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The Journal of

Christ Church
South Yarra

150 Years of Worship, Ministry & Mission

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LENT - EASTER

Vol 14 No 1 February 2006

What a wonderful act of worship on November 20, 2005 to celebrate 150 years of worship, ministry & mission! Over 730 people gathered to make Eucharist together, joyfully and with devotion. Dr Andrew McGowan’s fine sermon is printed in this edition and we continue to sing Christopher Willcock’s new choral setting for the Eucharist. 232 people sat down to lunch in style in the school hall. There will be more celebrations leading up to Pentecost Sunday. In the meantime, enjoy a selection of photos in the Gallery.

No sooner is the Christmas and holiday season behind us, and we are preparing for Lent & Easter – Ash Wednesday is 1^st March. In the midst of Lent there is the Commonwealth Games. So what do we do for Lent this year? Well, my suggestion is that we make it simple by each of us committing ourselves to be at worship on every Sunday of Lent and that we prepare by reading the Scripture readings beforehand for the coming Sunday. Readings are always indicated in the previous Sunday Bulletin. In addition, the usual Adult Learning Groups will meet at 11.30am each Sunday, and ABM Lenten offering envelopes and boxes will be available each week.

If we “do” Lent well then Easter will be an even greater and more joyful celebration!

The Easter Event is not an idle tale for the Christian; nor is it wishful thinking. Neither is it an example of “cognitive dissonance” where people state their hopes and ignore disappointment. There were many groups in first-century Judaism with nationalistic, messianic or libertarian hopes that were dashed again and again. But none of them proclaimed that their hopes and dreams were really true in some way other than what they expected. The Christians were the exception. I am reminded of a colourful passage written by N.T. Wright:

“What they did say was not what you might have expected. An empty tomb; a rumour of angels; disbelief and punishment. No heroics, no great faith, no instant sense of everything clicking into place. Rather, a new tune, starting so quickly that by the time you hear it it’s already well under way, growing and swelling into music so rich, so, so powerful as to make you want to dance and cry at the same time. The resurrection had already happened … . The kingdom had arrived in an unready world … . “

In words and music, may the Lenten Eucharists draw you forward to the great outburst of joy and worship on Easter morning when again we celebrate the resurrection happening in the middle of our world’s pain and disappointments.

For Lent this year, the Parish Ministry Team has chosen ‘In faith and hope and love’ to describe the way in which we all may travel through penitence and despair towards the joy and remission offered by the Resurrection. This text is taken from the refrain of a hymn text composed by James McAuley and set to music by Richard Connolly. The complete text is as follows (the refrain comes before each verse and at the end of the hymn):

In faith and hope and love
with joyful trust we move
towards our Father’s home above.

© James McAuley. Reproduced in accordance with the provisions of Part VB of the Copyright Act for the teaching purposes of Christ Church South Yarra. This reproduction must neither be used for public performance, nor reproduced.

Before I came to work and worship at Christ Church, I had experienced Lent and Easter in two other worshipping communities: firstly at Christ Church Brunswick, and then at Trinity College. Both communities have been well known for the strength of their liturgy over a long period of time, evident in the way that, although their customs have changed, the authenticity of their traditions is still maintained.

At Brunswick we would arrive in the early evening for the rehearsal before the Choral Mass and Imposition of Ashes on Ash Wednesday. This customary beginning to Lent always brings to mind the phrase ‘Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return’, echoing the desolation of the interior of the church – every remotely joyous fitting either replaced with one less ‘tizzy’, or covered with sackcloth. Lent proceeded towards Holy Week, all with music, whether plainchant or polyphony, but all unaccompanied (except for non-plainchant hymns). After an eternity (well, about 39 days) we would finally arrive to witness the remarkable beauty and focus of the Easter Vigil, which, following the fabulous darkness of its beginning, would explode into joyous music, colour and light. I’m sure you can imagine the release and elation that accompanied this explosion. The church bell was tolled at this point to witness to the whole community (most of whom were probably stirred by this, literally from sleep), ‘Christ is risen!’

