Salt September 2015 - St Andrew's Uniting Church,...

SaltSaltSaltSalt SEPTEMBER 2015SEPTEMBER 2015SEPTEMBER 2015SEPTEMBER 2015

Saint Andrew’s Uniting

Church

Corner of Creek and Ann Streets Brisbane QLD

PO Box 10020 Brisbane Adelaide Street

Qld 4000

Phone (07)3221 2400

saintandrews @saintandrews.org.au

FROM OUR MINISTER BRUCE JOHNSON

Learning Forgiveness

Yesterday I had the opportunity to listen to Conversations with Richard Fidler on ABC radio. He was in conversation with Miroslav Volf , who is a Croatian Protestant Theolo-gian at Yale Divinity School. It was a fascinating conver-sation.

The ABC website introduces Miroslav this way:

Growing up as a Pentecostal Christian in communist Yugoslavia, Miroslav experienced deep marginalisation. His father was tortured in a concentration camp, and be-came a pacifist preacher. Miroslav's own experiences of prolonged interrogation in the former Yugoslavia, have in-formed much of his work. He's had to ask himself: how do you forgive? Do you need to forgive? And how can you live a good life, a life with joy, in the presence and in the aftermath of violence?

Volf spoke about forgiveness as a process, rather than a single act. He suggested that forgiveness was a behav-iour that did not come naturally to most people, but could be practised. He talked about the way in which he saw the behaviour practised by his parents.

I found myself reflecting on the various experiences of my life and wondering how well I had practised forgiving. I have prayed thousands of times in the words Jesus taught us, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” I wondered if I simply offer this prayer, hoping that God will do the forgiving for me or make me magically able to forgive. If Volf is right, and I suspect he is, then maybe we need to practice forgiving the small hurts and injustices so that we are able to forgive and let go of the bigger “stuff”. >>>

Editor: Richard Kitchen [email protected]

Phone 07 3892 3351

In this issue From Our Minister 1, 2

Vale: Stephanie Ashton 3

The Thin Back Line 3

On the Wings of a Song 4

Women’s Association 5, 6

Rev Ray Herrmann - Choir 6

Visit to Gallipoli (Noel Ad-

sett)

7

The Western Front 8

Men’s Sheds 9,1

0

Droll cartoons 11

Syddo’s Back 2

Continued

Volf and Fidler also discussed the proc-ess of “forgetting”. How do we deal with the memories of injustice and suffering? The old adage of “forgive and forget” seems a little simplistic. Volf talked about remembering in the right way. He de-scribed it as not giving the painful memo-ries “the best seat at the table”, but ena-bling the memory of past hurts to protect us without it becoming a weapon to be used on others.

I found myself linking this conversation with a story I heard earlier in the week about the work of Prison Fellowship in Queensland who have been working with victims of crime and convicted prisoners in a process of Restorative Justice. This too is a long process of bringing together victims of crime and those convicted of the crime. In a carefully managed situa-tion they have a chance to hear each other’s story. In that context the criminal begins to get a realistic understanding of the personal impact of their crime and the victim is helped knowing that they were able to tell their pain to the one responsi-ble.

In our normal justice system such con-frontation doesn’t usually happen. It has been found over time that sometimes for-giveness and restoration can happen and these encounters have dramatically re-duced the number of repeat offenders.

Both the conversation with Miroslav and the report of the work of Prison Fellow-ship showed me the power of the Chris-tian Gospel to make a profound difference in the well-being of our community when it is applied to real life situations. We often get caught up in thinking that the Chris-tian faith is a personal private matter that is all about finding our way to heaven.

However when Christians take seriously the teaching of Jesus and apply it to their life and work in the community, transforma-tion happens and the kingdom of heaven beings to appear here and now.

