The Gippsland Anglican November 2011

Volume 108, Number 10 November 2011 Published in Gippsland Diocese since 1904

The Gippsland Anglican is your award winning newspaper: Best Regional Publication Silver Award (ARPA) 2010; Item or Feature that shows the mostoriginality Highly Commended (ARPA) 2010; Best Social Justice Story Highly Commended (ARPA) 2004; Best Regional Publication (ARPA) 2003;Most Improved Newspaper (ARPA) 2001.

Love me, love my dogand bless him too

pages 4 & 5

Anglican women tocelebrate 50 years

Page 3

Defence Sunday isabout people

pages 6 & 7

Memorial garden at Metung

THE congregation of St John’sMetung and St Nicholas’ LakesEntrance came together onSunday, 0ctober 2, 2011, for theblessing and dedication of amemorial garden in the grounds ofthe Metung church. Bishop JohnMcIntyre and Reverend CanonBarbara Logan officiated.

The idea for the memorial gar-den at St John’s had been underconsideration for some time, withmany in the congregation con-cerned about and desiring toremain in the place they calledhome and the distance to the near-est cemetery.

In having the faith to plan andbuild the memorial garden, thecongregation hopes that many willtake advantage of this quiet cornerof peace and contemplation, as aplace to remember and a place tospread the ashes of their lovedones.

Ian Harris designed and createdthe garden, capturing a sense of

peace. George Verbeek designedand built a stone seat, adding tothe natural colors and materialsused throughout the garden.

The garden is testament to thegenerous local community and thehard work of members of the con-gregation. It was assisted by agrant from the East GippslandShire Council Community SmallGrants Scheme.

LEFT: A section of the memorialgarden, where gravel paths mean-der among gardens made of sand-stone rocks and native plants, inthe shade of mature trees. RuthCross, on right of picture, speaksabout the development of thememorial garden.ABOVE: George Verbeek and IanHarris with the stone seat in thememorial garden. Ian designedand created the garden, whileGeorge designed and created thestone seat.

Photos: Jeanette Severs

2 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries November 2011

The Gippsland Anglican

The Gippsland

AnglicanPrice: 90 cents each

$25 annual postal subscriptionMember of Australasian Religious Press

AssociationMember of Community Newspapers

Association of VictoriaRegistered by Australia Post.

Print Post Number 34351/00018

The Gippsland Anglican is the official newspaper of and is published by

The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland, 453 Raymond St, Sale, Victoria, 3853,

www.gippsanglican.org.au

Editor: Mrs Jeanette Severs,PO Box 1254, Bairnsdale, 3875

Tel: 03 5144 2044Fax: 03 5144 7183

Email: [email protected] all parish reports, all articles,

photographs, letters and advertisements to the Editor.

Photographs should be jpeg files.Articles should be .doc or .txt files.Advertisements should be PDF files.

Printed by Latrobe Valley Express P/L21 George Street, Morwell, 3840

All contributions must be received bythe Editor by the 15th day of the monthprior to publication. Contact the Editor todiscuss variation to this date. The Editorreserves the right of final choice and for-mat of material included in each issue. TheGippsland Anglican and the Editor cannotnecessarily verify any material used in thispublication. Views contained in submittedmaterial are those of contributors.

Advertising Rates:$6.80/cm deep/column black & white.

Color is an extra $130.Contact the Editor in the first instance

for all advertising submissions, costings andenquiries, including about inserts in thenewspaper. All advertisements should bebooked with the Editor by the 10th of themonth prior to publication.

For Sale Classifieds:Parishes can advertise items for free, for

sale at prices up to and including $100.Send details, including contact name andtelephone number, to the Editor by 10thof the month prior to publication.

IndexMemorial garden ...1

AWA celebration ...3

Celebrating St Francis 4,5

Remembering people 6,7

Color in picture ...8

Games, fruit, music ...9

Diocesan calendar 10

Siblings in care 11

Clergy ministry 11

Parish fair at Foster 12

Metung gathering 13

Friends of St Paul’s 13

Ordaining women 14,15

Heyfield parish 16,17

Media reviews 18,19

News & pictorial 20

The Right Reverend John McIntyreAnglican Bishop of Gippsland

IT IS certainly true that generosity is thebenchmark of all Christian giving, but justice isan imperative for Christian giving. Our volun-tary giving to the ministry of the church is a re-sponse of gratitude for the grace with which wehave been met by God in Christ. Justice de-mands that, if we claim to be Christian, thereare times when we simply know we must give.In either case, generosity is still the benchmarkof Christian giving.

Picture the prophets of old as they visited thevillages and towns of ancient Israel. By whatcriteria did they assess the godliness of thosecommunities? Their first port of call was in-evitably not to the leadership but to the widowsand orphans; those likely to be most disenfran-chised in the community. If there was no justicefor them, the whole community in which theywere found was considered to be ungodly.

It did not matter to the prophets how well mostpeople were doing, or how generous their givingwas for the place of worship, or for the life andwork of the religious institutions of the day. Ifthe widows and orphans were neglected and un-able to participate in the common wealth of thecommunity, then the community was consid-ered not pleasing to God.

The demand of God is the demand for justice,especially for those least likely to expect it. Weshow we are truly committed to God when incompassion, we respond to the imperative ofGod’s demand for justice with generosity. Suchgiving is markedly different from the giving thatis our freewill response to God’s love for us. Itis demanded of us and it is the sure sign of ourcommitment to God and the concerns of God.This truth lay at the heart of the Word of Godas spoken by the prophets.

In our time, those most disenfranchised in ourcommunities continue to include our indigenoussisters and brothers. One of the most debilitatingrealities any human being can face is to be un-justly dispossessed of your land and, if you are

fortunate enough to survive the slaughter, tohave no choice but to live on in that land with-out access to its wealth.

The past injustice of dispossession withoutreparation, often accompanied by murder andoutrageous violence, is perpetuated by the on-going injustice of now being unable to partici-pate fully in the wealth procured from thatwhich in the first place was unjustly taken fromyou. This continues to be the plight of Aborig-inal and Torres Strait Islander people in so manyparts of this country.

This is no less true for Gippsland than it is forany other part of our country. As it was for theprophets of old in their time, so it is for us inour time. The plight of those most disenfran-chised is the measure of our godliness. Accord-ingly, responding to their need is a demand ofjustice on us and not a freewill choice for thoseChristians who may happen to be concernedabout those needs.

I invite you to contemplate your response tothe ongoing needs of the Aboriginal ministry ofour diocese in the light of this reflection. I be-lieve our response to the needs of this ministry,in which Phyllis Andy and Kathy Dalton aspriests carry the daily burdens, is a demand ofjustice on all of us.

It is not only a matter of occasional or volun-tary support if we happen to be concerned aboutit. Our commitment to God and our claim togodliness have no better measure than our giv-ing to this ministry among us.

I challenge each Anglican and each parish asa whole to consider this possibility, even if atfirst it does not seem obvious to you. Could it bethat in Gippsland the measure of our faith andthe hope of the renewal of faith in our churchesand communities, is the financial health of ourdiocesan Aboriginal Ministry Fund? If you wantto know how the fund is going, the answer isthis. After a healthy kick start, it is now floun-dering. Strangely enough, that bears a remark-

able resemblance to what often happens in ourfaith journeys!

Having faith leads to giving

New postaladdressCONTRIBUTORS please note thepostal address of The Gippsland An-glican has changed to PO Box 1254,Bairnsdale, 3875. Other details remainthe same; the Editor can still be con-tacted on [email protected]

November 2011 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries 3


Anglican women 50 years old in 2012By Jeanette Severs

THE demise of the Anglican Women of Aus-tralia organisation in Gippsland diocese, an-nounced at the recent annual general meeting,will be marked with a celebration of 50 years ofmission and ministry in March next year. AWAbegan in Gippsland in 1962 and has had a longand successful history as the umbrella organi-sation for women in the Anglican church.

Unfortunately, Gippsland’s AWA has strug-gled to attract members into leadership roles inrecent years, marked at last year’s AGM by thesudden departure of the then president and lackof succession plans for the other roles. The re-maining executive members formed a steeringcommittee, along with a few past executivemembers, to discuss the ongoing existence ofAWA.

At this year’s AGM, after a year of reflectivediscussion among themselves, with membersand in consultation with Bishop John McIntyre,AWA Gippsland’s executive recommended theorganisation cease to exist.

At the AGM, Bishop John spoke about thelack of interest in taking on leadership roles andquoted St Paul when he said the task is done andit is important to acknowledge there are timesand seasons for God’s work in the church.

“This is a time of completion for this form ofwomen’s ministry in God’s church,” BishopJohn said.

Of concern was losing the opportunity to cel-ebrate AWA’s 50 years of ministry amongwomen in Gippsland diocese, so March 6, 2012has been set and the executive is meeting in No-vember to finalise preliminary plans. The daywill get underway with refreshments at 10am,followed by 10.30 am worship and a celebra-tory lunch at St Paul’s Cathedral, in Sale.

AWA has had a very active role in the diocese,

and its leaders have included some pastBishop’s wives who were very keen onwomen’s ministry. The editor of The GippslandAnglican will work with members of AWA tobring together some of the stories of individualsand the group and is keen to hear from womenwith stories to tell.

Past national and Gippsland diocesan chair-person of AWA, Annabel Gibson, said it wasimportant to “go out with a bang rather than awhimper, by celebrating 50 years of women’sministry through AWA in Gippsland; and itsrole in gathering people together and raisingmoney for missions and special projects”.

At the AGM on October 11, at Sale, membersheard from treasurer, Jan Misiurka, that $1,239was raised this year for the AWA special project,the Newton College Theological Library up-grade.

The bulk of missions money raised was for StBarnabas Abbey, at A’Beckett Park; $8,483.95was raised by members in parishes across Gipp-sland diocese. Other missions to benefit fromAWA fundraising included the Seeds of Peaceproject in Rwanda, $500; Bush Church Aid,$500; Aboriginal Ministry, Gippsland, $500;Gippsland Home Mission Fund, $500; and $435was donated to sewing parcels. The St BarnabasAbbey Special Project saw members raise$1,214,75 to support families to stay at theAbbey.

Ethel Armstrong encouraged women to con-tinue knitting and collecting stamps and corks.

“The work will be collected at diocesan andchurch gatherings by me, or someone in yourparish will forward your work to me for CMS,”Ethel said.

Ena Sheumack House at The Abbey of StBarnabas, made possible by funds raised byAWA, will definitely be dedicated in 2012,Bishop John said.

TOP: Nell Jones (Maffra parish), Matte Lanigan (Heyfield) and Bettie Luxford(Avon) were catching up on news.MIDDLE above: Claudette Morgensen, Esme’ Hill and Yvonne Lane, of Traralgon.ABOVE: Heather Baker, Gloria Baker and Joan Less, all of Maffra parish.FAR left: Merrill Johnston (Drouin) and Ethel Armstrong (Warragul).LEFT: Judy Tulloch, of Avon parish.BELOW left: Elizabeth Crichton of Warragul parish was on the trading table.




Blessing of the animals

The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland

takes complaints of abuse and harm

seriously.

If you may have been harmed by a Church worker, or know someone who has, please come forward. All complaints will be treated sensitively and confidentially. The Director of Professional Standards, Cheryl Russell, can be contacted on telephone 03 5633 1573, on mobile 0407 563313 or email [email protected] The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland does not tolerate any harassment or abuse in its church community.

BARRY AND ANNETTE LETTFuneral Directors

67 Macarthur St., Sale 3850(03) 5143 1232

Barry, Annette andBradley Lett offer

care, compassion andservice with

dignity for the peopleof Gippsland.

Caring and personal24-hour service.

Prepaid and prearranged funeral plans available.

OCTOBER 4 is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, knownas the patron saint of animals and the environment. Pro-nounced a saint by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228, StFrancis is one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine ofSiena) and it is customary for Catholic and Anglicanchurches to hold ceremonies blessing animals around hisfeast day of October 4.

On Sunday, October 2, Bunyip parish celebrated in honorof St Francis of Assisi with Bishop Michael Hough cele-brating the eucharist for a congregation of 18 people, 14 dogsand one cat.

