Missed Opportunity

This morning at Sung Eucharist, it was not until I was leaving that I realised the couple sitting across the aisle from me were the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd and his wife. They are off to Italy tomorrow and will be meeting yet again with world leaders including President Obama and this time the Pope.

I am not one to wander around the church at the sign of peace, I just exchange with those closest to me so I missed my opportunity to shake hands with the Prime Minister especially when he will be shaking so many important hands next week.

I could have asked him about same-sex marriages but that would be rude when he is there to worship. There were no TV cameras at the door when we left (before him) so perhaps even the newshounds did not know his plans for today. His Commonwealth car with Aussie Flag was outside but not when we went in so they must have arrived after us.
The security personnel were less obvious than on Christmas day perhaps due to the smaller numbers in church.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Mum's death, 3 years ago, and her name was on the service sheet so I have a good feeling that the Prime Minister prayed for her during the prayers of the faithful even if he did not actually read down the names.

Yesterday I attended an all-day seminar on "Is Scripture Enough?" It was organised by our church but the speakers came from Trinity College, Melbourne. However Rev Michael Jensen (son of our Archbishop) was there and took part in a panel discussion. Very interesting but I will need to blog in more detail in a few days (am going hiking as usual tomorrow).

The hope of our time

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the American people chose the right man when they elected Barack Obama as President.

Mr Rudd says Mr Obama's election during a turbulent economic spell shows Americans rise to their best during tough times.

"They have set Barack Obama the mighty task of rebuilding the American economy and leading the recovery of the international economy: a great task for a man I believe to be a great man," Mr Rudd said.

"I believe from everything I have seen, read and heard and from the conversations that I have had with him that the American people have chosen well."

Mr Rudd says Australia will work side-by-side with Mr Obama to overcome the global financial crisis.

"These are dark times but a new age and a new optimism - tempered by the magnitude of the challenges ahead - is about to dawn across the Pacific," he said.

"Barack Obama truly is the hope of our time and I say this to the new President of the United States and through him to the new people, that Australia as always stands ready to work with America in the great challenges that lie ahead."

Happy New Year from Sydney, Australia

2008

Moment of Sorrow*















Moment of National Pride *
















Moment of Gay Pride*

















Moment of Hope for 2009

Eucharist with the Prime Minister

Well, Christmas is now over for me for another year. I was on the 6.50am train as on a usual Sunday although the combined service was an hour later but I wanted to make sure of my usual pew so found a coffee stand open and filled in 40 minutes in the city. That was wise as the church was packed and the congregation included the Prime Minister of Australia. As the news services stated.
Mr Rudd, his wife Therese Rein, and their three children - Jessica, 24, Nicholas, 22 and Marcus, 15 - attended a Christmas service at St James Anglican church in Sydney's CBD this morning.
The photo shows him with his wife and our Assistant priest Father John Stewart.
It was good to see him queued up in the aisle with everyone else for communion although I was coming back along the side aisle at the time and between looking to see his wife and being a bit disconcerted by the security guys coming towards me (the wrong way) I went at first to the wrong pew. My sister thinks it is sad that the family have to be followed by security officers but that is the way of the modern world.

The Prime Minister has now attended our church several times this year. His main home is in Canberra but there is a house reserved for him in Sydney which has a prime location on the harbour for watching the start of the yacht race today and the fireworks on New Year's Eve. My sister thought he would attend the cathedral but he grew up in the Diocese of Brisbane so would obviously prefer the real Anglican services at St James rather than the Calvinist hotch potch of the cathedral. And who would want to listen to a sermon by one of the Jensens on Christmas day?

