Mailout for 21 August 2022 (Pentecost 11, Trinity 10, Year C)

Dear People of God

First of all, our thanks go to Wilma and her team for the successful Trivia Day at Beresfield last Saturday. Their efforts raise around $650 but, importantly, they provided an opportunity for people to gather together socially, enjoy themselves in a Church-sponsored activity and give their brains a workout. Evangelism takes many forms and it’s not all “upfront preaching”: it’s often in “relaxed hospitality”. Long may it continue!

Our bishops have returned from Lambeth and I am sure that we will be hearing much of it over the coming weeks and months. Someone was quoting Bishop Charlie to me the other day on his impressions of Lambeth: “don’t believe everything you read in the press”, saying there was a much more positive note than the reports of divisions may seem to indicate. Pray God it is so!

Sadly, the schism has now appeared in the Australian Church with a breakaway church being formed by some of the ultra-conservative elements, calling themselves the Diocese of the Southern Cross and aiming to establish churches across Australia, Papua-New Guinea and New Zealand, and the recently-retired Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, is the bishop.

I am asked from time to time why I continue to circulate sermons and intercessions each week: surely people hear you in church? Until the lockdown I rarely wrote down anything other than a couple of points for a sermon, preferring to speak “ad lib”, rather informally. On a couple of occasions, in the Cathedral, I did write the text in full, but my style in reading is very different from my less formal speaking style. When I ceased writing and posting after lockdown ended a few people asked if I might continue them, as they valued the opportunity to have something to go back to, to reflect upon and to “extend” the intercessions during the week following. (I hope no-one is keeping them to provide evidence against me!!)

Anglicans, perhaps more so than any other denomination, are home to a wide variety of opinion and belief, all, naturally, within the wide boundaries of orthodox faith: that’s what makes us a “home for everyone”, with the exception of the outliers. That’s why it is important to hear other voices: Gail will continue to preach on a regular basis, just as Mthr Sharon did when she lived here. We all have differing emphases. Never feel that you can’t challenge anything you hear from the pulpit or read in the notes. Lively faith needs nourishment, including exposure to view other than one’s own.

And in brief: Alva Smart will have a “certain” birthday this week, as did Peggy Hardy the other week and Barbara Dodds will soon have. Happy Birthday to those three. Mary Lennard had a “lumpectomy” and has received the “all clear” as a cancerous lump was removed and had not spread further: she is still feeling somewhat sore and sorry for herself, but says that Geoff is becoming proficient in showering and shampooing her. (He says that intends to resign that job as soon as possible). Peggy is getting over the bumps and bruises from her recent tumble. Sometimes I feel like the “youth department” of the parish!!

See you in church

Fr George

gmainprize@bigpond.com 0410 586 119

Propers for the Day (Pentecost 11, Trinity 10, Ordinary Sunday 21)

Sentence

You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust from my youth. Upon you have I leaned since my birth. (Ps 71:5-6)

Collect

O God, the Judge of all, through the saving blood of your Son you have brought us to the heavenly Jerusalem and given us a kingdom which cannot be shaken: fill us with reverence and awe in your presence, that in thanksgiving we and all your Church may offer you acceptable worship; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives to intercede for us, now and for ever. Amen

Readings

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Jeremiah’s call and commission

Psalm 71:1-6 The Lord is my hope

Hebrews 12:18-29 We come to a community rejoicing in God

Luke 13:10-17 Jesus heals a cripped woman

Sermon (Fr George)

In the Name of God. Amen.

In the study series we held during Lent, “Words have meaning: talking about faith” I was writing about “blood”, since it features so heavily in our various prayers and conversation. We struck it again this morning in the Collect when we mentioned the “saving blood of your Son”. We are led to ask “what is it about “blood” that it has such a place in our tradition?”

As far as I can make out “blood” is taken to mean the innate nature of the being: what essentially describes it. Jews and Moslems alike have to bleed an animal out before it can be consumed since to partake of the blood of the animal would be to consume its nature, to incorporate it into the consumer. A menstruating woman is regarded as unclean in Middle Eastern tradition because she is shedding something of the essence of humanity. The first century Gentile Christians were exhorted to refrain from what had been sacrificed to idols and from blood.

It's in that sense that we speak of the “saving blood of Christ”: we are “saved” precisely because God, in the Incarnate Word, became human in order that our humanity might be restored to the glory for which it was made. So the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews can speak of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ and so brought into the heavenly Jerusalem which he speaks about in the passage we just heard.

In the passage preceding that one, the writer is rehearsing the roll call of the heroes of the faith and who, for all their striving, appear to be left in a sort of limbo, waiting for us to catch up as it were, as we all go into perfection. They surround us as a cloud of witness, cheering us on in our own journey. You have heard me before speak of the “cloud of witness” exemplified in the stained glass windows in the cathedral, as we journey from the Annunciation in the west window to the glory of the Risen Christ surrounded by the saints in the window above the High Altar.

The Hebrews, like everyone else around them, regarded God as “living” in a physical place. It might have been Mount Sinai, where Moses met with God to receive the Commandments, or in the special place on the Tent of Meeting as they went on their nomadic travels, or, as in Jesus day, in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. It took Ezekiel, that prophet who so often acted out his prophetic ministry, to demonstrate to them that although during the Babylonian captivity they were physically separate from God in the Holy of Holies (“How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land”?), God was actually with them, they could meet in the new synagogue movement and worship Yahweh away from Jerusalem. The especially holy places could not be touched or approached from the rank and file of the people: coming into the nearer presence of God was a privilege and responsibility of the duly appointed High Priest, and that was only on special occasions.