Professor Miroslav Volf is the founding Di-rector of the Yale Center for Faith and Cul-ture and was in Australia at the invitation of the Centre for Public Christianity in Syd-ney. In Brisbane, Emmanuel College has established a Centre for the Study of Sci-ence, Religion and Society. All these are attempts to help Christians and the wider community think about how the Christian faith can bring wisdom and hope to our community. These centres have moved be-yond looking to the Church to make pro-nouncements on moral issues, and allow the message of Christ to build a positive, all embracing society that seeks the well-being of all. As each one of us applies the wisdom of Christ through the power of God’s Spirit, we will find ourselves bearing witness to the presence of Christ in all we do and bringing hope to those around us.

Our Mission

To help people of all ages to develop their relationship with God so that their special

gifts can be exercised as a witness to God’s love in Christ.

VALE: STEPHANIE ASHTON

Relatives and friends of Stephanie Ashton were invited to attend a Thanksgiving Service at Saint An-drew's Uniting Church held last Friday 28th August at 11 am.

Many of our members joined with Stephanie's family as we celebrated her life and mourned her passing. Rev Bruce Johnson conducted the ser-vice.

Note from Adele Nisbet:

Two of our Sanctuary Choir members, Emily Turner (soprano) and Kathryn George (alto) sang beautifully at the service on Friday. They represented the Choir well, and we are fortunate to have two such talented young singers in our Choir .Thank you both and we hope that another occasion arises when you can sing the beautiful Faure Pie Jesu one Sunday morning

THE THIN BACK LINE

We all love our Sanctuary Choir, and the

music at St Andrew’s is a tradition that

we have been proud of for a long time.

But like all church choirs these days, it

has become increasingly difficult to re-

place aging members, and sponsorship of

young singers has become the only way

round this problem. As you know, we have

four sponsored scholars, who with their

beautifully trained voices, add greatly to

the quality of our music and to the solo

parts when called on. Indeed, both Cathe-

dral Choirs in this city depend on paid

singers only.

And now I have reached the stage when I

must retire after about 25 years in the

choir, through sudden ill health. That

leaves only 2 unpaid baritones in the back

line, and one paid baritone and one tenor.

I need to replace myself to restore bal-

ance to the choir. So I propose this:

• I would like to contribute $50 per month

to a Baritone Sponsorship program.

• We need 5 more volunteers to chip

in with $50 each per month, to make

a monthly total of $300, the going

rate for young trained and (near) quali-

fied University students. This helps us,

and helps the student meet study

costs.

The choir already supports 4 singers at a

cost of $1200 per month. It cannot afford to

sponsor this 5th needed singer. Your help

is needed to sustain our beautiful choir.

Please contact me on:

[email protected] or Adele Nis-

bet on [email protected]

“Where did all the Choir members go?”

Don’t let it come to this!

“ON THE WINGS OF A SONG”

Below is an edited version of an article

that appeared in the July 2015 issue of

Journey. Permission to quote from her

contribution to this article has been given

by Adele Nisbet.

While church music is trending toward

more band-focused music style, some

congregations are maintaining their choirs

because of the opportunities for commu-

nity building, outreach and enriching wor-

ship on a Sunday morning.

Adele Nisbet is choral director of Saint

Andrew's Uniting Church Sanctuary

Choir.

"In the community in general, choirs are

alive and flourishing. School choirs con-

tinue to be an important ensemble activity

when there is good musical leadership in

the school," she says.

"Post-war Australia was blessed by

churches that took the initiative to estab-

lish activities that fostered community,

good health, civil responsibility and com-

panionship, but as secularisation

changed this pattern, the church may

have lost its vision for the important role

that a choir can play in nurturing commu-

nity and enhancing worship."

At St Andrew’s, the choir is a significant

point of connection for the people in the

congregation, even if they come from dif-

ferent generations. Adele continues:

"A choir within a church forms its own

small-group dynamic, providing a strong

sense of belonging, and offering mutual

support and nourishment for each member

of the group." As a long-stranding member

of the St Andrew’s Sanctuary Choir (and in

the early days of the St Andrew’s Concert

Choir as it was then called), I can attest to

the warm friendships that have grown

within our choir, and the support and com-

passion given to those in need.

Adele adds, "The spirit is so often carried

on the wings of a song, and with a wealth

of traditional and contemporary music

available for choirs today, there continues

to be a special place for choral leadership

in our church."

