Author Archives: Jan Harper

The fifth Sunday celebration was blessed with great weather as the whole parish travelled to Lake Boga for a combined service.  The Eucharist at 11.00 am was followed by a shared meal, and lots of opportunity to catch up with news of scattered friends.

At 10.30 am today there will be a service at Jacaranda Lodge, and  a 7.30pm Eucharist at Wayne and Lois’s  in Ultima.

Last Wednesday at the mid week service All Saints  Feast was celebrated, and fittingly today at 1.00 pm ,  family and friends of Hilda Coster, one of our “Saints of the Parish”,   will celebrate her life among us for almost a century in the Lord’s service.

On Sunday our celebrant for  All Saints  will be Rev. Robyn Davis, who will also officiate on the first Sunday of December.

Rev Gary Fordham will come to us on the second Sunday of November and December.  Pew bulletins are always in the porch for people to keep track of these arrangements.

On the third Sunday this month, November 19^th, we will have a service of Morning Prayer at the Pioneer Church in the Settlement, and stay on there for lunch together.  Traditionally many of the people choose to wear clothing of the  pioneer times, and enjoy the day as a great time for reflection on “old fashioned Sundays.”  At 5.00pm that evening Café Church will feature the “Family Feud” segment by the Baker family.

Also for the Diary:   Services for Nyah West will be twice monthly, with Morning Prayer on the second Sunday, and the Eucharist on the fourth.

Already the end of another month, which has been a very busy one for the parish family, with services at Swan Hill, Nyah West and Ultima, Alcheringa, Jacaranda and Logan Lodges, and another very successful Boot Sale last Saturday.  There was also the AGM for Mothers’ Union Australia and a record  turnout for the Op Shop “Cut Up “ session.

Please pray for our Assistant priest Rev Denis as we continue to pray for a new Rector of the Parish, also a Bishop for Bendigo Diocese.

On Wednesday 18^th the Eucharist was celebrating the life and martyrdom of St. Luke, so the priest’s vestments were red.

Luke’s gospel, the fourth in our New Testament, was written from reports  through Jesus’s first disciples.  Luke was an educated Greek, a teacher and a Doctor, and is responsible for recording the events following the Resurrection of Christ  in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which follows the four Gospels.

This weekend brings a fifth Sunday for this month, so as usual there will be one parish service, and this time will be at 11.00 am on Sunday 29^th October at the Lake Boga Fire Station, then a BYO lunch.  People needing transport please contact the parish office before noon today to leave names. 5032 2506.

At 10.30 today there will be a service at Jacaranda Lodge, residents’ visitors always welcome to join in.

In Swan Hill the Boot Sale team is preparing for their monthly sale day tomorrow, help always appreciated. Larger items are sold from the St Luke’s Anglicare building on the opposite corner.

Mothers ’ Union also provides goods to maintain emergency supplies for the local area.

Last Wednesday was St Luke’s day, with the church vestments showing red in recognition of the church’s martyrs. Luke was an educated Greek, a doctor, healer and preacher, who recorded the witness statements about Jesus from his closest followers. Luke never met Jesus but experienced his great power through writing the fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles. This great work describes the turning point between the Old and New Testaments,after Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit of God upon all his followers.

Mothers’ Union A.G.M. was also held on Wednesday, and it was good to see most ladies present after the amalgamation of Swan Hill members with the Nyah West branch. A delightful modern little book of verse about the celebration of Christmas was enthusiastically received. In these times it is lovely to see a 21^st century reading of the life of Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow at 10.30 am there will be a service at Alcheringa, at  which visitors of residents are invited to participate.

Last Sunday Evelyn led the service of Morning Prayer and received birthday greetings from all.  There was a wonderful photo and letter from Hilda’s family giving thanks for her amazing progress after a stroke.  We also welcomed Murray and his family, the music group is currently, hopefully, in recovery !

Denis returns from retreat this Sunday, and people on holidays may like to worship with the parish family at 9.30 am, stay for morning tea and inspect the tapestries throughout the church and chapel, and discover how the church building came to have two foundation stones.

Also on Sunday, from 2.30 to 4.30pm the Nyah West Op Shop will be open with a cuppa for customers and browsers .

Arriving back in town, catch the Café Church crowd at 5.00 pm till 7.00pm for an interesting experience and a meal.  It’s in the Anglican Function Centre on Splatt Street.

I am sitting in the common room of St Georges College waiting for the Sherut (minicab) to take me to the airport and thinking back over my month’s holiday.

It has been a wonderful trip, and taken me right out of my parish mindset and into a learning and experiencing within a community of 20 Christians from around the world.  (Perhaps that is really what Parish Life should be like, without me feeling totally responsible for everything.)

So now I am considering the highlights.

One was attending an Arabic/English service in Capernaum.  The language just seemed to flow seamlessly between languages.  Most of the general prayers were prayed simultaneously in both languages.  It works particularly well with the Lord’s Prayer.  The sermon was in English and then Arabic.  It was the second verse of ‘The churches one Foundation’ that brought me undone.

Another was going to the Samaritan Synagogue.  They seem to be a bit like the Quakers, allowing no changes.  Which means they hold onto roots we have forgotten.  But they have had to make changes because they were shrinking fast and allowed no marriage to outsiders.

Presiding at the Eucharist on Monday, our last day was a great highlight, but then so was drawing water at Jacob’s well.

There is always quite a chance that some of these landmarks of the bible that we visited are entirely wrong, but they are a good deal righter than what I am able to imagine in a country over the other side of the world, and I don’t think there is one passage in the bible that this trip will won’t impact on.

I wish I had had this experience earlier in my ministry, but it is never too late, and St Arnard parish will bear the brunt of my ‘When I was in Jerusalem’ tales – the good and the not so good.

I look forward to seeing some of you on Thursday.  You have been in my prayers as I travelled in this land and you will continue in my prayers.  Swan Hill is another journey I would not have missed for anything.

Blessings

Jan