The writer to the Hebrews takes all this a step further: we are called into a citizenship in a city not made by human hands where God, who is perfect spirit, is universally present. We can enter that place because we are made perfect in Jesus, sprinkled with the blood of his perfect humanity and divinity, that is, coming to share in his very being.

The Letter to the Hebrews invites the readers and hearers to make that leap of faith, to leave the old and joyfully accept the new, because the old was merely the fore-runner of the perfection that was to come.

Hence we have prayed “through the saving blood of your Son you have brought us to that heavenly Jerusalem, a kingdom that cannot be shaken so fill us with due reverence for that gift.”

And that, my friends, is why are here today to celebrate that citizenship in reverence and awe.

Amen

Intercessions (Fr George)

Father we bring to you a world torn by dissension, oppression and violence and we pray for your grace to be people of reconciliation, tolerance and respect. We pray especially for Ukraine and Russia, Taiwan and China, Palestine and Israel and their leaders. We pray for people who live under oppression; for Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan. We pray for integrity in our national life and for our elected leaders in Commonwealth, State and Local Government

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray for your Church, that you will continually renew us by your Spirit to be a people of reconciliation, evangelism and charity: for those traditions from whom we are separated that we may learn tolerance and respect that with one voice we may proclaim your reconciling love in Jesus your Christ

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray for the Anglican Communion throughout the world; Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea and for the Diocese of Willochra; and for the Heads of Churches Conference in Australia; we pray for healing of the schism that has emerged in our own national church

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

Father, remember for good the church in this community of Newcastle Diocese; our Bishop Peter and the Bishops Assisting, Sonia and Charlie; the ministry of Newcastle Grammar School and the parishes of Stroud and Williamtown-Medowie-Mallabula; raise up faithful men and women to offer for ordination. In our parish we pray for our clergy George and Gail and for the various works of ministry in your name; for the Home Communions and ministry to those in hospitals, nursing homes and those who are housebound; and for The Roman Catholic parish. Grant us grace, good Lord, to touch those people who turn to the church only in times of stress or loss.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

God of strength, renewal and healing, we pray for those who are sick, or live with illness of body or mind; those who live with deprivation or abuse. We remember before you those on our prayer lists; Jenny, Indi, Barbara D, Val Frazer, Lynn, Betty, Les, Mandy, Jill, Ben, Ann, Daphne, Bruce, Debbie M, Samuel, Peta S, Kylie S, John J, Tim R, Sarah S, Jenny H, Merv T, Didi, Peter McC, Susan, Elizabeth, Dawn A, Helen W, Michelle, Barry, Abby, Janet, Heidi, and Erol, and those whom we name in silence before you.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We give you thanks, Father, that you have called into that fellowship which none can number, whose hope was in the Word made Flesh, with Mary the Blessed Mother, Paul and Michael our Patrons, Bartholomew and Monica, and those whom we have loved and see no more. At the anniversary of their deaths we remember before you Alwyn Andrews, Margaret Pegler, Eileen Lewis, Nancy Clulow, Catherine Atkins, Daisy Whitbread, William Collins and Frank Connors.

King of saints and angels, bring us all into the joys of your Eternity: may they, with all the faithful, rest in peace and rise in glory

Holy God, you have promised to hear us grant that what we have asked in faith we may, by your grace receive, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Saints and Commemorations of the Week

24 Bartholomew, Apostle One of the Twelve, mentioned in conjunction with Philip in the Synoptic Gospels, is believed to have been significant in the conversion of Armenia and also travelled to western India where he preached the Gospel.

27 Monica, mother of Augustine of Hippo most notably prayed every day for the conversion of her dissolute son, Augustine. Her prayers were finally answered and he went on to become one of the prominent theologians of the Church.

A further note

Our Primate, Archbishop Geoffrey Smith of Adelaide, has issued a statement in response to the formation of the schismatic “Diocese of the Southern Cross”. If you are receiving this via email, you will have received separately from me the Bishop’s letter the link to the Primate’s statement. If you receive this as a hard copy, the statement is attached.

At their consecration as bishops the candidates have to swear to uphold the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia, and legal opinion suggests that formation of this entity is a clear breach of that oath by the GAFCON bishops who were a part of this action. Several Australian bishops and theologians, including our own Diocesan Bishop, have issued statements in response to this development. Since its formation as a constituent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and even prior to that, this Church has been home to a wide variety of tradition and opinion, living with a creative tension. Recent events have seen some of those tensions erupt, including over the matter of the ordination of women as priests and bishops, notions of Scriptural inerrancy, and developments in our understanding of human relationships and sexuality. We need to pray most earnestly for toleration and respect: it was a keynote of Anglican identity that we “respect the differences and celebrate the diversity” but, just as differences in national politics seem to have hardened, so have we seen attitudes within our Church (and other traditions) go the same way. In times like this, Jesus, “High Priestly Prayer” as recorded in St John’s Gospel, (Ch 17) “that they all may be one, even as we are one” gets a new sense of urgency.