At the Village at Yeronga where I live, a

strong musical tradition is growing. Under-

pinned by some outstanding musicians

and soloists, and excellent performance

facilities, a flourishing choir has developed.

We produce concerts , most recently our

elegant “Candlelight Supper” in which the

choir and soloists took part.

Here, too, the same process of building

friendships and mutual support within the

choir has occurred. This is particularly im-

portant here, where new residents arrive,

in most cases knowing no one and missing

their former homes and friends. As new

buildings are completed, ‘waves’ of new

residents arrive. The choir has been a

channel through which several people

have found a new interest and made new

friends, while building up choir numbers as

the older members drop out.

Choir has contributed enormously to my

life, and I hope it does to yours.

Richard Kitchen

WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION

Choices - Choices - Choices.

What to buy - would we have fiction - non fiction - a book on being tidy and changing our lives or spoil the Grandchildren and buy them any of the beautiful books on of-fer for children - choices, choices, choices!!!

At Riverbend Bookstore this morning, 22 members, family and friends had a most interesting Morning Tea and Book chat with Suzi Wilson and made those choices.

Suzi brought us up to date with the great progress being made with the Indigenous Literacy Programme and that many books are now being translated into simple Eng-lish for these communities.

A delicious morning tea was consumed - old and new friends caught up with family and Church news and a good time was had by all.

Thank you Suzi for giving of your knowl-edge so freely and for the warm welcome you extended to all - you are a friend in-deed.

Our next outing is to the CARNIVAL OF FLOWERS - 17TH SEPTEMBER, 2015 and, at this date, there are still a few places on the bus if you would like to join with us.

For further information re this outing please see me or ring 0421 335 323.

Betty Vann

President - Women’s Association St. An-drews.

R iverbend Books opened its doors in 1998 on the corner of Oxford and

Cambridge Streets. The name Riverbend harkens back to the early days in Bulimba when Indigenous Australians called the area Tugulawah, which translates as Riv-erbend.

Riverbend is proud to be part of this com-munity and one of the stores that takes its place amongst the many stores, cafes, cinemas and the beautiful Oxford Memo-rial Park that line the Oxford St strip down to the river.

The bookshop runs an extensive program of author events, poetry evenings, work-shops for children, bookclubs. Bookchats are also widely popular. These involve a staff member giving book recommenda-tions to groups. These may be Teacher librarian network groups, social groups, work colleagues, bookclubs etc.

In 2004 Riverbend launched a project within the local community that was aimed at raising funds to support literacy in re-mote Indigenous communities where liter-acy levels are very low. This project has grown enormously since then, becoming a Foundation that does important literacy work in remote communities. Recognition by peers in the publishing industry has provided some highlights along the way.

Riverbend has won Queensland Inde-pendent Bookshop of the Year 6 times and Australian Independent Bookshop of the Year twice.

In 2014, the owner Suzy Wilson was rec-ognised in the Australia Day Awards when she won the Queensland Local Hero Award.

See picture on Page 6

Owner Suzi Wilson addresses a well-

attended Women’s Association at River-

bend Bookstore on Thursday 13th August.

Who’s that standing at the door?

One of the nice things that happens on

Sunday mornings is that while the Choir is

gathered in the Choir Room before going

down to the Choir stalls, we are visited by

our Minister. We have a few moments of

fellowship together, then the Minister offers

a prayer for the Choir and its work in mak-

ing a contribution to the praise.

On the 3 Sundays of the 5th, 12th and 19th

of July, during Bruce and Heather’s As-

sembly visit to WA, we were greeted by an-

other familiar face.

It was a pleasure to be greeted by Rev.

Ray Herrmann - it seemed as if we had

turned back the clock and nothing had

changed!

On 26th July, we welcomed back Bruce,

and it was good to share a chat and a

prayer with him before the service began.

Do you receive your copy of

‘Salt’ by email? It’s so much

easier to read, and it is in

full colour. The photos are

great!

If you would like me to add

your name to the email

group, drop me an email and

I’ll make sure you’re in-

cluded.

