full pastoral and liturgical responsibility for All Saints, with the cessation of a Locum ministry in early July. As Jonathan continues to develop his mission action plan (another way of putting it is a business case ) for the future there, we have decided to keep the 8.30am Sunday service time until the end of the calendar year, for the sake of continuity and to enable St John s clergy also to take services at Kooyong, returning in time for the 10am Eucharist at St John s. During a typical month, both myself (Brad) and Hilary will lead one service each at All Saints Kooyong, together with the generous assistance of the Revd John Griffiths, who will be well known to many as a longstanding friend of St John s and frequent attendee here! As indicated above, Jonathan Chamberlain will have a regular pastoral presence at All Saints, and will be the liaison person for the congregation there. This means Jonathan will rarely be at our 8am service, and that, once a month on average, both I and Hilary will not be present either. With our new clerical riches, having just welcomed Kirsty to the team, there will still be at least two clerics present at every 8am service at St John s! As you have, no doubt, noticed, St John s has now included All Saints in our weekly bulletins (pew slip), and we have also taken responsibility for the rosters there. We continue, also, to conduct improvements on site, including, importantly, the heating, with the sound and lighting on our list of things to get to as the financial situation allows. There will be more to say about the future of All Saints Kooyong at a later date, but this will bring you up to date for now! The Venerable Dr Bradly Billings The Vicar

13

14 Messy Church All welcome Buxton Hall First Sunday every month 4-6pm Messy Church is on again next Sunday 4 th August 4-6pm. Our story this month is Daniel and the Lions Everyone will be painting, colouring and taking home foam and craft made Lions. There will be a Den made for the children to place their lions in. We will also have a lifesize Lion placard that everyone can place their heads inside the hole and create their own personal Lion! This month is especially exciting as it will be our Children s Minister Kirsty Ross first Messy Church. Kirsty is really looking forward to being part of our Messy Church program and is looking forward to meeting all the families who make our Messy Church so creative and fun. A small story and sing-a-long will be conducted in the church about Daniel and his ability to keep his faith in God, even when he was told he should not. The story shows how God rewards those who keep their faith and how he will always look after those who believe in Him. We will then all return to the hall for dinner and dessert this month we have ice cream and fruit salad - yuuum It is winter so I would really encourage you to come along to Messy Church as it is a great activity for the whole family to get involved with, get out of the house for a while, have a meal together and keep warm the heating is on in the Hall!!! We are getting new faces every month and we really are looking for others who can assist us in growing our Ministry in Messy Church If you can spare 3 hours once a month or even just every now and then, to come and help us at Messy Church, can you please see Nicky Jacob.

15 We are looking for people who can assist with meeting new people, being involved in making the actual craft or activities with everyone or alternatively behind the scenes. Can you help set up? Getting to the Hall around 3.15pm and helping set up tables, prepare food and set up. Can you help clean up? After the dinner at 6pm there are always dishes to wash, toys to be placed away and people to chat to and ensure they feel welcomed and will come again. Clean up takes around 30 minutes from pm. We have a strong team currently however, as the congregation grows the work will become (hopefully) a lot more and we will need some help! - if you can help out any month by assisting with the cooking, cleaning or set up please talk to Nicky, Kirsty or Brad. Look forward to seeing you Sunday 4 th August. If you get a chance please let me know if you and any of your friends, Godparents, grandparents or just regular parents would like to come so we make sure we have plenty for everyone. Nicolejacob224@gmail.com God Bless Nicky Jacob Messy Church Coordinator

16 LETTER FROM TETE, MOZAMBIQUE, JULY, 2013 Dear Friends, The Jesus Film showings in villages in Zambia have been very enthusiastically received. Many people have come forward to be prayed for and to put their faith in Jesus, and existing Christians have been encouraged by our coming to their villages to show the Jesus Film and to distribute bibles and a soccer ball. There have been, as often happens, manifestations of demon possession in some of the people who come forward for prayer when we pause the Film. We pause it now, not at the crucifixion, but after the resurrection, when Jesus appears to his followers. The next day, most of the new believers come for follow-up counselling and prayer. After showing the Film anywhere, there is always ongoing counselling and teaching of what it means to follow Jesus. There is also great joy with singing and dancing and ululation when the bibles are distributed and when the soccer ball is given. I emphasise to the people that the ball is for everyone in the church to enjoy, but the pastor, or elder if there is no resident pastor, has it for safe-keeping. We have been to some new villages again this year, as well as some we have been to before, and the headmen have been very happy to see us. Even if they were not Christians, they told us that our showing the Film has a good influence on their people. The five sewing machines had arrived in Katete before I left for Mozambique, but still need to be assembled for distribution to the particular villages to which each is going. That will be done when we return, which will be next Tuesday. Now I shall tell you about Mozambique. We are staying near Tete, a town with some very large coal mines, and on the Zambezi River. There is a big bridge here over the very wide river, one of only three over the Zambezi in the entire country. Tete is 400 kms south of Katete, Zambia, and was a trading centre before the Portuguese came. I brought with me Jennipher Chipwatanga, the pastor of the Katete church, and Jacob Banda, who is very helpful and careful with the equipment. Chisulu and Beatrice Sakala, who started the church here when they arrived from Zambia, arranged for my visa fee (U.S. $90) to be paid by them, and also the vehicle fees. Chisulu also spoke to the head of Immigration at the border, so that he would personally do everything. It still took one &a half hours!