In his sermon Bishop Michael spoke about how St Franciscame to commit himself to the work of renewing the Church.Initially, when God called him, telling him: “rebuild mychurch”, Francis believed he was being told to rebuild a ru-ined church building near where he lived. After he rebuilt it,he came to realise God was really calling him to rebuild theChurch: the faith community; Christ’s body on earth. StFrancis, whose compassion went beyond humanity to em-brace the whole of creation, taught us to honor creation. Weare meant to be carers of the earth and all its inhabitants, notonly human kind.

Following the eucharist, the animals were brought up to beblessed. Other parishes that celebrated with a pet blessingservice included Lakes Entrance and Metung, Bairnsdale,Morwell and Sale.

Saint Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni Francesco diBernardone on October 3, 1226. He was one of seven chil-dren born to Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant, andhis wife Pica, who was originally from France. Pietro wasin France on business when Francis was born and Pica hadhim baptised as Giovanni di Bernardone in honor of SaintJohn the Baptist, in the hope he would grow to be a religiousleader.

When his father returned to Assisi, Pietro took to callinghim Francesco (‘the Frenchman’), possibly in honor of hisown commercial success and enthusiasm for all thingsFrench. Francis lived the high-spirited life typical of awealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi,going off to war in 1204.

On February 24, 1209, according to Jordan of Giano, Fran-cis heard a sermon that changed his life. The sermon wasabout Matthew 10:9, in which Christ tells his followers theyshould go forth and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven wasupon them, that they should take no money with them, noreven a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was in-spired to devote himself to a life of poverty.

Clad in a rough garment, barefoot, and, after the Gospelprecept, without staff or scrip, he began to preach repentance.He was soon joined by his first follower, a prominent fellowtownsman, the jurist Bernardo di Quintavalle, who con-tributed all he had to the work. Within a year, Francis hadeleven followers. Francis chose never to be ordained a priestand the community lived as ‘lesser brothers’.

He founded the men’s Franciscan Order. His order was en-dorsed by Pope Innocent III in 1210. Francis then foundedthe Order of Poor Clares, which was an enclosed order forwomen, as well as the Third Order of Brothers and Sisters ofPenance. In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to convertthe Sultan. By this point, the Franciscan Order had grown tosuch an extent that its primitive organisational structure wasno longer sufficient.

Francis returned to Italy to organise the order. Once his or-ganisation was endorsed by the Pope, he withdrew increas-ingly from external affairs. In 1223, Francis arranged for thefirst Christmas manger scene. In 1224, he received the stig-mata, making him the first person to bear the wounds ofChrist’s Passion. He died in 1226 while preaching Psalm141. St Francis is one of the most venerated religious figuresin history.

Nature and the environmentMANY stories surrounding the life of St Francis deal with

his love for animals. Perhaps the most famous incident thatillustrates the Saint’s humility towards nature is recountedin the “Fioretti” (“Little Flowers”), a collection of legendsand folklore to evolve after the Saint’s death.

One day, while Francis was travelling with some compan-ions, they happened upon a place in the road where birdsfilled the trees on either side. Francis told his companions to“wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds.”The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the power of hisvoice and not one of them flew away.

Another legend from the Fioretti tells that in the city ofGubbio, where Francis lived for some time, was a wolf “ter-rifying and ferocious, who devoured men as well as ani-mals”. Francis had compassion upon the townsfolk and wentup into the hills to find the wolf. When he found the wolf, hemade the sign of the cross and commanded the wolf to cometo him and hurt no one. The wolf closed his jaws and laydown at the feet of St Francis.

Then Francis led the wolf into the town and made a pact

between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had “done evilout of hunger”, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regu-larly. The wolf would no longer prey upon them or theirflocks. Francis even made a pact on behalf of the town dogs,that they would not bother the wolf again. Finally, to showthe townspeople that they would not be harmed, Francisblessed the wolf.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi



MMOORREE BBAANNGG FFOORR YYOOUURR BBUUCCKK !! A common expression but it describes exactly what you gain when you make a deposit with the Anglican Development Fund. You can Save your money with guaranteed security and Serve the Mission of the Church in Gippsland at the same time. Good interest rates, too. Here they are:

o 3.75% At Call o 4.75% Term Deposits to $20,000 o 5.00 % Term Deposits $20,000 +

The period for a term deposit is 12 months. There is no minimum deposit for either At Call or Term deposits. Remember, there are No Fees or Charges to operate your account with the ADF. Access to your deposit is only a telephone call away. Open an account with the ADF today. Telephone us on (03) 5144 2044 or write to The Registrar, at PO Box 928, Sale, Vic. 3850, or you can drop in to the Diocesan Registry at 453 Raymond Street, Sale, for an application form to open your account with the ADF. Note: Neither the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland nor the Anglican Development Fund Gippsland is prudentially supervised by APRA. Contributions to the Fund do not obtain the benefit of depositor protection provisions of the Banking Act 1959.

PHOTOS from various blessing ofthe pets services. honoring St Fran-cis of Assisi, in the Anglican dio-cese of Gippsland, in October:Christina Louise (Bunyip), Chris-tine Morris (Sale), Carolyn Ray-mond (Morwell) and UrsulaPlunkett and Judi Hogan (Bairns-dale).

Dogs and a cat



Defence Sunday remembers peopleDEFENCE Sunday this year is on

November 6. The best supportparishes can give to the ministry ofDefence Chaplaincy is prayer, saidBishop Len Eacott (right), Angli-can Bishop to the Australian De-fence Force.

“And it would be helpful if somemight consider our ministry as a le-gitimate extension of giving tomission. The church’s missionbeing to the precious people of theDefence Force and their families,”Bishop Len said.

For liturgical resources or otherinformation about Defence Sun-day, http://www.defenceangli-cans.org.au/?q=about/defence-sunday or contact [email protected] or telephone02 6265 9707.

Defence Sunday is held annuallyon the Sunday nearest to Remem-brance Day (November 11). In theAnglican Church, we use the dayto draw attention to the spiritualneeds and wellbeing of those whoserve in the Australian DefenceForce (ADF) as sailors, soldiers orairmen; to foster prayerful supportwithin the churches for those whoserve the nation through ADF serv-ice; to encourage clergy to considerservice as full or part time Aus-tralian Defence Force chaplains;and to build bridges of cooperationbetween the Anglican ministry tothe Australian Defence Force anddioceses and parishes across Aus-tralia.

Anglican Australian DefenceForce chaplains and GeneralSynod Defence Force board mem-bers are available to participate inparish worship as deputationists.To arrange an Australian DefenceForce deputation, please contact ei-ther Bishop Len Eacott or one ofthe Service archdeacons, Eric Bur-ton (Navy), Geoff Webb (Army) orKevin Russell (Air Force).

Parishes can also download apowerpoint presentation on de-fence chaplaincy. This powerpointwas part of the General Synod2010 presenation.

AMOS foundationMEMBERS of the public are in-

vited to support the work of Angli-can Defence Force Chaplaincy bycontributing financially to the min-istry of the bishop to the DefenceForce and the Anglican chaplains.As many of the activities under-taken by the bishop and the chap-lains are not funded by theCommonwealth, your generousgift will both enhance and extendthe church’s mission and ministryto service personnel, both overseasand at home.

For those seeking tax deductibil-ity, the Defence Force Board hascreated the AMOS Foundation(Anglican Military – Outreach andService) which has been grantedDeductible Gift Recipient status bythe Australian Taxation Office(under General Category 5.1.2 –Defence). All donations to theAMOS Foundation of $2 andabove are tax deductible.

The significance of the work tobe funded by The AMOS Founda-ton has been acknowledged at ViceRegal level: Her Excellency MsQuentin Bryce AC, The GovernorGeneral of Australia, has agreed tobe patron of the AMOS Fondation.

Your tax deducible donation willbe most gratefully received andpromptly acknowledged with anofficial reciept.

You can donate online or sendyour donation by cheque to TheAmos Foundation, Office of theAnglican Bishop to the ADF, Box7915, Canberra, BC ACT 2610.

Owned and operated by Ray & Maree Anderson

With care & dignity, we serve South Gippsland and Phillip Island

Main Office: WONTHAGGI/INVERLOCH (03) 5672 1074 176-178 Graham Street, Wonthaggi, 3995 Fax: (03) 5672 1747

PHILLIP ISLAND (03) 5952 5171 15 Warley Avenue, Cowes, 3922 (by appointment only) Email: [email protected]

Pre-paid & pre-arranged funeral plans available.

CARING & PERSONAL 24 HOUR SERVICE

A Prayer for AustralianDefence Force ChaplainsLord God of Hosts,we pray for your clergy whom you have called to the ministryof uniformed chaplaincy,and for those who proclaim your love and compassion in bat-tle areasand defence establishmentswhere Australian military personnel serve.Lord, strengthen their faith as they seek to witness to you inthe secular world.Protect them from all dangers and comfort them in the longseparations from their familiesand the familiar things of church, that they must endure.Lord, who blessed the peacemakers,bless especially those chaplains serving overseas,helping to bring peace to nations new and old which arestruggling to find their identity and place in the world.We ask in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, wholives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, now and forever.

Amen

TOP: Archdeacon for the Navy,Eric Burton. ABOVE: Archdeacon for theArmy, Geoff Webb. LEFT: Archdeacon for the AirForce, Kevin Russell.FAR left: Defence Captain CatCrane, Bishop’s staff officer.

IN Gippsland, the RAAFRoulettes Acrobatic Air Team(above), based at RAAF Base EastSale, is a visual reminder to thecommunity of the importance ofthe Australian Defence Force, inpeacetime and in combat. TheRoulettes participate in training ex-ercises across Gippsland, interstateand internationally. For instance,the team travelled to Indonesia totrain with and teach members ofthat airforce.

The planes are commonly seen inthe air around Sale and furtherafield, for pilot training. They alsoparticipate in public events such asthe recent GP on Phillip Island.

Photo: Corporal Steve Duncan

Roulettes link Gippsland to Defence Sunday



WHY is Remembrance Day and its traditions special toAustralians? At 11am, on November 11, 1918, the guns ofthe Western Front fell silent after more than four years con-tinuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the Germaninvaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them overthe preceding four months. In November, the Germans calledfor an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure apeace settlement. They accepted the allied terms of uncon-ditional surrender.

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained aspecial significance in the post-war years. The moment whenhostilities ceased on the Western Front became universallyassociated with the remembrance of those who had died inthe war. This first modern world conflict had brought aboutthe mobilisation of more than 70 million people and left be-tween nine and 13 million people dead, perhaps as many asone-third of them with no known grave. The allied nationschose this day and time for the commemoration of their wardead.

After the end of the Second World War, the Australian andBritish governments changed the name to RemembranceDay. Armistice Day was no longer an appropriate title for aday which would commemorate all war dead.

In 1997, Governor-General Sir William Deane issued aproclamation formally declaring November 11 to be Re-membrance Day, urging all Australians to observe oneminute’s silence at 11am on this day each year, to rememberthose Australians who died or suffered for Australia’s causein all wars and armed conflicts.

“Today, Australians continue in the tradition of commem-orating those who died in past conflicts and we also think ofour Defence Force members presently serving on active op-erations in various parts of the world,” said Bishop Len Ea-cott, Anglican Bishop to the Defence Force. (See page 6 forinformation about Defence Sunday.)

Remembrance Day prayers, bible readings and a simpleprder of service appropriate for Remembrance Day are avail-able from the website of the Anglican Bishop to the DefenceForce, on http://www.defenceanglicans.org.au click on Min-istry, Ministry Resources, Remembrance Day Prayers, BibleReadings and Resources. A multimedia presentation andmusic includes the Last Post and Rouse, Abide with Me andEternal Father Strong to Save.

By Chaplain Atsushi Shibaoka, RAAF

WATCHING the news reports on Remembrance Day, No-vember 11, made me reflect on the significant role of chap-laincy ministry to the families of those who are killed inaction. Occasions like Remembrance Day honour AustralianDefence Force personnel who have died in action; they helpthe rest of us to express our gratitude and place their death ina wider context, in terms of their contribution to the life ofthe nation, through their death.

In all this, there is a real danger of losing sight of personaldimension, if we only honor them merely as military ‘he-roes”. They were sons, husbands, partners or brothers, too.

In my chaplaincy ministry, I have been privileged to knowthe family members who have been through this horrible ex-perience. They experienced that knock on the door, with thecommanding officer and the chaplain standing on the otherside of the security screen.

