Holy Trinity: Beetle, Mouse & Goat

In the back of the Town Hall, where once the pictures showed every Friday night, a handful of the faithful gathered.  Seated on the picture theatre pews, (sets of 3 seats) we celebrated Trinity Sunday.
 But it was the unexpected guests who stole the show
.
We sang to guitar with gusto....and the sounds of a mouse's scampering feet on 1960's linoleum, a scarab beetles writhing and the bleating of a tethered goat outside, added to our chorus.  Unfortunately they didn't stop during prayers and reflective silence!
We broke bread for communion, just allowing a few crumbs to land on the floor, so the tiniest members of our congregation might receive some blessed sacrament too.  Perhaps the remnant loaf should have been tossed to the bleating member outside.

We remembered the hospitality of the Triune God towards the 6 humans and 3 known creatures who gathered.  Thanks be to Father, Son & Holy Spirit: Beetle, Mouse & Goat

Carawa Cemetery

Grave of Addie Hammat, a child with Down's syndrome,
after whom my granddaughter is named

We went to the Carawa Cemetery today to say our farewells to Aunty Bernice Hammat.  The entrance is grand and long off an unmarked country road. The locals all knew where to go, but we were running blind; pointing the car in the right direction.  Aunty Bernice had been an elder and Methodist/Uniting Church member all her life, yet her family chose to go with a civil celebrant.  (If any of my family are reading this, please don't do this to me.)  But salvation: the celebrant had bought a copy of Rev Dorothy McRae-McMahon's book "The glory of Blood, Sweat and Tears: Liturgies for the living and dying" (JBCE,1996) and used Dorothy's "A Simple Funeral" (page 121) word for word...except for the words 'God' and 'Jesus Christ".  A number of people commented on how much they appreciated the inclusion of the Lord's Prayer at the end and the taped hymns throughout.  
I was reminded of my early funerals as a Lay person in the mid-north, as I observed the sensitivity and clear way the celebrant performed the ceremony.  I would like her to join one of my congregations, so I can use her as a Lay Celebrant from the church - perhaps then she could use the church liturgy with integrity.
I watch the funeral service from the foot of Addie Hammat's grave. And as I prayed for Auntie Bernice and her family, I remembered Addie 1 and 2 in my prayers.
A special day for special people in a special place.

Yantanabie Women: Remembrance and Thanksgiving

They came by bus and car, on a freezing cold morning, to the Yantanabie Hall, these women of the West Coast.  It was The Biggest Morning Tea and the tables groaned under the weight of scones, cream-filled sponge rolls, cream puffs and cakes and hotwater was poured into teacups from the ancient fire urn.  The walls were decorated with old photos, floral arrangements around deadwood and hessian bags, memorabilia of the 50's and 60's.  There were stalls too - children's clothes, home made jewellery, wrought iron art work, home produce, patchwork quilting, floral arrangements.  Women sat in small circles near the heaters with their craft and knitting. Led by the local art teacher, some painted shopping bags.  The Yantanabie Hall, with no ceiling and a holey roof and a claw hammer door knob, opened wide her arms in welcome; safe in the knowledge that restoration was on its way.  The gleam of a new roof beckoning, the promise of a new ceiling....what once was dead and left lying in a graveyard of buildings turned to rubble, will now live again.
Remembrance with thanksgiving.
We all trooped outside and gathered around the single stone memorial to the original Yantanabie Schoolhouse, to pay tribute to a past resident, who was a great netball player in her day, but who had been lost recently to cancer.  The 3 pink helium filled balloons were released in remembrance...and it is Trinity sunday week.  The rest were tied to a waiting bonfire pile as we remembered those whose journey to Christ came through cancer.  We remembered and gave thanks.
And then we happily returned to the hall, where memories of dances and parties added to the chatter over meat and vegetable soup and damper for lunch. 

Rural CPSW's

We commissioned the CPSW tonight at the Lutheran church.
The School Principal was late, but we waited for him...since he was the only senior staff member in attendance and we had changed the service date to suit him...as you do to gain another attendee of note. (Not that we needed another noted person with a very new OAM in the congregation)  The Lutheran visitors from Loxton were shocked and amazed that all the local resident clergy leaders were present and took part in the service.  It took lots of organising.  Our aboriginal pastor led the singing on guitar - lots of confusion about standing to sing or not!  Visitors from every denomination in town.  Rural Ecumencial strength: School Chaplaincy.  But I think we should have had an offering...Sacred Stone is coming in September!
The highlight of the night: our newly commissioned CPSW, responded to the event by reading 1 Corinthians 13 - the greatest of these is Love.
That's ecumenical stuff!

How Receptive are we?

On the Far West Coast of South Australia, there are a number of combined congregations...Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting in particular.  Receptive ecumenism invites us to receive from one another, those parts of our traditions that will draw us nearer, in faith, to the God who is revealed through Jesus Christ.  He was the One who said, "may they be one as you and I are one."  May they indeed?  But when they become one...what happens next?  In these days of declining rural communities, Christians are a minority.  So it makes sense that they would stick together. (Like new migrant communities!)  But what happens to their worship?  
There is only one congregation, who actually do their own worship - the rest wait for a clergy person to arrive, to receive from that denomination.  But their own worship reflects what was offered and has meaning 20 years ago!
When do these congregations determine what they wish to receive and embrace for themselves?  
Or do they just 'put up' with the other sort of worship, until our lady turns up next month?
Cultural revolution!  


S