A few ‘Salt’ email recipients may have missed getting their emailed copy, as inexplicably some names were deleted from my ‘Salt’ email group. If this applies to you, please let me know.

SaltSaltSaltSalt

It’s true that hard work never killed

anybody, but I figure why take a risk?

Ronald Reagan

Visit to Gallipoli and The Western Front

Margaret and I have returned to Brisbane after visiting World War 1 battlefields in Turkey, Belgium and France. After reading accounts of the battles which took place during the Great War of 1914 – 18 and writing stories of the men and women whose names are recorded on our honour boards, I was particularly interested to see for myself the land on which these historic events occurred.

We spent a week on the Gallipoli Penin-sula where Rev Merrington and young men from Saint Andrew’s landed in 1915. I paddled in the waters lapping the narrow beach at Anzac Cove and climbed to Plugge’s Plateau along the narrow path-way made by the soldiers a century ago. I saw Quinn’s Post where Armstrong, Ware-ham and Brennan lost their lives. At Quinn’s Post Cemetery I placed a token of remembrance on the grave of Lieutenant Frank Armstrong and at Lone Pine Memo-rial found the names of the five soldiers whose names are also on our honour boards.

On 6 August, we attended the service celebrating the centenary of the Battle of Lone Pine. The address was delivered by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Pe-ter Cosgrove AK MC. During the service, it was my privilege to lay a wreath on behalf of Saint Andrew’s Uniting Church, Bris-bane. The Lone Pine Memorial commemo-rates more than 4,900 Australian and New Zealand servicemen who died in the Anzac area, whose graves are not known. Others named on the memorial died at sea and were buried in Gallipoli waters.

Poppies were growing in Flanders Fields where we saw at Essex Farm the remains

of an advanced dressing station where some of our men served bravely as field ambulance bearers.

We stayed at Ypres in Belgium and at-tended the sounding of the Last Post at the Menin Gate, a moving ceremony re-peated every night since 1928. The Aus-tralian Minister for Finance, Senator Mathias Cormann laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Australia.

Again I took part in the laying of wreaths and found amongst the 45,000 names of soldiers with no known grave, the names of the two Saint Andrew’s young men re-corded there. Inscribed high on the fa-mous Menin Gate Memorial are the words, “Here are recorded names of offi-cers and men who fell in Ypres Salient but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.” We thought of the grief suffered in countless homes brought about by this tragic loss.

23 Saint Andrew’s soldiers are remem-bered in cemeteries and memorials in France. Eight of these are listed on the walls of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneaux. I found all of these. At cemeteries in villages around the Somme, I placed remembrances on the graves of five other Saint Andrew’s sol-diers.

The cemeteries, burial places and memo-rials I visited at Gallipoli and the Western Front are beautifully maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which owes its existence to the vision of Sir Fabian Ware. The CWGC deserves recognition for its fine work in honouring the fallen in two world wars. For its part, our Merrington Anzac Memorial Peace Chapel, refurbished in this 2015 centenary year,

Continued from Page 7

also honours the 267 men and women of Wharf Street Congrega-tional Church and Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church whose names are listed on the honour boards in Saint Andrew’s Uniting Church today. Stories of some 77 of these have been completed and are displayed in the chapel. The knowledge and un-derstanding gained by my recent visit to Gallipoli and the Western Front will aid our work as we continue to re-search and publish more stories about the courage, bravery and patri-otism of these young men and women.

Noel Adsett

At Hooge Crater Ceme-

tery, Belgium, a tribute

from Saint Andrew’s on

grave of Pte I.W.Drane,

25th Battalion AIF, who

died 20 September

1917, aged 28 years.

Noel Adsett laying wreath on behalf of Saint An-

drew’s Uniting Church at Lone Pine

A tribute of remembrance on grave of Lieutenant J.M.

Brown at Courcelette British Cemetery France. An of-

ficer in the 25th Battalion AIF, he died 29 July 1916

aged 28 years.

Do you know who

these people are?