On that day when they received the tragic news and againon Remembrance Day, each year those families are facedwith great turmoil within; two very different emotions.

On the one hand, the family members are immensely proudof the fact their son, brother or husband lost his life on behalfof the nation. This amazing sense of pride, combined withtheir acute sense of loss, leaves some family members so vul-nerable.

On the other hand, they have all the emotions, experiencesand questioning of people who cope with untimely and vio-lent death. These are not so different from people who havelost a family member in a motor vehicle accident or to a vi-olent crime.

When you see those military commemorations, I ask you topray for military chaplains. We work quietly, often in thebackground, sitting and praying with those family members,in the shadows of very public military pomp and ceremony.We seek to be an incarnational presence of God for thosepeople at a very personal level. Many of them have no reli-

gious faith and are often from faith traditions other thanChristian. We sit with them in times of deepest need andemotions.

We need more chaplains who are willing to be used by Godin this way, so pray for more chaplains too.

Increasingly, our nation will debate the value of an Aus-tralian military presence in Afghanistan. That is what a lib-eral democracy like ours needs to do. However, thosefamilies in the Australian Defence Force that have experi-enced loss need to be respected by all sides of the debate inthat process, because of their vulnerability.

* Chaplain Atsushi Shibaoka (above) is an Air Force Chap-lain. He wrote this article in 2005, when he was serving atOfficers Training School, RAAF East Sale, in Gippsland,Victoria.

Valley Funeral Latrobe

Services

! Qualified, experienced and caring staff

! Modern chapels! Refreshments and catering

facilities available! Secure, guaranteed, pre-paid

and pre-arranged funeral plans

! Over 70 years of service to the Latrobe Valley

MORWELL 5134 4937MOE 5126 1111

TRARALGON 5174 2258

Owned and operated byPaul and Katrina McInnes

Proud member of theAustralian Funeral Directors

Association and the Australian andBritish Institutes of Embalming

MARKRIDDLEConsultant

JOHNGALBRAITHConsultant

PAULMcINNESDirector

2002900

SUBSCRIPTIONto The Gippsland Anglican

Get The Gippsland Anglican posted direct to you

Name ......................................................................

Address ..................................................................

.................................................................................

Telephone ...............................................................

Yes, I would like a one year postal subscription to The Gipps-land Anglican, costing $27.50. I enclose a cheque/postalorder, made out to the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. Send to TGA subscriptions, Anglican Diocese of Gippsland,PO Box 928, Sale, 3850. Enquiries, telephone 03 5144 2044.

Remembrance Dayspecial to nation

Prayers for churches to useon Remembrance DayGod of love and liberty,We bring our thanks today for the peace and security weenjoy,We remember those who in time of war faithfully servicetheir country.We pray for their families, and for ourselves whose freedomwas won at such a cost.Make us a people zealous for peace, and hasten that daywhen nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neitherlearn war any more.This we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for thesake of the world:Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

Prayer of the dayO God, our ruler and guide,In whose hands are the destinies of this and every nation,We give you thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in this landAnd for those who laid down their lives to defend them:We pray that we and all the people of Australia,Gratefully remembering their courage and their sacrifice,May have the grace to live in a spirit of justice, of generos-ity, and of peace;Through Jesus Christ our Lord,Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,One God, for ever and ever. Amen

A sentence for Remembrance Day‘No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’slife for one’s friends. You are my friends,’ says the Lord, ‘ifyou do what I command you.’ John 15:13-14

Suitable Bible Readings for Remembrance DayMicah 4:1-4 or 2 Samuel 22:2-20 Psalm 46 or Psalm 51:14-19Hebrews 10:32-11:1 or Roman 5:1-8John 15:9-17 or John 10:1-21

Adapted from A Prayer Book for Australia, pages 204, 628.

Pride does not erase grief

8 Our Diocese - Children’s, Youth and Family Ministries November 2011


If so, we’d love to hear from you!

ON CAMPUS COURSES

ONLINE COURSES

online.mcd.edu.au

PARISH BASED

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT E: T:

THOUGHT OF STUDYING THEOLOGY?

www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/theology

THOUGHT OF

STUDYING THHHHEHE

EOLOGY?E

THOUGHT OF

SES COURSN CAMPUO

scholarly exploration of their ftraining and lay education. Wworld. We offer courses on ccourses represent a catholic bhas now broadened to includability. The founding vision w

Y COLLEGE THEOLOGTTRINI

If so, we’d love to hear f

STUDYING THH

r faith.. We also offer courses for thos

HHHE

e eampus, online, and in parish

eee

en

c breadth in theology, worshissss a

p ae the ministry of all God’s pe

,p, o

npl

E

n was originally to be a placoop

e to ee

ed offers excitin

ee ud c

e

HOOL,CAL SCGI

r from you!

gg og o

OLOGYE ?

aged in ministtrryy, and those intng rd faith centres a

rrr

eoound Australns a

no

d spirituality, in dialo

ooiu

ggue with tde

g, women and men, la

gy a

hunnnd orda, n

cate a ‘learned and dedicadt

it

d oeeed clc e

urses in theology: for every led

eed c

vv

n

eo evee

erested in a, for ordination

he contemporary ned ali

rkkee. Our

ergy’. Our

focur feel of i

s nntteerest anrl d

through the Trinity CertificatWe are committed to promot

EDSH BASARIP

theological distance educationThe Theological School, in par

SESOUR CONLINE

units in the Ministry FormatiFaculty of Theology (UFT). ThTrinity theological students n

SES COURSN CAMPUO

e in Theology and Ministryting theological education in pari

online. See ‘Theology Online’ at thtnership with the UFT, offers a flex

on Program.hey also participate in the worshi

s normally undertake a Bacheloi

r ooo

shes in mmeetrooppolitan and regiona

e Me

e

ll

te

b

p

bbou

p

r

op

ne Collegen ee ooo onff Divinityible,

b rooeec

nu

Dffmmenical, world-em cc

:lllass stae

i

uce

ip li

m

f

aal

e of the Schoool al ann ud unnddertaofp f T

n

ehe

eo

ko

klloogy or Ma

esstter of De ivviinnit

pphf lh y wl g i

al Austl A raallia

onli

i

ne.mn cdd.eeddu.audard o

kk

f

e formationae fy wi

e l t

e ft th tthe United hhh t

u

www.trinity.unimelb.ed

Dr David Gormley O’Brien, ACION TORMAFFOR MORE IN

through the Trinity Certificat

u.au/theology

tctsregis:Ecademic Registrar | CTTATAON

e in Theology and Ministry.

T:[email protected] | eddu.abl db u u

03 9348 74788

Color in the picture

ABOVE: The Angel speaks to Mary.

Jumble words

You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give himthe name Jesus. Luke 1:31 (NIV)

ANSWERS: great king child afraid angel

Copyright © Sermons 4 Kids, Inc. All Rights Reserved www.sermons4kids.com

ABOVE: Children from Moe parish enjoyed a sausage sizzle and gamesprior to a showcase of art and craft hosted by GFS Kidsplus+ Gippslandand Moe parish. The two functions raised money to send representativesto the Australian GFs Council meeting. More than 44 adults enjoyed theshowcase, which included the work of many local artists and crafts peo-ple. Displays were provided by Dragi Jankovic of Steiner Gallery, patch-work from Fiona Byl, Kaye Brand and Rhonda Jankovic of the LatrobeValley Quilters, Sudanese crafts from the Moe congregation. Local hand-craft from Moe parishionersand their families was also on display. Bothfunctions provided opportunity for fellowship in the community.

Contributed by/Photo: Mary Nicholls

Art snags fun

November 2011 Our Diocese - Children’s, Youth and Family Ministries 9


TRAFALGAR Yarragon andThorpedale parish held a ‘Kid’sGame Program’ in the first week ofthe last school holidays, in Trafal-gar Public Hall. A group from theSuburban Baptist Church in Wer-ribee (11 to 14 year old youth) ranmost of the games, crafts and biblestory times, monitored by theirleaders.

This was a real blessing as manyof the parish’s team members werenot available. It also provided acompletely different model ofreaching out to young people byteaching the slightly older youth todo the outreach.

Many children participating inthe program were returning fami-lies from previous holiday pro-grams. It was wonderful to see theyoung leaders reaching out to allthose participating.

On October 9, we held a musical

café again, in St Mary’s, as part ofthe Battle of Trafalgar celebrations,raising money for the chaplaincyprogram. There was a good crowdin attendance and a diverse num-ber of musical items.

Local music teacher, Norm Cot-trell, brought along some of hisstudents, as well as his class set ofukuleles. It was fun to see peopleplaying ukuleles with five minutesinstruction. Actually, they soundedgood.

Contributed by Marg Clarke

ABOVE: Children participating inthe school holiday program werekeen to eat the fruit provided dur-ing breaks from games (below).BOTTOM: Jake, Angus and Alexplayed original compositions at themusical café held as part of theBattle of Trafalgar celebrations,

Photos: Ross Jacka

Games, fruit andmusic at Trafalgar

ABOVE and right: Bairnsdale parish held a school holiday program atSt John’s church hall, well attended by local children. Amanda Ballan-tyne, the family and children’s worker, organised games, a puppet showand quiet activities, as well as refreshments. The suceess of the programleads the parish to consider future similar programs. For preschool chil-dren, the mainly music program continues to be very popular in Bairns-dale parish.

Photos: Amanda Ballantyne

Holiday fun with puppets

THE 2012 Kidsplus+ camp willbe held at ‘The Island’ CYC camp-site at Phillip Island, from March23 to 25. The cost of this annualcamp is a little more in 2012, how-ever it definitely is reflected in thecomfortable ensuited huts and fa-cilities provided on site. The cost is$120 per child aged between sixand 18 years. Application formswill be available in parishes in No-vember, with bookings and fees tobe finalised by the end of February.

Leaders of parish children’s andyouth groups are encouraged toparticipate on team and accompanysome of their own group members.Please contact Mary Nicholls ifyou are interested.

Families can pay the camp fee inportions, gradually, up until the endof February.

As always, we are appreciative ofany financial assistance providedfor discretionary use to assist theless financial families attending.Kidsplus+ Gippsland will also bedrawing on the interest from twomemorial funds establishedthrough CEBS and GFS for suchpurposes; the Dennis Buxton andVal Downey funds.

Please enquire of Kidsplus+ [email protected] ifyou know someone who mightbenefit from this support or othersources of sponsorship.

New Games Equipment

THANKS to Diocesan TrustFunds, Kidsplus+ Gippsland has

bought a three metre by three metre‘Get Knotted’ or tradional‘Twister’game and a Tower Jengaset (above), now available for use.It was recently one of the gamesused in the school holiday programoffered by Trafalgar parish.

In November, parishes and

groups will receive new affiliationforms. Annual affiliation is $30and adult members or leaders maybecome financialmembers for $15or $12 concession. Gippsland hasmany adult members of the na-tional network.