The choir sang the Kyries, Gloria, Sanctus & Benedictus from Mozart's Spatzenmesse K220 which, while beautiful, I found a bit long to stand.
I much prefer exercising my own lungs in the processional hymn 'O Come All Ye Faithful', the offertory hymn 'Christians Awake, Salute the Happy Morn' and the final hymn 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' but this year was particularly moved by the Gradual Hymn 'It Came Upon the Midnight Clear' ( music below) especially finding the third verse apt:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel - strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

I seem to be very melancholy this Christmas

We did not arrive at my sister's home until nearly 1pm and we did have hot turkey and ham with salad for main with salmon for entree and plum pudding as dessert. Just as well the temperature did not go above 23'C (73'F) and the morning was cloudy but this can be a trap for the unwary as the UV was high so there could be some sunburnt European tourists today. Brut and New Zealand sauvignon blanc meant I felt quite strange for the more than 2 hours train trip home arriving just in time to see the news with the Prime Minister leaving my church and to watch something I never miss, The Queen's Christmas Message.

Obama Inauguration

Australia held an election on November 24th, 2007. By the end of the night it was clear Labor had won and that Kevin Rudd was the new Prime Minister. The next day he was making pronouncements and the previous Prime Minister handed over the keys to the residence in Canberra (The Lodge) on November 29th. The polls for the lower house were all declared by mid December. The Senate for which the voting is complicated took longer to finalise but it does not determine who governs. Rudd famously told his cabinet ministers they could have Christmas day off but had to be back at work on December 26 (also a public holiday). In Australia, Christmas of course falls in mid-summer and for many the holidays last well into January and schools do not return until after Australia Day (Jan 26). However the Labor Government and Rudd were clearly running the country.

New Zealand had an election on Nov 8 this year. The new Prime Minister asked the Governor General to allow the declaration of the polls to be speeded up so that he could attend APEC in Peru as Prime Minister this week. Apparently he got his wish.

All this leads to my inability to understand the US situation where the new President is elected on November 4 but does not take office until January 20.

Normally that would not interest me but the Global Financial Crisis has meant the World leaders of the G20 have met in Washington this week without the presence of the man who will be the most powerful person in the world in 2 months time. The meeting has been chaired by a person who is now almost irrelevant. Many of the world leaders would have naturally liked to meet with Obama but he has properly refused such meetings. Instead they have met with a go-between, Madeleine Albright.
I have just listened to Obama's speech on the financial situation delivered by Youtube and provided at Wounded Bird. As I have said, it is very confusing and frustrating.

There has been a stir here in Australia because apparently President Bush rang Kevin Rudd last week while Rudd was hosting a dinner. He is supposed to have taken the call in another room. However at the dinner was the editor of one of our newspapers who later reported that Bush asked Rudd "What is the G20?"
Both Bush and Rudd deny this now but who knows. Did the editor overhear? Was Rudd so exasperated he unwisely let his feelings slip?
Our Television services played over and over the rather muted welcome (compared to the warm greeting of other leaders and not the photo above) by Bush to Rudd when he arrived in Washington on Friday and the warmer greeting the next day.
I, of course, could not care less if Bush and Rudd are not the bosom buddies that Bush and Howard were. Rudd has met with Obama before his election and spoken by phone with him since. I hope they have a warm working relationship. But it goes to show further this strange situation of the transfer of power in the US.

Missed him

Our church St James, King Street has 3 services most Sundays. 7.45 Said Eucharist is far too early for me (1 would need to leave home about 5am). 9am Sung Eucharist suits me fine and I can be home at 1pm for lunch. 11am Choral Eucharist is beautiful but I prefer to keep it for special occasions (when it is often combined and at 10am). Thoroughly confused? :-)
Yesterday went at 9am and watching news last night got a shock when I saw our assistant priest. Then followed the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and his wife. Several other views followed during the news. Kevin Rudd is a devout Anglican and the reporters seem to like interviewing him as he leaves church each Sunday. He grew up in Brisbane and naturally now lives in Canberra so he would not feel very at home in the usual Sydney church. He must have been in Sydney for the weekend and yeay, he chose a good inclusive non fundamentalist church.