Special prize for

neatest correct an-

swer of one year’s

free supply of “Salt”

for some lucky

reader.

There, that filled that

empty space!

MEN’S SHEDS

There’s a strange rule in life. No matter

how pokey or big your shed, you will fill it

to bursting point.

When I was knee-high, my father filled

several huge sheds with all the utterly es-

sential things you need to grow sugar cane

and cattle.

It was a place of dust and oil and noise

and tractors and farm implements in vari-

ous forms. You keep things. Just in case.

As a little kid, there were things you did not

touch - rat poisons, toxic chemicals, guns.

It was a place of work boots and grand

plans and a lot of thinking.

When you need to fix problems yourself as

economically as possible without another

trip to town or getting the cheque book out,

you spend a lot of time standing looking

into the distance. The shed was where

men leaned on the back of a Toyota, hats

back on their heads, cattle dogs bored at

their feet, talking, joking, scheming.

Maybe that's the allure of sheds. I've come

to Mt Gravatt Men's Shed to glean its se-

crets. These non-profit community places

didn't exist before 1995. It's opened every

weekday from 8 am and is one of Austra-

lia’s biggest men's sheds, with members

from 43 postcodes, aged 25 to 90.

Most importantly, they do what. most

men's sheds do: concentrate on men's

health, being useful and socialising. The

Mt. Gravatt men’s shed is far from the

norm in Australia. Few are this large, most

average about 40 members. Yet, the les-

sons of the sheds are universal.

USE IT/LOSE IT: The two 80-year-old men

playing cards used to he farmers. Skinny as

kangaroo nibs now, the other day they were

out in the yard moving some heavy stuff with

wheelbarrows. They were trying to outdo

each other, acting like they were 20. Today

they are taking it easy. There is classical

music in the background. 'What's with the

music," one says. "They’re trying to make us

seem cultured," says the other.

SAVING MARRIAGES: Some men retire

and then decide to spend all day in the

house telling the wife how to do what she

has been doing for 40 years perfectly well

without their excellent advice. To avoid di-

vorce or worse, women suggest men take up

a hobby or bowls. Yet many men are reso-

lutely not joiners. Men's sheds save mar-

riages.

NEEDED: We all need to be needed. If

someone says to you, “Hey, going to a

men's shed would be good for you,” you

likely would not go. But if someone said, “We

need your help to build a fence for a woman

with a husband with Alzheimer's and a son

with a disability”, then of course you would

go.

IT’S NOT ALL WOODWORK: There is ex-

cellent equipment and tools and advice for

woodworking, but other activities are catered

for such as art, playing the guitar, computer

tuition, photography, cooking lessons etc.

SHOULDER: Watch little kids in the play-

ground and the little girls play talking face to

face, picking up facial cues. The little boys

are engrossed in the game standing next to

each other - parallel play. The motto for

men's sheds Continued next page>>>.

(Continued) "Men don't talk face to face,

instead they talk shoulder to shoulder”,

came from Prof Barry Golding of the Uni-

versity of Bal!arat and patron of their Aus-

tralian Men's Sheds Association.

EXPORT: Men’s sheds are a successful

Australian export, spreading to Scotland.

England, Wales. Ireland, Finland and

Greece. It's been the most rapidly growing

social movement in Ireland. One opens

every week. In NZ to raise money for their

men's shed, Wellington men held a sheep

drive and each donated a sheep. Horses

for courses.

MULTICULTURAL: One of Australia's

newest men's sheds, at Waratah, aims to

help newly-arrived male migrants. When

Newcastle respite centres for refugees

held events, only women attended. Their

men were sitting at home. isolated. The

Waratah-Mayfield Multicultural Men's

Shed, opened last weekend, hopes to

change that.

SOLACE: Sheds provide solace. All men's

sheds have a big emphasis on men's

health and are partnered with BeyondBlue.

A 2012 survey of men's sheds by La Trobe

University simply concluded that men's

sheds save lives. Some members have

suffered depression, trauma, isolation, al-

cohol abuse, sorrow or marriage break-

downs. On a typical morning, this shed is

filled with laughter and activity.