Contributed by: Mary Nicholls

Camp 2012for Kidsplus

Col, Pal & Brad SemmensFUNERAL DIRECTORS

~Servicing Gippsland~Maffra 5147 1954Sale 5144 1954Heyfield 5148 3354

24 Hour Service

Our Family Caring For Your Family Since 1979Brad Pal Col

10 Our Diocese - Children’s, Youth and Family Ministries November 2011


2011

November2 Induction of Reverend Graham Knott as new priest in

charge of Maffra parish; St John’s Maffra5 Enthronement of new Bishop of Ballarat, Bishop Garry

Wetherill; 11am; Christ Church Cathedral Ballarat6 Defence Sunday; remember the ministry of the

Anglican Church among defence personnel and their families on this day; contact Bishop Len Eacott, [email protected] or visit www.defenceanglicans.org.au

11 Remembrance Day15 – 16 Emergency Chaplaincy training course, Level 2, for

clergy and pastoral ministers; Victorian Emergency Chaplaincy Network; 9am to 4pm; $25, incl catering and manual; Email [email protected] or telephone 03 9654 1736

19 Bairnsdale parish fair, St John’s church grounds20 Diocesan Ultreya, 2pm to 4pm24 – 25 Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training; Latrobe

Valley; $275; contact Sarah Gover, 03 5144 1100 or 0458 450370

25 White Ribbon Day27 Advent Sunday27 The St Thomas’ workshops on faith and renewal: Is

Jesus Lord? or was he just a good man? 9.30am for mass; 11.30am to 2.30pm for workshop. BYO lunch. Contact Chris Bennie, email [email protected]

29 Mothers’ Union Gippsland Executive meeting, Morwell; followed by lunch at Gastronomy

29 Retired clergy lunch, 11am to 3pm Wonthaggi; contact Reverend Laurie Baker, Maffra

December3 Annual diocesan clergy family end of year gathering,

Bishopscourt, Sale; 11am to 5pm4 Emergency Services Sunday, St John’s Bairnsdale25 Christmas Day25 Community Christmas Lunch, CowesDec. 28 – Jan. 3 Summer in Seaspray, Sale parishDec. 30 – Jan. 6 Scripture Union ‘Theos’ beach mission, Lakes

Entrance

2012

TBA Blessing of Ena Sheumack House; Abbey of St Barnabas at A’Beckett Park, Raymond Island

January1 Begins: International Year of People of African Descent13 – 18 Summer under the Son conference, CMS; Philip Island;

www.cms.org.au

February3 Intentional Pastoral Seminar, Sale; contact Archdeacon

Heather Marten at the Registry, 03 5144 204421 Shrove/Pancake Tuesday22 Ash Wednesday

March6 Anglican Women of Australia Gippsland 50th

celebration; 10am; St Paul’s Cathedral, Sale18 Mothering Sunday23 - 25 Kidsplus+ Gippsland camp, Philip Island; contact parish

for application forms, or Mary Nicholls26 Mothers’ Union Lady Day; St Paul’s Cathedral Sale;

10am; guest Marilyn Oulds, Worldwide Mothers’ Union; BYO lunch

April1 Palm Sunday3 Renewal of Ordination of Vows and Blessing of Oils

service, 3pm; St Paul’s Cathedral, Sale5 Maundy Thursday6 Good Friday8 Easter Day25 ANZAC Day30 - May 2 Clergy conference; The Abbey of St Barnabas,

A’Beckett Park, Raymond Island

MayApril 30 - May 2 Clergy conference; The Abbey of St Barnabas,

A’Beckett Park, Raymond Island18 – 20 Gippsland Anglican 36th annual Synod, Sale

Diocesan Calendar

Dates and events as provided to The Gippsland Anglican by time of printing.

Siblingsin carerarelykept together

A NEW report launched by An-glicare Victoria shows less thanone in five foster children live withall of their brothers and sisters inthe same home. The report alsoshows one quarter of foster chil-dren who are separated from sib-lings have no ongoing contact withthem.

The Victorian figures are partic-ularly stark in the face of interna-tional studies reporting entiresibling groups are kept intact inabout 45 per cent of cases.

The report, All together now, byDr Sarah Wise, is the result of astudy carried out by the State’slargest foster care agency, Angli-care Victoria, and is the first of itskind in Australia.

Anglicare Victoria CEO, Mr PaulMcDonald, said more foster chil-dren are separated from siblingsthan should be and a lack of ca-pacity to house families of three ormore children together is one ofthe main reasons we are falling sofar behind international standards.

“This study shows 43 per cent ofVictorian foster children are sepa-rated from their entire family ofsiblings and another 42 per cent areseparated from at least one brotheror sister in care.

“While not all siblings should beplaced together, there is strong ev-idence to say placing brothers andsisters together, where appropriate,can help overcome trauma and di-minish behavioral problems. Weseem to be falling behind on thisprinciple, “ said Mr McDonald.

Research shows separated sib-lings are at higher risk of runningaway, having multiple placements,failing to reunite with their naturalfamily and losing contact witheach other during their lives.

Mr McDonald says there is arange of issues making it difficultto place brothers and sisters to-gether in care, including a moveaway from traditional options suchas family group homes and thechallenge of siblings entering careat different times.

“There are three tests for us withthis issue; whether we can housesiblings together who enter the sys-tem together, maintaining connec-tions between siblings when theydo not live together and that weplace greater importance on theeventual reunification of siblinggroups living in out of home care,”said Mr McDonald.

Anglicare Victoria is calling onthe State Government to work to-gether investigating and imple-menting measures to help housemultiple sibling groups and im-prove practices to reunite siblinggroups or facilitate regular contactwhere reunification is not possible.

*Dr Sarah Wise is General Man-ager, Policy, Research and Innova-tion at Anglicare Victoria.

ABOVE: Marc Caruana and daughter, Ebony-Bree, at the Saleparish fair at St Paul’s Cathedral.BELOW: Elisha and Rebecca Morgan sold chocolates to raisemoney for youth ministry at the Sale parish fair.

Contributed by/Photos: Christine Morris

Fair fun

ABOVE: Hannah and Benjamin Watson loved having their facespainted at Christ Church in Foster, at the Corner Inlet parish fair.

Photo: Robert Paragreen/The Mirror

November 2011 Our Diocese - Clergy Ministry 11


Lostorfound

ABOVE: Archdeacon Ted Gibsonis well known throughout the dio-cese and further afield. On reliev-ing duties, at some time in the pasttwo years, Archdeacon Ted hasmislaid this stole, and he wouldlike to recover it. Does anyonerecognise this stole? Do you knowwhere it is? It might have beenplaced in a church vestry or cup-board. Please contact ArchdeaconTed and Annabel Gibson, tele-phone 03 5152 7823.

ABOVE: Cathedral Deans at the annual deans’ conference in 1981 inChristchurch, New Zealand. The Gippsland Anglican September 2011issue published an article and photograph of the Australasian Deans Con-ference of Anglican Deans, held at Wellington New Zealand in August.The article was about the first gathering of Anglican Deans from NewZealand, Fiji and Australia and attended by Dean Don Saines, of St Paul’sCathedral, Sale. Archdeacon Ted Gibson, pictured above second left infront, was able to supply this photograph from 1981, when he was Deanof St Paul’s Cathedral. Ted and Annabel Gibson attended the Deans ofAustralasia conference in Christchurch, along with Anglican and Catholicdeans from Australia, New Zealand and Suva. It was also attended byHer Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edin-burgh, who attended a service to celebrate the centenary of ChristchurchCathedral on October 13, 1981.

By Ali Symons General Synod web writer

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011, Canada—Earlier this month, ReverendJesse Dymond began his work asGeneral Synod’s first online com-munity coordinator. A priest in theDiocese of Huron, Rev. Jesse has awide range of experience in parishministry, theological reflection,technology and communications.

Canadian Anglicans will be see-ing more of Rev. Jesse as hetweets, posts Facebook updatesand finds new ways to connectpeople online. Since the focus ofhis ministry will be to cultivate on-line community, we gave him morethan 140 characters (the Twitterlimit) to introduce himself. Readon for the interview.

What do you do at GeneralSynod?

For now, I’m working behind thescenes: networking, planning andtaking care of our involvement inexisting communities such as Face-book and Twitter.

Within the year, however, we willbe launching our own online com-munity, what Vision 2019, thestrategic plan, calls ‘A nationalcommunication platform, inte-grated and accessible at the parish,diocesan, and national levels’. Myjob will be to watch over that plat-form, both behind the scenes on atechnical level and publicly in theforums as a mediator; or whatsome colleagues are already call-ing ‘internet priest’.

This online community will be aplace where clergy, parishionersand seekers can engage in dialogueand share resources for ministry. Aplace where Anglicans across thecountry can share their successesand struggles. A place where An-glicans separated by geographycan support one another. A safeplace to ask questions.

At least part of that communitywill be centered around the lec-tionary, allowing parishes to movethrough the seasons of the churchyear together.

Working on this project feels likechurch planting but without thebuilding. In this case, the churchalready exists. It is all of us.

What brought you to this min-istry?

Too often, we see ministry assomething occurring only in tradi-tional venues and by traditionalmeans. The reality is we are calledto live as ministers of the gospel inall we are and in all we do.

In that light, I come to this min-istry as an Anglican priest, but alsoas one seeking to live out both mybaptismal covenant and ordinationvows with the gifts and experi-ences God has given me.

My formative years were spentlearning constantly changing waysof communicating. I often joke thatAtari Basic was my second lan-guage. Computers have alwaysbeen part of my life and I partici-pated in the early days of the inter-net. I suppose that is as good aplace to start as any.

My educational and professionallife before seminary consisted ofvariations on this theme. In pho-

tography, news, music and radio,the same questions were asked:How will the changes in the waywe communicate affect our voca-tion? What does technology offerus? What does it take away? Andperhaps most importantly, Howmust we change?

As a parish priest, I have foundthat many of the same questionspervade the ministry we share in,from worship to administration topastoral communication. I havecontinued to explore these ques-tions with particular attention todeveloping a Christian ethic for ouruse of technology.

So how does being a priest in-form this online ministry?

When the time came to discernwhether I might be called to thisministry, I looked to the lives of thefirst apostles Jesus called. Whenwe retell the story of Simon, An-drew, James and John leaving theirnets to follow Christ, we tend toemphasise change. They didchange; answering God’s call isnothing short of transformative.

But if we assume the apostlesnever fished again, we may havemissed the point. Not long after,we read about Jesus and his friendsback in the boat. We read aboutthem grilling fish for breakfast. Inshort, while Jesus had called themto new places and purposes, he alsocalled them to be stewards of thegifts God had already given them.

To adapt an old phrase from thecomputer industry, he called themto ‘fish different’. I fish differentand lead others in doing the same.

What are you most excited aboutin this role?

Bringing people together. I won-der, sometimes, if the churchavoids communications technol-ogy for fear of its dehumanising ef-fects. On one hand this makessense. Email can never replaceface-to-face conversation and a textmessage is no substitute for humantouch. But the internet alone offerscountless resources to help us buildrelationships that would otherwisebe impossible.

I am excited about the possibilitya parishioner in Charlottetownmight share a children’s ministryresource with another in Brandon.I am excited clergy might have aplace to share homiletical reflec-tions unique to our Canadian andAnglican contexts. I am excitedthat a big-picture, national resourcemight foster grassroots ideas andministries to help our church growfrom the ground up.

Why is it important for Anglicansto connect online?

For the same reason it is impor-tant for Anglicans to connect intheir homes, on the street or in theparish hall: because we need oneanother. If we really are the Bodyof Christ, we should be doing all inour power to be united and to usethe gifts and skills of every part.The internet is more than simply ameans of communication. It is aplace where people make connec-tions, share ideas and find commu-nity. Anglicans are already there, intheir personal and professionallives.

If we really do believe what we

Meet the internetpriest, in Canada

ABOVE: Bishop John McIntyre leads the dedication and blessing of the memorial garden at St John’s Angli-can Church, Metung, alongside Reverend Canon Barbara Logan, rector of Lakes Entrance and Metung parishand the congregation. See page one for more photographs and article.

Photo: Jeanette Severs

Mentor training to goahead in GippslandEDUCATION for Ministry mentor training begins in Gipps-

land diocese on November 3 to 5 this year. The training will beheld at St Paul’s Cathedral, Sale. For further details, contact Rev-erend Don Saines, Dean of the Cathedral, email [email protected] or telephone 03 5144 2020.

The Education for Ministry program has been successfully run-ning in Gippsland diocese for many years, with groups in everyRural Deanery. As reported in The Gippsland Anglican Octoberissue, the Cathedral parish is taking leadership on exploring anddelivering training options in the diocese.

12 Our Diocese - Parishes November 2011


Christ Church hosts parish fair

ABOVE: The tapestry, honoring women and worked by Iso-bel Simon, titled ‘Hands Clasped in Prayer’ that was dedi-cated at St James’ Buln Buln in September; as reported inThe Gippsland Anglican October issue. The tapestry wasdedicated to the memory of Stella Trewern and Dorrie Stoll,both of whom were servants for many years of the church.

A STEADY stream of people allmorning made their way to ChristChurch in Foster on Saturday, Oc-tober 15, to enjoy all the fun of theannual Corner Inlet AnglicanParish fete.

The Big Breakfast of bacon, eggsand toast was popular as were thepancakes. As soon as breakfast fin-ished at 10am, the barbecue start-ing emitting the tantalising aromasof sausages and hamburgers – realcrowd favourites.

The women in the kitchen werekept busy supplying tea, coffee,sandwiches and cakes to thosewanting a break from bargain hunt-ing. All stalls were well suppliedby donations from the congrega-tions and community, with cakes,homemade jams, plants, craftitems, books, toys, bric-a-brac andsecondhand furniture for sale.

The children were entertainedwith face painting, plaster painting,a jumping castle and ice-creamsand lollies for sale.

There were three raffles on theday of the fete. The lucky winnerswere: fruit and vegetables, NancyRoussac; fuel, Peter Grady; trailerof wood, Lyn Hewson. Tickets forthe Christmas cake and teddy bearraffle will be available until De-cember 4, so watch out for ticketsellers in Foster’s Main Street dur-ing the next few weeks.

The parish thanks all the peoplewho worked at the fete and thecommunity for supporting thestalls. An estimated $6,000 wasraised.

Contributed by Robert Paragreen

TOP: Gypsy from Foster draws thewinner of the fuel raffle at thechurch fair at Foster. TOP right: Christine and BertFabel of Foster and Gail Moss ofYanakie choosing from the wideselection of jams and pickles forsale at the produce stall.

Photos: Robert ParagreenArticle and photographs origi-

nally published in The Mirror, Fos-ter. Reprinted with permission.

ABOVE: Emma from Binginwarriwas trying the exercise equipmentat the parish fair.RIGHT: Children and adults en-joyed an icecream at the fair.BELOW: Seph Hession servingGwen Combridge and GwendaBevan their bacon and eggs break-fast at the church fair.

LEFT: George Francis, of Morwell, was recentlyin Alfred Hospital for surgery and really appre-ciated the telephone calls, cards, prayers and vis-its to aid his recovery. Reverend Des has madeseveral pastoral visits to get to know the con-gregation members, as they live in a widespreadarea from Mirboo East, Boolarra, Yinnar, Yin-nar South, Morwell and Newborough. His timeas the parish’s supply minister is coming to anend and we are thankful for his time with us.Rev. Des is pictured (right) visiting the recover-ing George Francis (left) at home.

Photo: Rae Billing

Sale Cook BookON September 17, St Paul’s Cathedral parish launched a

parish cookbook, Through the Window of St Paul’s: See slices,savouries, sweets, sumptuous meals and scenes of Sale. About40 people attended the launch by local cooking judge, Rose-mary Mowat, at Delbridge Hall and enjoyed a light lunch madefrom recipes in the book.

The book was a fundraising idea floated earlier in the year bya small group of women in the parish. Led by June Lawson,Robyn Bruhn, Yvonne MacPherson and Pat Brand, collectedrecipes from across all the parish centres and chose a selectionfor the book. The organisers covered the cost of printing byselling advertising, so the funds raised by book sales went fullyto the parish. The first print run sold out and a small reprint hasbeen done to sell cookbooks in the upcoming Christmas pe-riod.

Contributed by Stuart Lawson

ABOVE: St Paul’s cook-book was launched in style.Yvonne McPherson sold acopy of the cookbook toPhilip Davis. Copies areavailable from St Paul’s for$10. A second print run wasnecessary after most of thebooks sold out at the fair.RIGHT: The cake stall wasbusy all day at St Paul’s fairat Sale.

Photo: Christine Morris

November 2011 Our Diocese - Parishes 13


Memorial gardenblessed at Metung

LEFT: Jeanne Row, Jenny Romano and Janet Trotter were pleased to seethe blessing of the memorial garden at Metung.ABOVE: Shirley Crutchfield and Geva Kramer.BELOW left: Ken Hillibrand, Julia Pavel and Carolyn Fountain.BELOW right: Ian Harris (garden designer and maker), Reverend CanonBarbara Logan, Rose Castles and Caitlin O’Byrne.


LEFT: Jim Logan and Kerry Harry at St John’s Metung.BELOW: Trish Shibaoka and Archdeacon Ted Gibson.


Morwell

ABOVE: John Kurrle, a memberof the congregation St Paul’s, Ko-rumburra, received the SapphirePin for service recently. This isRotary’s highest award and the firsttime it has been awarded to a mem-ber of Korumburra Rotary Club.Congratulations, John.

Contributed by Lyn GilbertPhoto: Jenny Ramage

ABOVE: Sudanese crafts were ondisplay in Moe parish. It was partof a showcase of art and crafthosted by GFS Kidsplus+ Gipps-land and Moe parish.

Photo: Mary Nicholls

ON September 11, at the morn-ing service, Reverend LynWilliams did not preach a sermon.Instead, she included all the con-gregation, the children and theadults, in a game of concentration.

A large board was set up withnumbers. Under the numbers weresentences describing God. Therewere pairs of these sentences andwe had to find the matching pair.

They were great sentences. Theone the children liked the best was‘God is awesome!’ We all appreci-ated the teaching and joining in theactivity together.

Rev. Heather Marten has beentravelling in Turkey, Greece andFrance. The first Sunday after shereturned, Rev. Heather describedthe places she had been where Paulhad travelled and lived andpreached the gospel. She includedher photos of the towns and citiesas they are now. She showed usEphesus which, when Paul wasthere, was as big as Rome; and toAntioch and Lystra, Tarsus, Derbe,Troy, then across the sea toPhilippi. It was a marvellous wayfor us to explore Paul’s faithfulministry to the people of his world.

Rev. Heather described her visitto Patmos, where St John the Di-vine wrote the Book of Revelationswhile imprisoned on the island.She said this was a moving experi-ence being in the place where theBook of Revelations was written.Contributed by Carolyn Raymond

LEFT: Reverend Tony Wicking (in green cope) and thecongregation of St John’s Bairnsdale, outside the exten-sions being built to expand the facilities of Johnno’s Out-reach Centre. Both the need to expand services offered atSt John’s Bairnsdale and the demand for the quality goodsand clothing stocked by Johnno’s has seen the extensionof facilities get underway recently.

Photo: Ursula Plunkett

14 Our Diocese - Celebrating Ordained Women November 2011


Conservative pathways into priesthoodBy Jeanette Severs

BARBARA Darling, Heather Marten andAmy Turner were three women studying forministry, with no expectation of being or-dained priest, at the time the General Synodof the Anglican Church in Australia washearing theological and legal arguments anddiscussions for and against the ordaining ofwomen. They were all young women whowere raised in the Anglican church and felt acalling to ministry.

None of them expected an opportunity tobe ordained deacon, as they were in Decem-ber 1986, 25 years ago; nor priest, as theywere 19 years ago. Now, they have all at-tained considerable heights in the AnglicanChurch.

Amy is a priest, a Canon of St Paul’sCathedral in Sale and a priest in charge of aparish (Drouin). Heather is Vicar General inGippsland, a role that effectively deputisesto the bishop; she is also an Archdeacon anda priest in charge of a parish (Morwell).

Barbara has attained the highest height ofall three; she is Bishop of the Eastern Regionin the Diocese of Melbourne. Barbara is oneof two bishops in Australia.

As yet, Australia has no woman Bishop incharge of a Diocese. There are some who be-lieve this appointment is well overdue andthere are women more than capable of beingappointed to the role. This writer has evenheard suggestions Gippsland could be thefirst diocese to appoint a woman bishop.

There are also no women who have beenappointed Archbishop in Australia. Thequestion begs to be asked: Is the AnglicanChurch in Australia ready for a womanArchbishop and are there any women capa-ble who could be considered for the role?

In CommonTHERE are some things these first or-

dained women have in common. One is thementorship of Philip Newman. Another isthe foresight and far sight of archbishopswho were prepared to keep negotiating in-side and outside General Synod for manyyears.

A third aspect in common is the resilience,foresight and courage of the parishes thatagreed to support these first women deaconsand priests, many of them with challengingcommunities.

A fourth aspect is the courage of thesewomen. It is one thing to work in a profes-sion that is dominated by men; it is anotherto work in a role where you receive hate mailbased on your gender or find a dead kanga-roo on your doorstep.

Either of those is enough to make manypeople retire with honor and understanding.These women had these and similar experi-ences and kept faith with their profession,their parishes and their church.

They deserve to be honored. They are madeof grit and moral calibre. They are also com-passionate. The Anglican Church is lucky tohave them as priests.

Archbishop’s viewAT the ordination of women to the priest-

hood on December 13, 1992, Archbishop DrKeith Rayner spoke firmly. He talked aboutthe misplaced portrayal of the women asangry women, pushy women, women benton destroying the Anglican church.

“Let me say quite clearly that my over-whelming impression has been of womenstruggling , usually to their amazement, withthe growing conviction of God’s calling tothe priesthood and of quiet determination ...their patient waiting is over and that they areable to be ordained, not through some rebelprocess but with the canonical endorsementof the church.”

By Jeanette Severs

HEATHER Marten grew up in Warragul,was baptised at St Paul’s Warragul, whereshe also went to Sunday school and eventu-ally taught in Sunday school. Heather (right)left Warragul when she was 21 years old, forShepparton where she joined a Baptistchurch for a couple of years, enjoying the ex-perience of being involved in that church.

This experience included involvement inthe youth-run church coffee shop on Fridayand Saturday nights, where she ended upworking full time when they needed some-one to meet the needs of the community tokeep the shop open all week.

In 1976, aged 24, Heather moved to RidleyCollege to study theology. She recalls not re-ally knowing what that was, but that shewanted to learn more about her faith and shewanted to work with people and with thechurch. Going to Ridley College, seemednatural based on the advice she was given.

“One of the things I had to work throughfirst, was the difference between the Angli-can and Baptist churches. Towards the endof my first year at Ridley I had my first dis-cussion about discernment. I returned to Ri-dley for my second year, realising ministrywas the direction I was going but I wasn’tsure of the call to be a priest because I did-n’t know what it meant,” Heather said.

“I also knew a call to priesthood wasn’tpossible.”

At Ridley College, she met a group ofwomen, including Barbara Darling, AmyTurner and Peta Sherlock (now Dean of StPaul’s Cathedral in Bendigo diocese), whoare still her friends and with whom she wasto share momentous history. Heather re-members the “debate raging about womenbeing ordained”. In 1976, a motion in favorof ordaining women was put to Synod inMelbourne.

In 1977, Heather was accepted for ministryby Bishop Bob Dann who said, “I don’t re-ally know what I’ll do with you” andpromptly gave her to Philip Newman. It isPhilip Newman who figures in the memoriesof each of Heather, Amy and Barbara. Thepriest at Templestowe at this time, he be-lieved in using people irrespective of gender,according to Heather.

“He sent me to clergy conference, eventhough I wasn’t ordained and there werepeople who didn’t want me there.

“With Philip, and working for four years inthe then Department of Christian Educationwith Tom Binks, I received a diverse work-ing experience,” said Heather.

Then came the opportunity to be ordaineddeacon, in December 1986, in the secondgroup of women to be ordained.

“We were aware that ordaining a womanwas symbolic for all women, opening doorsfor all women and not an individual pursuit,”Heather said.

“But we wanted the right to have our calltested by the church; a fair go.

“In 1986, 1987 and 1988, debates contin-ued to rage at Synod. Appalling things weresaid and I even received hate mail.”

In 1989, she worked for Archbishop Pen-man as his personal assistant and chaplain; arole many looked askance at.

In late 1989, Heather was appointed toLilydale parish as minister in charge, as adeacon.

“I remember the first 12 months at Lilydalewas the loneliest year of my ministry and mylife. I realised how ill prepared I was.

“I had to minister in the parish but I didn’thave the authority to do what I wanted to do.For three years, I worked with a roster ofclergy, men who came into the parish onSunday simply to serve the eucharist.

“Many would have preferred not to be therebecause they wanted me to be ordainedpriest and get on with the job, instead ofthem.”

Heather recalls Lilydale was a good parishthat journeyed with her over the next fewyears and was very supportive.

“The community of Lilydale helped enor-mously with that transition period,” she said.

It was a role she held for five years and dur-ing this time she was ordained priest, on De-cember 13, 1992.

“Keith Rayner worked quickly after his ap-pointment as Archbishop. A special Synodwas held and the motion to ordain women aspriests was put and passed with the requiredmajority.

“Then we had three weeks to get ourselvesorganised and ready to be ordained priest.”

Even at the last moment, a legal challengewas put up in the cathedral on December 13.Archbishop Rayner had taken advice and re-fused the challenge. The women were hold-ing each others hands for strength andsupport. Some cried when the challenge wasrefuted.