I remember leaving the Easter Vigil one year at Brunswick (buoyed by candlelight and smelling of incense) to be greeted by a young man kicking in a telephone box on Sydney Road. I thought, ‘Yesterday, may be … but not today’. Even though it makes me very sad to remember this moment, it helped to shape my understanding of these two great periods of Lent and Easter: the huge juxtaposition of relative wealth, beauty and truth with the evident loneliness, despair and frustration (or the simple anti-sociality) of this young man’s actions, and of some sections of society as a whole.

I wonder how many people screamed ‘Shut up!’ into their pillows as the church bell tolled at midnight?

McAuley’s hymn relates a theme of journey – a term that I now find tiring due to its extreme overuse by some theologians, often somewhat distastefully prefaced by ‘spiritual’ and, most concerning of all, ‘personal’. Try as I might to avoid the use of the term itself (as does he, in this hymn at least), McAuley’s constant use of the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘our’ (especially when he could just as easily have used ‘I’ and ‘my’) reminds us that our (gulp) corporate spiritual journey provides a forum for discussion and debate, and a place of comfort when we are so disturbed that we feel like kicking in a telephone box.

Thus it is that we mark Lent and Easter at Christ Church South Yarra (as we do any other time of the year): thoughtfully, reverently and, most of all, together, as a worshipping community. The reflection and self-examination of Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are juxtaposed with the joy and spectacle of Palm Sunday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Day.

At the universities, because of the way their year works, Easter never really happens: we at Trinity used to break up on Maundy Thursday, having sung and thought about the Crucifixion at Tenebrae on Wednesday night, but Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Day were always spent in other places. (Strangely enough, holidays would often impose the same fate on Pentecost and Trinity Sunday!) We tried various methods of looking forward to the moment of the discovery of the Resurrection, but unless you’re actually there, sharing the moment with your friends and loved ones, it’s just not the same.

Last Sunday as I was sitting up in the old choir stalls before the service, praying and listening to the choir rehearsing, and looking up at the High Altar, I was wondering what I was doing up there, up in the sanctuary, where I as a deacon now have a place. I realised what a huge privilege it is to stand at the altar as the priest is celebrating and to have a real place in that. And of course, I don’t deserve to be there, but then none of us does. And as the collect for Epiphany 2 says, “by whose grace alone we are accepted and called to your service.”

It has felt so right to be taking my place in the weekly liturgy and then living that out in my ministry in the hospital. I read the Gospel at Church, and then explore with patients and students ‘Who God is’ in the midst of suffering. I administer the sacrament on Sunday and then in the hospital represent God’s presence to the sick in many ways. I receive the gifts for consecration in the liturgy, and offer the prayers with many who come to our Spirituality Centre.

A couple of people have said they are looking forward to when I wear my stole straight! But as a Deacon I have a role which is as important as that of a priest, if not recognised as such. At the last Synod Eucharist, I was the Deacon of the Liturgy, and I realised, as I looked down at the Bishops and Archdeacons etc that they couldn’t assist the Archbishop at the altar in this way, it has to be a Deacon. And I as the Deacon was the one who carried the sacred text (the Gospel Book) for the whole diocese at that service, not a priest!

So I am happy in my distinctive diaconal role and look forward to its further recognition within the diocese.

CHRIST CHURCH

SOUTH YARRA

A Short History and Guide

This new guide is available from the
Parish Office @ $10.00 (which covers its production)

Faith, Hope and Love (Charity) are three of the sacred virtues. (The others are justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude).

Faith is a mixture of conviction, assurance and trust. It is the passionate belief in a thing which makes a person spend all on it.

Hope is a sense of expectancy which flood a person who realises that there is a purpose to life.

Love (Charity) is that love which reaches out not only to our family and friends but also to our fellow human beings, even to our enemies. It is the power to love the unlovable.

In the phrase – Faith, hope and love abide and the greatness of these is love – we mean that without love, faith and hope are diminished. Love becomes the cornerstone of faith and hope for the present and for the future. Love is based on God’s love for us in Jesus the Son who loves us to death.