17th November 2002

TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST





QUOTES OF THE WEEK

It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind. Jonathan Swift 1667-1745



When a smart fit of sickness tells me this scurvy tenement of my body will fall in a little time, I am even as unconcerned as was that honest Hibernian, who being in bed in the great storm some years ago, and told the house would tumble over his head, made answer, What care I for the house? I am only a lodger.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)



IN ANOTHER WAY

Twinkle twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are.

or

Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific!

Fain would I fathom your nature specific.



WELCOME

Welcome to our services today. The order of the Eucharist at all of them is from "A Prayer Book for Australia. As we like our worship to flow there are few directions given during the service. Page numbers are printed in this pew sheet as are the Prayer of the Day, Special Sentences, Readings, Psalm and Hymn Numbers, though not in this web page version



MUSIC

The organist at the 9.30am Eucharist at St John's is Marjorie Glanville and the Postlude is a Trumpet Voluntary by William Goodwin, an 18th century Englishman.



PRAYER OF THE WEEK

Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, yet I know that I cannot live without you. Lord, I am sinful; without you I cannot become holy. Lord, I am unloving; come to my heart and waken it to love. Lord, my heart is small; enlarge it, throw it open, that I may welcome you and make room for all who come looking for love.

IF GOD IS DEAD

Fr Andrew Neaum

I am not infrequently surprised by the optimism evinced by humanists, agnostics and atheists. It is as if they refuse to admit to the inevitable consequences of throwing out belief. They carry on assuming their words and ideas to have meaning, exhorting us to behave in this fashion and that and trumpeting the joys of being liberated from the shackles of faith and dogma. Yet life has no meaning or purpose or sense in a totally faithless world. It seems to me that they want to have their cake and eat it.



The same could not be said of the most famous of all twentieth century atheists and philosophers, the man who most influentially and emphatically declared God to be dead, Nietzsche. He was not guilty of such blind optimism.



When at University I struggled through half of one of his most influential works, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and although only partly comprehending it, I found it strangely compelling. Recently I have read a very good essay on Nietzsche by Damon Linker. It is to be found, in the Journal "First Things", published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute in the United States. Most of what follows is pinched, with thanks, from that article.



Nietzsche's publication The Joyful Science consists of numbered aphorisms ranging in length from a few words to several pages, and one of the most famous of all is aphorism 125, "The Madman". Nietzsche begins this one-and-a-half page masterpiece of modern disenchantment by describing a madman who "lit a lantern in the bright morning hours and cried incessantly: 'I seek God! I seek God!'" Then, as those in the square gawk and laugh at the lunatic with embarrassed disapproval, he cries out: "Whither is God? . . . I will tell you. We have killed him--you and I. All of us are his murderers. . . . God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."



Nietzsche was hardly the first modern figure to espouse atheism. The most radical writers of the Enlightenment suspected that God was a fiction created by the human mind. G. W. F. Hegel famously declared that modernity is "Good Friday without Easter Sunday." And throughout the nineteenth century, a series of authors, from Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx to Charles Darwin, claimed that religion is a human projection onto a spiritually lifeless world. Nietzsche agreed with this tradition in every respect but one. Whereas most modern atheists viewed their lack of piety as an unambiguous good--as a mark of their liberation from the dead weight of authority and tradition--Nietzsche responded to his insight into the amoral chaos at the heart of the world with considerable pathos. If in Human, All Too Human and Daybreak he flirted with the facile cheerfulness so common to his fellow atheists, beginning with aphorism 125 of The Joyful Science, Nietzsche showed that he now understood with greater depth that the passing of God has potentially devastating consequences for Western Civilization. This is the madman's requiem aeternam deo:



But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?



If God is dead, then man has completely lost his orientation. There is no human dignity, no equality, no rights, no democracy, no liberalism, and no good and evil. In the light of Nietzsche's insight, a thinker such as Marx looks extraordinarily superficial, railing against religion on the one hand while remaining firmly attached to ideals of justice and equality on the other. He has failed to grasp the simple truth that if God is dead, then nothing at all can be taken for granted--and absolutely everything is permitted.



PRECIOUS

You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. T. A. Bennett

A SCANDAL IN THE SUBURBS

We had to have him put away,

For what if he'd grown vicious?

To play faith-healer, give away

Stale bread and stinking fishes!

His soapbox preaching set the tongues

Of all the neighbours going.

Odd stuff: how lilies never spin

And birds don't bother sowing.

Why, bums were coming to the door -

His pockets had no bottom -

And then - footwash from that whore!

We signed. They came and got him.

X.J. Kennedy

PROBLEM SOLVING

There are some problems that just cannot be solved, like that of the Aborigine who was given a new boomerang and spent the rest of his life trying to throw the old one away.



To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best. Thackeray







WELSH SYNDROME

"Doctor, I can't stop singing The Green Green Grass of Home". "That sounds like the 'Tom Jones Syndrome'." "Is it common?" "It's not unusual."



DISCRIMINATION

A hungry lion was roaming through the jungle looking for something to eat. He came across two men. One was sitting under a tree reading a book, the other was typing away on his typewriter. The lion quickly pounced on the man reading the book and devoured him. Even the king of the jungle knows that readers digest and writers cramp.



CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Kaye Jones who celebrates her birthday on Monday the 18th November.







HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SWING

The angels are due to swing again this year on December the 9th. This will be an excellent evening, as it was last year. Book the date. More information later.



BARANDUDA ANGLICAN COLLEGE

There is a public meeting in Baranduda Com-munity Centre on Tuesday at 7.30pm, it is about the proposed new Anglican College.