“Suddenly I was a priest and I had to learnhow to be a priest and how to grow into thatrole. Philip Newman continued to be an im-portant influence and person up to thatpoint.”

When Heather left Lilydale it had grownfrom a country town into part of the urbansprawl, with new housing and many youngfamilies. She then spent nine years in Ring-wood, a very established parish.

“This was an era of parish funerals, with 20in three years and a very solid ministryamong children and teenagers.

“It also had a growing ministry to peoplewho were homeless and with social prob-lems and mental health issues.”

One year before Heather was inducted aspriest at Ringwood, the parish began aweekly Monday lunch, an outreach ministrystill happening. While at Ringwood, Heatherwas also Archdeacon of Maroondah, from2001 to 2004.

Heather moved to Morwell parish in March2004, bringing her home to Gippsland.

“Being a woman hasn’t been an issue inthis parish,” she said.

Heather was also appointed Archdeacon in2004, then again in 2005 and sees it as a re-sponsive role.

“It is partly a pastoral role with other clergyand engaging with parishes to help makegood ministry happen; to ‘help make dreamscome true’,” she said.

Heather is also Vicar General of GippslandDiocese, a role she has held since May 2005.In this role she is effectively deputy to thebishop, stepping up when required, such aswhen the bishop is on leave.

When asked to reflect on her life as a priest,Heather said, “Those first years, they wereheady days, exciting days.”

By Jeanette Severs

AMY Turner has a strong and living faiththat has been a major part of her life, all herlife.

“Jesus has always been someone in mylife,” she said.

“Probably from teenage years I sensedsomewhere along the line I would do some-thing special to serve the Lord. I thought thispossibly might be as a missionary. I was al-ways reading serious books on faith.

“I even thought of entering an order, but myparents discouraged this idea.”

Aged in her 20s, Amy became a lay readerin her local church.

“I was encouraged by my local priest and inthe mid 1970s I went to Ridley College. Ithought it would make me a better lay reader.

“But I soon realised I wanted to do more. Ispent four years at Ridley and finished fullwith a sense of serving God.”

Amy then went overseas for some months.She remembers around this time the revisionof the prayer book and “many, many debatesnationally about women in holy orders.”

“So, while the church deliberated, I pro-created,” she said.

Elizabeth is now 29 and Miriam is 26 yearsold.

“I was actually breastfeeding Miriam dur-ing my retreat leading up to my ordinationas deacon,” Amy recalled.

Amy, like others, was mentored by PhilipNewman. As deacon, from 1986 to 1989, shewas an assistant in Croydon South, at theChurch of the New Guinea Martyrs, specifi-cally ministering in evangelism and out-reach.

In 1989, Amy moved to St John’s Toorak,as an associate minister, where Philip New-man was the vicar. In 1990, she was ap-pointed deacon in charge at St James’Warranwood, a new parish combining War-randyte and Ringwood.

It was here her strength and resilience areapparent, as she worked alongside her hus-band and congregation to literally build thechurch from an old rundown farmhouse.

“We moved the walls out and built achurch. We began with a congregation of 16people and grew to nearly 100 people.

“We wanted to build a warm communityand doorknocked to introduce ourselves asthe church in the paddock. Many people tookup roles in lay ministry.”

She remembers the overwhelming feelingsshe experienced when she was ordainedpriest in 1992.

“The day in 1992 I was ordained priest wasvery exciting for my parish; every parish-ioner attended the service.”

continued next page

Heady days, exciting days

The churchneeds faith

November 2011 Our Diocese - Celebrating Ordained Women 15


1992: Photograph donated by Herald & Weekly Times

continued from previous page

Amy stayed with Warranwood until 2000. It wasduring this time, Amy’s first husband, John, and hermother died.

She moved to Beaumaris, a parish with a strongchildren’s ministry, in 2000.

“It was a very conservative, but it was also a verycourageous parish, with a woman priest in charge,”Amy said.

In 2005, Amy received a telephone call from JeffDriver, then bishop in Gippsland and a past fellowstudent at Ridley College. She was inducted as rec-tor of Drouin in November 2005, a role she stillholds.

She sees Drouin as a growing population with op-portunities in children’s and family ministry, partic-ularly as more people move out of Melbourne.

“In the beginning, people thought they shouldmake an effort to tell you if you did a good job. I en-joyed that,” Amy said about her history.

“I was told ‘here’s 16 people, build a church’. Wewere all put into difficult parishes. It hasn’t alwaysbeen a smooth ride but it’s been a wonderful journeyand it will always be a wonderful journey.

“The forming of a strong community of faith willalways be to the advantage of the church.”

LEFT: Earlier this year saw the celebration of 25 years since women wereordained deacon in the Anglican Church in Australia. Included amongthe women who came together on the day were Gippsland’s Amy Turnerand Heather Marten.

Photo: Anglican Diocese of MelbourneABOVE: Australia’s two Anglican bishops, Barbara Darling and KayGoldsworthy.BELOW: The women ordained priest on December 13, 1992, with Arch-bishop Keith Rayner, outside St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne.

NEWSPAPER report-ing of the joy ofwomen being ordainedpriests in 1992 (left)and being made dea-con in 1986 (right).

16 Our Diocese - Jesus Christ Here and Now for Heyfield Parish November 2011


By Heather Cahill and David Chambers

HEYFIELD Parish is nestled inthe foothills and plain country onthe south of the Great DividingRange, from where much of itstourism and the timber industryoriginate. Heyfield’s foremostquality would be the very friendlyand welcoming people who live inthe town and in the surroundingdistrict.

Newcomers are quickly made tofeel part of the wider community.Heyfield’s location gives its inhab-itants many advantages, being asmall town, but within easy drivingdistance of several larger towns;and the mountains, Lake Glenmag-gie and the sea are also within easydriving distance.

The town is a service provider forthe surrounding farming areas,which include irrigation dairyfarming, dry land cattle and sheepfarming. The villages of Coongullaand Glenmaggie provide holidayaccommodation for many who usethe lake for swimming and boatingactivities throughout most of theyear. Many people come from afarto camp along the lake and upalong the mountain streams andthrough the mountain valleys.

The timber industry has been amajor employer in the town formany years, with several largemills and manufacturing enter-prises providing local employment.

Heyfield has three churches; StJames’ Soldiers Memorial Angli-can Church, St Michael’s CatholicChurch and the Heyfield UnitingChurch. St James’ has a regularweekly congregation of around 25and there is one out-centre atTinamba, in a rich dairying area,which has one service each month.The parish also holds weekly serv-ices at Heyfield’s Laurina Lodgenursing home for a congregation ofaround 15 to 18 people and has acommunity outreach through theexcellent op shop ‘Twice Blest’which operates five and a half daysper week, with a sorting sessiontwice each week in the purpose-built storage shed beside our parishcentre.

We also hold a monthly commu-nity market in the grounds of StJames’ church, which is a popularvenue for many stall holders andpatrons alike, where stalls selleverything from cakes and jams tofresh produce, used books andtools, plants and many craft goods.

The parish provides morning teasand cakesand a continuous bar-beque while the market is inprogress and the church is open atthis time for private prayer andcontemplation, as well as provid-ing an opportunity for anyone tospeak confidentially with the Dea-con, Reverend Heather Cahill. TheAnglican Women’s Fellowshipgroup meets monthly and providesexcellent catering services whenand where necessary, including forfunerals and sheep and cattle sales.

HistoryTHE Anglican church’s presence

in Heyfield dates back to 1874,when Gippsland Pioneers gatheredto witness the laying of the foun-dation stone of the first St James’church by Miss Marie Temple.

(Editor’s note: Miss Marie Tem-ple was a member of an Anglicanfamily in Victoria who contributedto building many churches andschools, particularly in Melbourneand Gippsland. She also gave themoney to build the first Anglicanchurch at Maffra and CamberwellGirl’s Grammar School. She wascousin to a past Archbishop ofCanterbury).

Heyfield, at the time the founda-tion stone was laid for the church,was part of the Rosedale district; itwas later part of Maffra parochialdistrict. From 1890, Heyfield waspart of the parochial district ofToongabbie. In 1896, Heyfield be-came the chief centre of its ownparochial district and was declareda parish in 1924.

The new St James’ church wasconstructed on the site of MissTemple’s former home in TempleStreet opposite the primary schooland was dedicated as a Soldiers’Memorial Church in 1921. Thechurch was consecrated by BishopBlackwood in 1942.

One of the church’s special fea-tures is the Memorial Window‘The Great Sacrifice’ installed inhonor of the men of the churchwho served their country in theGreat War, and the lectern, whichwas a thank offering for peace. Thebeautiful Blackwood font wasgiven in memory of Private AlfredMuston.

By the 1950s, the town of Hey-field had grown substantially, dueto the expansion of the timber in-dustry and the arrival of the SoldierSettlement Commission and theState Rivers and Water SupplyCommission offices. The town wasthe administration centre for thenewly developing Soldier Settle-ment irrigation district on thenearby Nambrok Denison Plains.

The Anglican parish includedcentres at Glenmaggie, Cowwarr,Newry and Tinamba as well asHeyfield. St James’ church had asubstantial choir and a pipe organto provide music for up to threeservices on Sundays. The congre-

gation included a large Sundayschool and kindergarten, as well asan ecumenical youth group withthe Methodist church.

In later years the churches atNewry, then Glenmaggie and lastlyCowwarr were closed, leaving onlyone centre beyond Heyfield stilloperating. Tinamba has a small butenthusiastic congregation ofaround 10 people. In recent years,the Tinamba church has been thechoice of several brides who seeadvantage in holding a wedding re-ception in the Tinamba Hotel, op-posite the church.

The Journey Inward &the Journey Outward

PART of the parish’s journey in-ward this past year has been in-volvement in the ordination ofHeather Cahill as Deacon. Theservice in St James’ church was avery spiritual experience for allwho took part and Heather’s min-istry continues to help the parish togrow and be spiritually nurtured asindividuals.

This year we have welcomed DebChambers as a new Lay Readerand, together with Tim Stevens andDavid Chambers, we have a min-istry team which works well to leadworship in both our churches.

The past year has seen the parishinvolved in two studies towards anextension of our inward journey.The first was a Lenten study basedon Bishop John’s material on theLaw and Grace. The second studywas based around a course written

by Heather Cahill based on thebook ‘The Shack’, with its in depthlook at aspects of the Trinity andhow individuals relate to God, par-ticularly during times of grief andloss.

There has recently been a feelingit is time for us as a parish to un-dertake further study and it is pos-sible that this will be a major aimin the new calendar year.

This year the parish also under-took a Visioning Workshop led byArchdeacon Heather Marten. Thiswas an excellent chance to reviewwhat we enjoy about being part ofthe parish community, what themost important values are for theparish, what are the challengesfaced and what are the gifts wehave to take to the wider commu-nity.

Some highlights included therecognising the presence of God inour worship, the warmth of wel-come to newcomers and a respectfor people and where they are at ontheir Christian journey. We willcontinue to dialogue with the widercommunity through the op shop,mainly music, pastoral services anda growth in our corporate spiritual-ity.

Our journey outwards in the pastyear included hosting two baptismservices for fourth generation de-scendants of some of our olderparishioners. Our monthly marketprovides excellent opportunitiesfor mission in the wider commu-nity, as does our op shop, ‘TwiceBlest’, which many do not even re-alise is an op shop. The atmosphereis always welcoming and very

friendly and the layout makes iteasy to view and admire the mer-chandise on display. The parish’swilling band of helpers takes pridein the decoration of the shop andthe standard and quality of its mer-chandise.

During Autumn, we gave thanksto God for the bountiful harvest,after so many years of drought andthe parish celebrated with a tradi-tional Harvest Festival, with lots ofhome grown produce displayed.The produce was forwarded toneedy Koori parents in the east ofGippsland who were hoping to in-clude more fresh produce in theirchildren’s diet in the future.Heather was spoke during theANZAC Day service and took partin the march as a representative ofthe parish.

Our biggest outreach mission thisyear has been to young parents inour own community, through themainly music program. After at-tracting some seeding funds fromthe local community bank and hav-ing musical instruments made bythe local men’s shed, we began ourfirst week with 30 mothers and 40children.