17 I was also photographed there and both my index fingerprints taken! That is a first for me - no other country that I have visited has wanted fingerprints. The Africans with me did not have to go through the same procedure. Then we went over to Customs and the border police, in a small building, and there I started to have problems. I was asked for my Yellow Fever certificate, which surprised me, and then the one who asked for it noticed that I had other immunisations recorded and told me that the tetanus booster was out of date. It was not, of course. There were three of them there and then they all asked for something to drink. I suddenly understood that what they wanted was money!! I never bribe at borders, ever, and kept on saying that I did not have anything to give them, and after much discussion, finally we were told we were free to go through the border. Years ago, when I was travelling frequently in central Africa, if I had real problems at road borders with bribes being wanted, I used to open the rear door of the Land Cruiser, get out a stool, my gas cylinder and kettle, put some water in the kettle and start to heat it on the gas ring. They soon got the message that I was prepared to wait, but would not pay! The road from Katete to Tete was really dreadful, with many potholes, and many sections where one could not drive on the road at all and I had to drive at the side, off what was left of the tarmac. Even here just out of Tete, it is very bad. The potholes here are not only deep enough for one baby giraffe to hide in, but wide enough for all his friends to hide in as well! We are staying in the house of Chisulu and Beatrice Sakala, mentioned earlier, in an area called Moatize. A room has been cleared for me and I have put my mattress, table, chair, etc. and am reasonably comfortable. There is actually a bath in the house, but the water is still heated in a bucket over a fire, and brought to the bath in the bucket. I have suggested that a donkey boiler is built, and maybe that will be done in the future. There is electricity, but probably too expensive to fit a geyser - besides which, the quality of elements here is so poor that they do not last long. There is town water coming out of the (cold) tap from time to time, but often there is none, as now. There are many roadblocks near Tete and the police quite officious in their demand (in Portuguese) for documents of all kinds. I wonder what it is like in the south where there are tourists.

18 Last night, we showed the Film at an area about 30 kms from where we are staying. There was a wonderful response. The (non-christian) headman came and greeted us when we arrived, watched the Film and was so impressed that he is going to allocate some land for a church to be built. That road was so appalling that a strip of metal holding nets inside the Cruiser and into which I put light articles has come loose and bent and I must get it repaired before I can drive again. We went to a workshop earlier today, only to find that the owner and his workers are not there today. Such is life in Africa. I brought with me from Katete 20 bibles, 5 English and 15 in Chewa and on the first Sunday gave them to members of the congregation who could read in those languages. Many cannot read at all, and I have now learnt that Portuguese is the language mostly understood by all. Next year, (they want me to return next year, and for longer), I shall have to make a plan to buy bibles in Portuguese. We managed to buy a pirate copy of the Jesus Film in Portuguese to show, but it is very poor quality, so I shall have to buy a genuine DVD when I am back in Melbourne. I have the Film in many African languages and some others as well, but Portuguese is not one of them. The Tete church worships in one of the rooms at the local school. On the first Sunday, Jennipher preached at the service, and especially on giving money and goods to support the pastor, which apparently they are not yet doing. He has been here since January, from Zambia, and is staying with the Sakalas. He does not have a house of his own, as there is not enough money to pay the rental of U.S. $100 per month. He has a fiancée, but until he has a house of his own, cannot marry and bring her here to live. Can I ask you to prayerfully consider helping to pay the rent for six months for him? That is a total of U.S. $ 600. There is a suitable small house nearby here, which I have seen. After six months, the church members will have learnt about Christian giving, and the Sakala business will have grown sufficiently for them to give him greater financial support. They are a very generous couple, as I have seen for myself. Now I have just come back from having the metal strip straightened and pop-riveted back on. We tried a different workshop, which looked more professional to me. We are going to show the Jesus Film tonight in a compound near here, and are praying that the response will be good. May the Lord of the harvest bless you all, Liz Hawthorne.

19 AUGUST PRAYER POINTS, 2013 Praise God for a wonderful response to the Jesus Film in Tete, Mozambique, and for the enthusiasm of the Christians in the church there. Please pray for God s grace to remain on Chisulu and Beatrice Sakala, who started the church in Tete when they arrived from Zambia, and are still supporting the Pastor, Andrew, who arrived in January. They have asked us to pray that their business may be blessed by God, so that they can continue to be a blessing to this Christian community. Praise God for a safe journey on appalling roads from Katete to Tete, and please pray for a safe journey and travelling mercies on the return drive. Pray for all those in Mozambique who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour after watching the Jesus Film, that they may fully understand the Good News, and for Pastor Andrew, that he may be clear and Spirit-filled in his teaching. Pray with me that the Holy Spirit will inspire people to assist with the six months rental cost for a house for the pastor, mentioned in my newsletter. Liz Hawthorne.

20 Saint John s Anglican Church, Toorak 86 Clendon Road Toorak 3142 Telephone: Fax: enquiries@saintjohnstoorak.org Vicar Archdeacon Dr Bradly S Billings PH (mobile) vicar@saintjohnstoorak.org Associate Priest Revd Hilary Roath E: associate@saintjohnstoorak.org Assistant Curate and Children's Minister The Revd Kirsty Ross Director of Music & Organist Professor Mel Waters E: music@saintjohnstoorak.org Marriage Ministry Co-ordinator Ms Gay Djumas marriagemin@saintjohnstoorak.org Administration Mrs Sally Robertson Lay Minister Mr Jonathan Chamberlain Messy Church Co-ordinator Mrs Nicky Jacob Prayer Chain Co-ordinator Mrs Annette Wilson July / August Monday 29 July 9.30pm - Geelong Grammar School service, St John s. Thursday 1 Aug 11.00am - Holy Communion, Angel Chapel. Saturday 3 Aug 11.30am - Baptism of Hunter Bryant pm - Baptism of Milla Sedgley. St John s on-line Website: