The September-November copy will be posted at the end of August.
From the Rector
Dear Friends
There is something about an exhibition. It’s hard work, deciding what to put up, finding the information, but when it’s all done, it’s a lot of fun. During May we had the church open with a display of our fine collection of vestments and also showcasing our wonderful carvings.
We added to our carvings with our new shrine dedicated to St Lucy, a gift of Mary Hincks, also known as Mary Lawrence. Mary gave this in memory of her parents. Lucy was special to her as she is the patron saint of those suffering from blindness and poor sight, a problem that Mary well knew. We dedicated this on our feast of St George with our guest this year, Deacon Scott Mudd of the Diocese of the Murray. It is nice to welcome the new deacons from that diocese to St George’s to enjoy our wonderful liturgy.
Easter has passed with all its wonderful liturgy. Once again Sarah Clay, our Director of Music, and our Gregorian Chant Group gave us a Tenebrae service on the 21 March, one of my favourites of the season with the chant of the Stabat mater and psalms to the readings of Jeremiah and poems. As ever we are thankful to her and the choir for the wonderful music over the triduum, and the serving team.
We also had the refurbishment of the hall during May. We have let the hall out for three years, while retaining the use of it on Sundays. In return the lessee has refurbished the hall, including a repaint and a new veranda base. It is planned to be used for rentals to the wider community and classes.
Our annual vestry meeting was held on 18 March and the People’s Warden, Lyn Dutton, was re-elected. Our parish council this year is Mark Brindal, Emily Harding, Iain Henderson and John Hokin. Ranjan Ponniah remains Rector’s Warden.
Coming up we have St Benedict’s day on 14 July with the Archbishop to preach. St George’s has looked after the Benedictine Oblates in Adelaide since my arrival, and each year we host a special mass for all the different religious, mainly lay people, who are associated with the different communities, such as Community of the Holy Name or the Franciscans. Our religious communities offer centres of prayer and holiness that call people in the wider community to become associates in some way. I encourage you to come to our mass and shared lunch.
The next day we have Catholic Renewal Sunday with Fr Warwick Winston-Hall as our guest preacher. The main mass that day will be 10.30, with a lunch to follow.
So it may be winter, but life goes on at St George’s.
God bless
Fr Scott
St Lucy’s Tale
A young woman by the name of Lucy (or Lucia) is believed to have been born in Syracuse in Sicily in about 310AD and to have suffered a martyr’s death for her faith in Christ during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Diocletian in the 4thcentury. Venerated locally for her bravery in the face of death, by the 6thcentury the news of her courage in defence of the faith had spread to Rome and had become widely recognized. That is the sum total of what we know with some certainty about Lucy.
However as time went on people wanted to fill in the gaps of Lucy’s life and death and so legends began to crop up. (The church, like nature, abhors a vacuum!) There are many variations to her story but briefly it goes something like this. Born of rich and noble parents, Lucy vowed to live her life in service to Christ. When her father died, her mother tried to marry her off to a pagan. Lucy, determined not to compromise her virginity in marriage, would have none of it. When her mother fell ill, Lucy prayed at the tomb of St Agatha (or St Agnes) for her healing. In a dream the saint told Lucy that her mother would be cured through faith. And so it was. Lucy persuaded her grateful mother to give the greater part of her wealth, including Lucy’s dowry, to the poor and to allow Lucy to commit her life to God.
Her rejected bridegroom in anger betrayed Lucy to the local governor. In an attempt to force her to renounce her Christian beliefs the governor threatened Lucy with incarceration in a brothel, but when the guards came to take her away not even one thousand of them were able to move her, even after hitching her to a team of fifty oxen.
During her time of torment Lucy boldly proclaimed her faith in the belief that doing so would encourage other Christians facing death and strike fear into unbelievers. A soldier tried to silence her by sticking a spear into her throat, but to no avail. When bundles of wood piled up around Lucy refused to burn, the guards resorted to swords. And so Lucy met her death.
Another version recounts how Lucy worked to help Christians hiding in the catacombs during the Diocletian persecutions. In order to bring as many supplies to them as possible, she needed to have both hands free. But she needed some way of providing herself with light. To solve the problem she placed upon her head a wreath with candles attached.
St Lucy’s Latin name Lucia also links her with light. Lucia shares a root with the Latin word for light, lux.Before the reform of the calendar, the Feast of St Lucy fell, not as now on December 13th, but on the winter solstice. In Scandinavia in particular, with its long, dark winters, St Lucy became closely associated with rituals that celebrated the light of Christ coming into the darkness of the world. To this day in parts of Scandinavia, in a procession on her feast day, St Lucy is represented by a girl clothed in a white dress (symbolising a baptismal robe) and red sash (for martyrdom) and wearing a crown or wreath of candles.
In yet another story we are told that St Lucy’s eyes were removed either by herself when they attracted the admiration of a persistent suitor, or by her persecutors. She is thus the patron saint of the blind and is often depicted in paintings holding her eyes on a golden plate.
St Lucy is kept busy. She has not only the blind to look after, but is also the patron saint of authors, cutlers, glaziers, saddlers, salesmen and stained glass workers, to name but a few, and is invoked against haemorraghes, dysentery, diseases of the eye, and throat infections. Venerated in many countries, she holds a special place in Syracuse in Sicily, Oilon in Ecuador and the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, where she is honoured as their patron saint.
With acknowledgement (in part) to Catholic Online.
Emily Harding
Instructions for Christians
Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.
Be crucified, but do not crucify others.
Be slandered, but do not slander others.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity.
Suffer with the sick.
Be afflicted with sinners.
Exult with those who repent.
Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone…
Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.
Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and everyone, and shield them,
And…do not destroy their character.
St. Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Nineveh 6C AD.
St Michael the Archangel – Alive and well!
The Archangel Michael has a special place in the hearts of the people of Symi, an island in the Dodecanese where the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Taxiarchis* Mihail (of) Panormitis is the most important of several monasteries on the island dedicated to the Archangel.
Numerous stories are told about St Michael, many of which are legendary in character. However for the people of Symi some stories are definitely not legendary for they tell of how the Archangel intervenes in their daily lives.
If you have made an offering to St. Michael and do not fulfil it, he will make it clear through various miracles that he is not pleased – until you complete your promise. One famous miracle that occurs often and to this day, is the miracle of the Archangel preventing boats from leaving the dock. This has become such a regular occurrence that the Captains of the boat will announce over the PA to the passengers that someone on the boat has forgotten a promise to the Taxiarch. Once this promise is fulfilled, then and only then, do the engines of the boat work.
*Leader of the heavenly host.
With acknowledgement to Orthodox Wiki.
CATHOLIC RENEWAL SUNDAY
Sunday 15 July
8.00 a.m. Mass
10.30 a.m. Procession & Solemn Sung Mass
Preacher: Fr Warwick Winston Hall
Followed by a shared lunch.
The Wiring
The wiring now is mostly completed. We have to do some high scaffolding work on the rood and west window and adjust some sections in the church. It has been a pleasure to get used to the possibilities of the new lights.
The Feast of St Benedict
We cordially invite all parishioners, their relatives and friends to join us in commemorating the life, work and witness of St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine monastic order, on Saturday 14thJuly at St George’s. The celebration will commence with Mass at 12 noon followed by a shared lunch in the Parish Hall. Archbishop Geoffrey Smith will be our guest preacher.
Street Works
After a lot of pressure, the Unley council have finally finished the street works outside the Church. The last stage will be the new lighting for the War Shrine. Our thanks to Councillor Bob Schnell for his help.
Fellowship Group
Our fellowship group meets once a month on the first Tuesday of the month at 1 pm for a short talk and social afternoon tea. It’s open to all and sundry. It meets next on 5 June, then 3 July, then 7 August.
Cell of Our Lady of Walsingham
The next meeting of the Cell of Our Lady of Walsingham will meet on Saturday 4 August 2018 at 9 am for a mass and shared breakfast at the rectory.
Money in the Bible
1.) What was the value of two sparrows in Jesus day?
One piece of silver; One bag of salt; One mite; One farthing
2.) A man whose 10,000 talent debt was written off, failed to forgive a debt of
5000 talents; 500 talents; 50 talents; 100 pence
3.) How much was Judas Iscariot given to betray Jesus?
20 pieces of silver; A Talent of gold; 30 pieces of silver; 100 pence
4.) The love of money is the root of…?
Happiness; All evil; Many possessions; Much wealth
5.) Who did Jesus send fishing to get money for taxes?
Matthew; Peter; John; Nicodemus
6.) Who offered Delilah silver to find out the secret of Samson’s strength?
The lords of the Philistines; The chief priests; The scribes; The Amorites
7.) According to Luke, the price of five sparrows was:
Ten pence; Five mites; One piece of silver; Two farthings
8.) For how much was Joseph sold to the Ishmaelites?
10 pieces of silver; 20 pieces of silver; 30 pieces of silver; 40 pieces of silver
9.) As Jesus watched, how much money did the poor widow throw into the treasury?
Five farthings; Seven mites; Two mites; Two pence
10.) What prophet’s sons were greedy, and took bribes?
Joshua; Elisha; Nathan; Samuel
See answer below
Devotional
“Our Lord may be said to have taught His disciples two great lessons with regard to prayer. First, that prayer is efficacious; that is, that asking God, persistently and patiently, is one of the chief means of obtaining results…There are multitudes of things which God means for us and for the world that will never be ours unless we work for them. But also, and quite as truly, there is a multitudes of things which God means for us and through us for our brethren, which will be never be ours unless we pray for them. Prayer produces results. Prayer accomplishes on the earth what nothing also can accomplish…
But when His disciples had taken in this lesson, there was another which they had to learn, perhaps more difficult – that is, that the efficacy of prayer depends upon our learning to desire and ask what it is the will of God to give. Prayer is not to be an attempt to persuade God to do what He had not intended to do. If we could succeed in doing that, it would be to our loss. Prayer is a method of liberating the hand of God to do what He would do, but cannot do unless we correspond with his will…It is marvelous how many of the objections urged against the reasonableness of praying fall to the ground at once when this principle is really grasped. And inasmuch as in our Lord we really see the mind of God brought near and made indelible to us, so our praying becomes effective in proportion as we learn to make Christ’s mind our mind, and His desires our desires. This is what I described as the second lesson which our Lord set Himself to teach His disciples about prayer: ‘If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.’”
Bishop Charles Gore, The Religion of the Church
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