During the winter our numberswere reduced; however we stillminister to around 20 families eachweek, which is a great joy. Fromthis program several of the staff arecarrying out support work withneedy families and we are planninga family picnic next month in alocal park, as well as a family Cribservice in December at the end ofthis year’s program.

continued next page

Heyfield church vibrant with life

ABOVE: Children and mothersparticipate in the mainly music pro-gram in Heyfield parish.RIGHT: Bounty from the HarvestFestival helped families in need inEast Gippsland.

November 2011 Our Diocese - Jesus Christ Here and Now for Heyfield Parish 17


continued from previous page

Our parish had the chance to en-gage in activities beyond the parishduring the two weeks in Septemberwhen some parishioners were resi-dent in Ena Sheumack House, en-abling a ministry of work andprayer to be undertaken includingworks to weed and tidy the gardenbeds across the site of the Abbey ofSt Barnabas and re-establish thegardens, including planting vegeta-bles and organising a compostingsystem at the house.

Our parish has been host to 10 fu-nerals in the past year and our min-istry to these families continues, aswe host a service of remembrancein the coming week. Among thesefunerals was that of RomaDurham, a long time member of StJames’ congregation and for manyyears a teacher in a number ofGippsland secondary schools. Herwisdom and insight will be sadlymissed.

Our overseas missionary effort inrecent years has been centred onraising funds for the needs of ourlink parishes in Rwanda and wewere able to send $500 to eachchurch during the current year. Wewere involved recently in theSamaritan’s Purse project to pro-vide Christmas boxes for childrenin needy situations. Our parish wasvery pleased to be able to provide28 boxes for distribution as needed.

Our current mission effort is aSunday concert on October 30, toraise funds for the drought affectedpeople in the Horn of Africa. Forthis concert, we are very pleased tohave the skills of Anthony Hahn,the St Paul’s Cathedral organist, aswell as several ensemble groupsfrom the Gippsland GrammarSchool and local trumpet player,Christopher Dennis.

Our parish council provides animportant administration functionin the parish and we have beenprivileged to have the chairman-

ship of David Chambers, People’sWarden, to guide the discussionand debate during this year.

Parish treasurer, Joan Hall, pro-vides an excellent support role,looking after the financial recordsfor the parish. Margaret Beckett asRector’s warden and Helene Den-nis as the second People’s wardenhave also provided an excellent andvery skilled support for the runningof the parish, as has our parish sec-retary, Jannette Stevens.

During the interregnum we havebeen very pleased to have the serv-ices of several retired clergy to pre-side at a eucharist twice eachmonth. We would especially like tothank Reverends Laurie Baker,Marilyn Obsersby, Elwyn Sparks,Canon Gordon Cooper and RussellMacQueen for their assistance inthis very important ministry. Ourparish would also like to thank theRegistry office staff, especiallyKerrie Schmidt, for their wonder-ful support.

mainly music goes outdoors in Heyfield parish

Looking after the church grounds

The monthly market in the grounds of the church is a positive outreach.The Christmas boxes.

18 Literary and Media Reviews November 2011


By Deryck Schreuder

Fletcher, BH (2010) ThePlace of Anglicanism in Aus-tralia: Church Society andNation (Australian HistoricalStudies) Broughton Publish-ing ISBN 9781921488061RRP $49.95

THIS is a remarkable work offine scholarship. Emeritus Profes-sor Brian Fletcher has exhaustivelycovered and integrated the pub-lished literature on the AnglicanChurch as an Australian institution.He has also taken appropriate ac-count of the voluminous writingson the Church of England itself.

Finally, he has thoroughly andcreatively sampled critical archivaldeposits of original documentationwhich gives added power and orig-inality to his narrative and to hisconclusions.

The text also bears witness to asenior scholar at the height of hisresearch and writing powers. Thereis a bold capaciousness in the rangeof this history; from broad thematictrends to issues and personalities.The judgments are carefully madeand tone is that of the rigorousscholar, while the study itself is in-formed by a quiet sense of positivefaith in the ultimate mission andimpact of the church in the life ofour national community.

The narrative style is accessible,easy to read and often elegant in itssheer compression of the story. Thewhole text is mercifully devoid oftrendy jargon.

It is a critical work, of value to ac-ademics and students; who willwish to engage with its detail andits scholarly judgments. It is also awork to be read for the sheer pleas-ure of its narrative, as an exampleof modern institutional history atits best.

The reader comes away with asense of having been guidedthrough a highly complex aspect ofthe past by a scholarly guide inwhom they come to have trust forboth his sense and sensibility.

No text is perfect; we are all stillhuman as scholars. Indeed,

Fletcher’s book is likely to becomethe ‘standard’ work on the historyof the Church as an institution; abenchmark for other writers ex-ploring different and more detailedaspects of the great story of theplanting of Christianity in a newworld environment.

In conclusion, Emeritus ProfessorBrian Fletcher has brought thesame scholarly standards and thesame empathy towards the Angli-can Church as an Australian insti-tution, as he did to his recent andremarkable history of the MitchellLibrary. He has a natural talent toget inside the very workings andcharacter of an institution; and tothen offer an analytic narrativewhich is deeply valuable to the out-sider or to those associated with theinstitution. We are fortunate, in-deed, he has turned his attention tothe Anglican Church of Australia. Iwould certainly commend thisbook to as wide a readership ofAustralians as possible.

Review provided by BroughtonPublishing. Emeritus ProfessorDeryck M Schreuder FAHA FRHSLL D, Chair, Australian Universi-ties Quality Agency, Visiting Pro-fessor, The University of Sydney,Adjunct Professor, The HumanitiesResearch Centre, Australian Na-tional University and recent editorof Australia’s Empire (DeryckSchreuder and Stuart Ward) by Ox-ford.

Author exploresAnglican churchin Australia

WEEKLYworship.com.au is an interactive websitelaunched in September 2011 by Broughton Publish-ing. It is designed so clergy and people preparing wor-ship can be inspired and energised by online articles,book reviews, opinions, innovative worship for chil-dren and much more.

These articles are written by clergy and othersdeeply involved in making their parishes move for-ward and contain practical advice on how to respondto the needs of the people in your parish.

Resources include: Two way street; by Reverend DrJohn Cappa, Tabor College, Melbourne.

Waterhole of God’s Love; by Reverend Jennifer Fur-phy, St John’s Flinders Anglican Parish, Melbourne.

On worship and beauty; by Reverend Dr StevenOgden, St Francis College, Brisbane.

Practical tips on space; by Reverend Dawn Treloar,

Ivanhoe Grammar School, Melbourne.Sing to the Lord an old song; by Reverend Dr An-

drew Shead, Moore College, Sydney.Sing to the Lord a new song; by Philip Nicholls,

Christ Church, South Yarra Melbourne.Up the font; by Dorothy Hughes, Anglican Diocese

of Melbourne.Stumbling on a labyrinth; by Judith Hall, author of In

their Midst, Bendigo.Children in the liturgy; by Reverend John Cornish, St

Alban’s Anglican Church, Sydney.The iPad in worship; by Reverend Michael Lazarus,

Mullum Mullum Anglican Church, Melbourne.For enquires, contact Katherine Blyth, of Broughton

Publishing, email [email protected] or look online at www.broughton publish-ing.com.au

New online resource

By Jeanette Severs

DVD, Birdie & Bogey(2011) Heritage HM Films.Available Christian retailoutlets.

IF you are looking for a good,wholesome family movie, for anyday or a Christmas present, this isone you could consider. Birdie andBogey is billed as a father’s jour-ney to fulfil his daughter’s dream.

However, it is difficult to knowwhose dream is whose. The 12year old Birdie wants to be the bestgolf player and we meet her as sheis presented with another trophy.

Her father, nicknamed Bogey andan ex PGA player who is also hercoach, supports her in that dream.

She reveals early in the story herother dream is to see him return tothe golf tour circuit.

They become a media phenome-non when he agrees to a trial returnand a sponsor comes on board tosupport his tour. Birdie insists onbeing Bogey’s golf caddie, thensteps into the shoes of his coach.

The watcher quickly realises thissets the pace for a serious problemto arise, but we are not sure what.Watching it, I became very frus-trated and annoyed with the fatheras it was obvious there was some-

thing wrong with Birdie and anyreasonably observant parent wouldbe aware of that.

So on one level, the story couldbe interpreted as about the selfish-ness of obsessiveness, but I am notsure that is the intent of the movie.

Especially as, in the final scenes,I was very annoyed by the storyline. I am not going to reveal why,as that would be giving away muchof the story.

However, having stated all this, itis a nice family movie and, I amsure, would motivate children to beactive no matter what their ability.The cast is engaging. Birdie’suncle, a pastor, is a character worthwatching, especially as some of thedialogue between he and others,especially his brother (Bogey) re-

veals critical story plot.There are two cameo appearances

by Birdie’s mother and, again, Ihad to suspend disbelief, because Ifound it hard to believe this partic-ular story line.

This film won Best Feature Filmat The Deep Ellum Film Festival.Executive producer is Chuck Nor-ris, better known for martial artsmovies in the 1980s and 1990s, soit is interesting to watch somethingso different from what I would ex-pect from Norris. There are evenmembers of the Norris family inthe cast.

The movie was released in Aus-tralia in September and should beavailable at Christian retailers.Also through Heritage HM,www.movieschangepeople.com

Birdie’s bond with Bogey

By Wayne Holst

BELOVED: Henri Nouwen inConversation; by Henri J MNouwen with Philip Roderick(2010) William B Eerdmans Pub-lishing. Paperback & CD $30.95.Available in Australia from Rain-bow Book Agencies, Fairfield, telephone: 03 9481 6611, [email protected]

THE spiritual life and teachings of FatherHenri Nouwen, who died more than adecade ago, continue to inspire and pro-duce a healthy literary legacy.

Beloved: Henri Nouwen in Conversationwith Reverend Philip Roderick, weaves to-gether Catholic spiritual values with abroad ecumenical appeal. Fr Nouwen wasa compassionate contemplative who strug-gled constantly to creatively link “doing”and “being” into his spiritual vocation.

Beloved is the text of an interview thatRev. Roderick, an Anglican priest and re-

treat master based in Oxfordshire, Eng-land, conducted with Fr Nouwen in 1992.It appears now in book and CD format,providing the options of reflective readingand listening.

The book conveys Fr Nouwen’s views onloneliness, busyness and living in the mo-ment. Frequently throughout the interviewhe reminds us we are God’s beloved andwisdom is the important truth of our lives.

Fr Nouwen, author of more than 40books on spirituality, reminds readers thatinstead of viewing personal problems like

boredom as enemies, embrace them asfriends, unmasking illusions hidden be-neath the surface of our awareness.

Rather than repressing or denying issuescovered up by hyperactivity we can beginconfronting them. Both compassion andcontemplation are important.

“I’m convinced of the significance ofhelping people, of doing things,” says FrNouwen. “But I want to say that if our ac-tivity comes from our own insecurity aboutwho we are then it might not serve thekingdom (of God).”

Nouwen and Roderick talk about intimacy with God

November 2011 Literary and Media Reviews 19


Grace by name, grace in lifeBy Patrick Morgan

WELL-known in Traralgon andthe Latrobe Valley, Grace Youl has,in her late 80s, written her autobi-ography, A Charmed Life.

I knew her and her son Bryan alittle in the 1970s through mutualfriends. Her life falls into two parts,firstly growing up in Traralgon,marrying and bringing up four sonsafter the World War II; then afterher husband Harry’s death from astroke in 1989, leading a differenttype of life with plenty of traveland new interests.

Grace Cave was born in 1918; hermother died in 1919, during theworldwide influenza epidemic.Grace was sent to be brought up byher grandparents, the Jones’s ofTraralgon. Their property, Min-niedale, then southeast of the town,was consumed by the Loy Yangopen cut.

In 1940, Grace married HarryYoul, who came from a dairy farm-ing family from Turton’s Creek,deep in the hills of South Gipps-land, before settling in Traralgon.Grace describes their life from the1940s onwards as not impover-ished but frugal and basic. Jobswere hard to get; they lived in aHousing Commission house on theoutskirts of town with very fewamenities; the family budget had tobe constantly watched.