BIG THINGS: Some men's sheds attend

conferences and organise cruise holidays,

but for many of the members that is not the

heart of it. The real reason why it works is

a small thing. As I mill around the kitchen, 10

someone is taking the mickey out of some-

one else; someone is rustling up a cup of

tea; someone is organising a project. It fol-

lows pretty closely Maslow's famous Hierar-

chy of Needs Theory from the 1940s - the

need to be well, to be safe, affection and to

belong, be part of a group, to have respect

and to become what we capable of becom-

ing. That's what is going on when you've

been a bit crook and walk into the shed on

Wednesday and someone says: “ Oi! Where

the heck have you been? We missed you

yesterday and we needed your help trying to

figure out the wiring on that board"

There are now 960 men's sheds throughout

Australia. That's more men's sheds than

McDonald's outlets 'That, surely, is a win for

the community.

The above article was extracted and edited

from an article by Courier Mail correspon-

dent Kathleen Noonan—date unknown.

The Yeronga Uniting Church organised the

construction of a smaller Men’s Shed on

ground made available by the church. With

the help of service clubs such as Rotary and

Lions, and voluntary labour, this very well

equipped facility was opened by the then

Moderator, Rev Kaye Ronalds a few years

ago. It opens 2 days per week, and is well

supported. Its aim:

“To create a place which is open to all men

who wish a safe and non-judgemental envi-

ronment in which to hang about while creat-

ing a relationship between the church and

the local community.”

Several other UC churches have sponsored

or are associated with Men’s Sheds in

Queensland.

SYDDO’S BACK PAGE - “Beyond ourselves!”

That title belongs to a book of the same name written by Catherine Marshall whose hus-

band Peter was Chaplain of the United States Senate in the late forties. Catherine wrote

the book (1961) after she had been confronted with a number of questions demanding an-

swers. Questions like “Is it really possible for us to get in touch with the God who created

our world?” “Why does God allow evil if he has the power to destroy it?” Can God heal

where medicine fails?” “Can prayer affect the outward circumstances of our lives?” “Does

God guide people today?” These questions form much of the spiritual search which goes

on constantly within us: a search which demands adventure towards a power “Beyond our-

selves”.

In 586 BC the Jewish people were devastated when their beloved city Jerusalem was over-run by the Babylonians. From such a catastrophe they too asked similar questions, “Why do you forget us forever?” “Have you utterly rejected us?” They had become refugees receiv-ing so many hard knocks that they began to believe God had rejected them. (Lam. Ch.5)

The Christian would define the power “Beyond Ourselves” as belonging to God. When you hear the name of God what really comes to mind? I remember asking a high school class in Chinchilla the same question in the eighties and the reply was, “Religious Instruction at 9am on Friday morning!”

The Bible acquaints us with the nature and character of God: his power, his unselfish and unchangeable love and his wisdom. When men wrote about God they didn’t set out to ex-plain him: they assumed God. The writer of the Book of Genesis succinctly says, “In the beginning God created..” (Gen. 1-1)

The ultimate discovery of the character and sovereignty of God is found in Jesus Christ. The disciples asked, “Show us God” and Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen God!” (John 14-9)

It’s at that point we discover God. The penniless woman caught up in the crowd on its way with Jesus too see the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5: 21-42) discovered a ‘power beyond her-self’. She reached out to touch some part of Jesus. I’m game enough to suggest that ‘the human touch has the power to arrest God”.

It was easy for this woman long ago to touch him, we say. How do we touch him today?

Firstly, give God a chance. Take our difficulties and sincerely and honestly tell God about them. That will take courage.

Secondly, believe with everything we have that God will hear us: there’s no room for doubt!

Thirdly, be willing to wait patiently for God. God’s wisdom is greater than ours and there are times when he says “yes’, “no” and “wait”. He speaks through conscience, the growing conviction that a particular course of action must be pursued. The voice of God may come through the voice of friends, those who love us most. God may speak through circum-stances, closing doors as well as opening others.

Salt September 2015 - St Andrew's Uniting Church,...

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