AMITY

The next meeting of the Friendship Group is the Annual General Meeting and will be held on Wednesday 27th November at 7.30pm in the Narthex. This is the final meeting for the year when we discover the identity of our secret friends. Please bring along a small plate for supper.



A TASTEFUL GIFT

The beautifully photographed Anglican Church Calendar is an excellent buy at only $10. It can be an aid to your daily worship and Christian meditation or would make a tasteful gift, see the Trading and M.U Table in the narthex or contact Margaret Andrews.



SUITE MUSIQUE

Judith Napier, who sings in the St John's choir and, with her family, is one of our parish's great new blessings, has organised a Vocal Recital in St John's next Sunday, November 24th at 2.00pm. She will be singing on her own, accompanied by Robyn Krowicky and also with Bohdan Krowicky. This will be a great concert, so do come along and support Judith. ($10, $8 concession).

YOUTH RETREAT

There is news on the Notice Board and on the table, of a Youth Retreat from the 6th - 8th of December at the Rubicon Outdoor Centre. Called "Anselm Weekend" its theme is "Faith in search of understanding". It is for people between the ages of 17-25



CAROL SERVICE CHANGE OF DATE

The St John's Carol Service, which, though I say so myself, is possibly the best in Albury Wodonga, takes place this year on Friday 20th December because the date selected previously coincides with the Martin Park "Carols by Candlight."



EUCHARISTIC ASSISTANTS

After the 9.30 Eucharist at St John's on Sunday 24th November there will be a meeting of all Eucharistic Assistants who can make it to review how we do things and to bring in some sort of uniformity of practice. Do please try to be there. Those who cannot get, please let the clergy know and we will arrange for a second meeting later on.



HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE

The History of the Diocese is being launched on November the 30th in Wangaratta. St John's features quite a lot in it and many folk might well be interested in purchasing a copy. There is also a concert and the offer of a Spit Roast Meal, see this month's Advocate.



IMPORTANT DATES

Nov 20th Pastoral Care Committee Meeting

Nov 27th Pastoral Care Meeting

Nov 30th Concert & Book Launch Wangaratta

Dec 4th Friends of our Lady & Pastoral Care Mass

Dec 9th Hark the Herald Angels Swing

Dec 15th Children's Church and Nativity Play

Dec 20th Carol Service

Feb 7th Meeting Place Opening and Dinner

Feb 9th Meeting Place Opening Service

Mar 2nd AGM St John's

Mar 4th Pancake Party

Mar 7th World Day of Prayer ( Sacred Heart)

Mar 27th Street Stall

May 4th Patronal Festival

May 31st Synod

Jul 23rd Fish and Chip night

Aug 14th- 16th Choral Festival

Aug 17th Possibly Confirmation Day

Oct 5th Possible St Francistide Pet Service

Oct 25th Flower Show and Fete

Dec 21st Carol Service 2003



DUTIES up to & including 24th November

Cleaning & Tea Team 8

Vestry Eric Saunders

Mowing Malcolm McRoberts

Narthex Jean De Kruiff

Linen June Bird

Welcome Table Shirley Jamieson, Wyn O'Connell

Door Gaye Petzke, Elizabeth Neaum, Claire Moodie

Readers J. Ardern, G. Goldsworthy, M. Neaum

Euch Assistant Mary Nicholson

Intercessor Celebrant

FOR PRAYER

The Sick

Ed Baumgarten, Maimee Haines, Lyla Hair, Joyce Hall, Julie Howe, Audrey Kennedy, Robert Jones, Gail Mahney, Anja Mosse, Janet Murray, Peter Nugent, Christopher Pearson, Thora Pyke, Val Saunders, Grant Savage, Ray Schmidt, Jack Skilton, Dawn Smallpage,Sandra Spurling, Mellissa Walsch, William, John Willoughby.



Anniversary of Death:

Ivy Smith, Mervyn Matthew 18th, Valda Hayes 19th, Janet Russell 21st, Ada Grace Anson, Netherland Reeves, Graeme Fraser 22nd, Margaret Krausgriel, Gary Smith, Michael Eyers 23rd.

THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH

Monday 18th November Hilda of Whitby

Fr Andrew's Day off

7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's

5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's



Tuesday 19th Nov Elizabeth of Hungary

7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's

9.00am Pastoral Care Meeting - Parish Office

9.30am Clergy Hospital Visits

10.00pm Meeting in Seymour AN

4.00pm Meeting in Shepparton AN

5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's

7.30pm Bishop's Certificate Course - Narthex

7.30pm Anglican School Meeting - Baranduda



Wednesday 20th November

7.15am Mattins only - Emmanuel

9.00am Christian Meditation - Narthex

10.00am Eucharist - St John's

10.00am Home Communions

5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's

7.30pm Parish Council - Narthex



Thursday 21st November

7.15am Mattins & Eucharist - St John's

9.00am SACKAN - Narthex

11.00am Eucharist - Westlands

1.30pm Eucharist - Osburn Lodge

3.30pm Children for Christ - Narthex

5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's

7.30pm Choir Practice - St John's



Friday 22nd November St Cecilia

Fr Ellis' Day off

7.15am Mattins & Trad Rite Eucharist - St John's

5.00pm Evening Prayer - St John's

7.30pm Scottish Country Dancing - Narthex



Saturday 23rd November

7.45am Mattins & Eucharist -

5.30pm Evening Prayer - St John's

6.00pm Vigil Eucharist - St John's



24th November Feast of Christ the King

7.30am Said Eucharist - St John's

9.00am Uniting Church Eucharist - Emmanuel

9.30am Sung Eucharist - St John's

11.00am Morning Prayer - Bethanga

6.00pm Ordination - Cathedral