She writes of those times: “Survival on one salary was high

on the agenda. We wasted nothing,especially food. Everyone hadlearnt from the Depression andwartime years. A keen vegetablegardener, Harry supplemented theshopping. Plum trees go on foreverand the pear tree was valuable, al-though retained today just for itsshade. We made sauce and pickles,bought cases of fruit for jam, andbrewed ginger beer. Using thetrusty treadle machine Dad hadgiven me, I made my own dresses,as well as short pants for the youngones. One cut off the legs ofHarry’s long trousers and, usingpatterns, made new pants, liningthem with calico bags from thegrocer, a tricky business.”

These experiences were prettytypical of the time, before life inAustralia changed from the 1960sonwards.

To cope, families such as theYouls became self-starters, not re-lying on others or dependent ongovernments, hard working, re-spectable, community minded and,in the long run, able to improvetheir position.

A feature of her life is the im-mense number of people she andher family know as longtermfriends; neighbours, relatives, fel-low members of the local commu-nity and acquaintances met onholidays in Australia and overseas,whom Grace has kept in contactwith.

This group constitutes a naturalcommunity which shapes its mem-bers lives and gives them contextand meaning. Today, some peoplehave to consciously and artificiallyconstruct what they call ‘networks’to replicate what used to happennaturally.

Grace, through necessity, becamea Jack or rather Jill of all trades:mother, typist, secretary, teacher,committee member, graduate, trav-

eller and now author. She comesacross as a woman of great energy,determination and focus.

Her four sons and her grandchil-dren, naturally curious and wantingto live a full life, are high achiev-ers, having completed universitycourses and moved into profes-sional lives.

Two are engineers, one a forester,and the youngest son, Bryan, be-came a doctor and is now a suc-cessful neurologist in London. TheYoul descendents mix ability inpractical matters like home reno-vation with an interest in culture,food, music and travel.

Familiar Latrobe Valley identitieswho appear in these memoirs in-clude the Anglican DeaconessSheila Payne, the piano teacherIvan Larsen who taught Grace, theheadmaster Keith Brownbill whoruns University of the Third Ageclasses, and Kath Teychenne whofounded the Latrobe ValleyEisteddfod, which Grace’s sonsparticipated in. Her Morwell rela-tives Bruce and Elsie McMasterare prominent in local governmentand local history circles.

People who become teachers andwrite books often have educationin their background. Grace Youl’sgreat grandfather was a Welshmanwith an English university degreewho became a headmaster in Aus-tralia in the 19th century.

Grace has written a book in hereighties, but so did two other mem-bers of her family. Her sister-in-law, May McMaster, was aremarkable woman who died aged103 years and lived in three cen-turies. She wrote a history of herarea, Turton’s Creek, in her 80’s.

Grace’s uncle, Horrie Jones, wrotetwo books on his area of Traralgonlate in his life.

In recent decades, Grace hasspent much of her life travelling,mainly in Europe. She is lucky inhaving her youngest son, Bryan,living in London, providing her abase for European travel.

In addition, Bryan and his wifePat own a house in the Camargueregion of Provence in southernFrance, where each year in highsummer they stage a music festival.The family is immersed in music;one of Grace’s grand-daughterssings at the London Proms.

Grace’s life is a representative il-lustration of how dramaticallyAustralia has changed in the pastfour or so decades, mainly due toenormously increased wealth.

In her first 50 years, Grace Youllived a life which was basic, whereevery penny had to be watched,with no luxuries or discretionaryspending power, as we now say.But in the last three decades, shehas been able to go overseas manytimes and at last to enjoy the goodthings of life.

A great number of Australiansnow explore overseas, like Ameri-cans did in Europe after World WarI. Hundreds of thousands of Aus-tralians went overseas every monththis year, partly because of the highAustralian dollar. Reciprocallythese journeys have altered the waywe view Australia. Grace Youl’slife and memoir is a wonderful ex-pression of these changes.

First published in Catholic Life(Sale diocese) October 2011;Reprinted here with permission.

Books for teenagersand young children

WITH Christmas just around thecorner, it is time to start looking forinspirational books for young peo-ple, teenagers and children.

AMAZING Grace: An Adven-ture at Sea; by Stephanie OwenReeder (2011) ISBN9780642277435

THIS is a tale of the courage of16-year-old Grace Bussell, an or-dinary teenage girl who is thrustinto an extraordinary situationwhen a steamship runs agroundnear her home on the southwestcoast of Australia in 1876. Usingeyewitness accounts and other his-torical documents of the time, theauthor brings this compelling truestory alive.

On the night the Georgette leavesFremantle, the ship starts taking onwater. With the water rising, thesituation becomes desperate andsome of the passengers are herdedonto a lifeboat, only to be throwninto the chilly water after the Geor-gette, struck by a huge wave,ploughs into the little boat. Whatfollows is a story of acts of brav-ery, as frantic attempts to rescuethe drowning people are made.

When the Bussell family andtheir workers hear the news a shiphas run aground on the coast neartheir home, Grace doesn’t hesitateand leaps on her horse, riding foran hour to get to the sinking ship.There she and Sam, the family’sstockman, gallop into the wild surfto save the remaining crew andpassengers.

Other titles by the same authorfor this age group: Lost! A true talefrom the bush. RRP $29.95.

COLOUR My World! (2008) byStephanie Owen Reeder; publishedby New South Press; ISBN9780642276636.

IN an unusual approach to ex-ploring colors in the life of a child,Stephanie Owen Reeder has se-lected black-and-white photo-graphs of children from theNational Library of Australia’sPictures Collection and combinedthem with brightly coloured pagesand an engaging interactive text. InColour My World! children are en-couraged to interact with the boysand girls who gaze at them fromthe pages, join in the rhythmicaltext and respond to the colours.

A helpful note for parents pro-vides ideas for using the book withchildren and further information onthe twelve colors covered. This isa fun way for young children to in-crease their visual literacy skillswhile finding out more about col-ors, the world and themselves.

THE First Christmas, illustratedby Simon Mendez, retold by KarenWilliamson; published by CandleBooks; distributed by RainbowBooks; RRP $16.95.

THIS illustrated book simplyretells the birth narrative from theBible and concludes with 3D pop-up of the nativity scene, completewith baby Jesus in the manger, vis-ited by the shepherds and wisemen.

TWO Minute Parables, retold byElena Pasquali and illustrated byNicola Smee; published by LionChildren’s Books; distributed byRainbow Books; RRP $16.99.

THE parables Jesus spoke con-tain much wisdom. It was his wayof conveying important messagesso they could be remembered.They had a big impact becausethey were remembered by theGospel writers and recorded soeveryone could share in the wis-dom.

The parables featured in this bookare pitched at younger readers, per-haps eight to 10 years old. Theywill be able to understand the basicmessage contained in each and willremember the parables when theynext hear them read at church.

SCRIPTURE Union Australiahas just launched SoundBytes, thefirst Bible reading guide specifi-cally developed for teenagers toengage with the Bible. SoundBytesis an electronic Bible reading guidefor 12 and 13 year olds that deliv-ers the Bible in bite-sized piecesand combines audio with an e-book and accompanying booklet.

SoundBytes is designed to appealby using digital technologies. EachBible reading guide, with fiveweekday devotionals, can beloaded onto their mobile phone,iPod or MP3 player, or viewed inmultimedia format on their com-puter. There is also a printed book-let with activities to reflect on whatthey have learned and to applythese lessons in a practical and funway.

20 Our Diocese - News and Pictorial November 2011


Cathedral to bede-consecrated

ABOVE: In New Zealand, the earthquake-damaged Anglican TaongaChristChurch Cathedral is to be deconsecrated. The considerable damageto the Cathedral after the earthquake in 2010 and subsequent earthtremors, has caused it to be partly demolished. Considered the most rec-ognized church in New Zealand, the Cathedral, pictured above someyears ago, is to be deconsecrated ahead of the demolition.

By Taonga staff

BRUTHEN’s St Matt’s ChurchCafé has a permanent presence atthe monthly village market, withdevonshire teas, sandwiches, teaand coffees being enjoyed on a reg-ular basis by the locals and visitorsalike. All proceeds help the parishfinances.

Recently, a a decision was madeto donate all proceeds for the dayto support the work of Act forPeace and Medicin san Frontiers inthe Horn of Africa.

The café was buzzing withAfrican music, colourful table-cloths, ‘Act for Peace’ posters andinformation. Donation envelopesand leaflets were alongside books,DVDs, toys and bric a brac for sale.The whole experience heightenedwhat is already a feeling of joyfulcommunity spirit.

The world is in crisis and we needto acknowledge it is a problem forall of us; as individuals, as com-munity members and as Christians.St Matthew’s congregation felteven the smallest donation in thetiniest village can make a differ-ence. The amount of $345.75 wasraised; $200 will go to Act forPeace and the remainder toMedecin San Frontiers’’.

The group hope to do this againin December, with the help of allthose who donated time or goods,attended the market café, bought abook or just chatted and smiled; itwas a wonderful experience.

Contributed by Heather Rose

$ for $ reliefBRUTHEN parish was overjoyed

to hear about the Australian gov-ernment’s Dollar-for-Dollar initia-tive, to match each dollar donatedto appeals run by AusAID-accred-ited non-government organisations(NGOs) working to alleviate the

food crisis in the Horn of Africa;money donated between October 5and November 30, 2011. Thismeans if you donate $50 to one ofthese NGOs, the Australian gov-ernment will match it with $50.

The need for assistance remainsacute. More than 13 million peoplerequire urgent humanitarian aid. InSomalia, 750,000 people are at riskof starvation and 1.3 million chil-dren are acutely malnourished. Un-precedented numbers of people arefleeing their homes for neighbour-ing countries.

The situation is being madeworse by life-threatening choleraand measles outbreaks in the re-gion. Australia has already donated$128 million to the crisis but thereis still a need for more.

Ethiopia has also been severelyaffected by the drought and famine,compounded in the Afar region byvolcanic eruptions contaminating

remaining water supplies. Peopleare severely malnourished andpregnant women and children areweakened and are particularly vul-nerable to disease.

Anglicord’s relief and recoverywork will focus here, where it hasa longstanding relationshipthrough Australian midwife, Va-lerie Browning. Anglicord’s cur-rent relief work includes truckingwater and providing medicationand food for vulnerable womenand children.

Future work will involve restock-ing livestock so families can beginearning an income again.

You can donate securely online atwww.anglicord.org.au or by tele-phone on 1800 249 880. Donatingonline reduces Anglicord’s costs,so your support goes further.

Or post a cheque to Anglicord:PO Box 139, East Melbourne,8002.

Bruthen aids East Africa

Several people from across the diocese attendeda Quiet Day, organised by Anam Cara, at the homeof Oliver and Carolyn Raymond in Tyers. Thebook Seeking the Sacred by Stephanie Dowrick,has inspired several Anam Cara members who de-cided to explore some themes of the book. JanHuggins and Carolyn Raymond prepared talks onthree themes: Reverence, Identity and Do NoHarm. The themes were explored through talks,worship, prayer and focus questions; with time forsilent contemplation during the day.

Contributed by Carolyn Raymond

Seeking theSacred

ABOVE: An Ultreya was held at Bass on September18, led by Margaret and John Tatman. The witnessspeaker was Robert McKay. Seventeen Cursillistasfrom Bass, Phillip Island, Inverloch and Corner Inletattended. It was a most blessed gathering, being ableto set aside time to share prayer, praise and reflectiontogether with others of the Cursillo family and to en-courage Margaret and Robert as they prepare to leadthe Cursillos in July 2012. Please pray for team mem-bers and candidates for the Men’s and Women’s Cur-sillos in July 2012.

Contributed by Liz Hall

ABOVE: Reverend Anne Lawson, Vicar of the parishes of Haslingtonand Crewe Green in the Diocese of Chester in North West England andRuth Cross of Lakes Entrance and Metung parish. Rev. Anne is cousin ofJan McIntyre, wife of Gippsland’s Bishop John McIntyre. She is on sab-batical from her parishes for three months carrying out research for anMA dissertation on rural ministry in the dioceses of Gippsland andChester. As part of her research, Rev. Anne was staying at Bishopscourtand travelling around the diocese, meeting clergy and receiving hospi-tality from clergy and parishes alike.

Photo: Jeanette Severs

ABOVE: A King James’ Bible, brought to Australia with the First Fleetin 1788, and signed by Queen Elizabeth II on this and previous visits, isstored at St Philip’s York St Church, Sydney. The large leather-boundbible is considered a foundational document in Australia’s formation.

Documents

The Gippsland Anglican November 2011