Approaching Christmas

I am now in Sydney counting the days until I can return to Dunedin next Thursday. The forecast there is for 12'C on Thursday, perhaps a bit extreme for mid summer but much preferable to the heat and humidity of Sydney. It is only 28'C now but the humidity is high.

I have now bought a new MacBook Air. The salesperson convinced me it would be all I needed for my purposes. I needed to buy a superdrive despite Mac now believing we no longer need CDs and DVDS and I also bought an external hard drive. That was a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

I had problems connecting to my sister's wifi and we decided the modem/router I purchased for her just before moving to NZ, 3 years ago was on its way out.  So yesterday we bought a new one which led to about 6 hours of frustration trying to get it to connect.  It now works well except some sites are blocked. There is no obvious reason eg Dunedin newspaper but not the Sydney paper, some banks but not others.  I have disabled the firewall without success and it now seems we will have to ring the ISP support tomorrow.  Perhaps life would be easier if we did not have computers.

I went to Sung Eucharist at St James, King Street this morning.  I had hoped to hear a sermon by Rev John Beer.  He is an associate priest and often helped maintain my sanity with his acerbic comments about those who run the Sydney Diocese.  He could be more open as his day job was a teacher, he is now retired.  He was invited to the investiture as Presiding Bishop of Katharine Jefferts Schori so obviously has little in common with the archbishop of Sydney and his demand that women be submissive.
Anyway I was disappointed that he only preached at 7.45am and 11am and we had the children's pageant, my second in 8 days. At least it was fairly brief and we still had Eucharist.

I realised I am now more at home at St John's Roslyn.  None of those officiating were present in my time and yet none asked who I was or welcomed me as a visitor.  While St James does liturgy and music very well, it has never been a friendly church despite attempts to remedy the problem.  Much of this is due to the congregation coming from all over Sydney (seeking a real Anglican experience) and it still having a status as the society church of the city.

Last Sunday evening I attended 9 Lessons and Carols in the cathedral at Dunedin partly to recover sanity after the children's pageant that morning.  While only a small congregation, there were others from Roslyn and people I knew from my other activities in the city.  That is the advantage of living in a small city of 130,000 rather than one which has passed 4 million.  I now greet passengers on the train from the cruise ships as being welcome to the "best little city in the world".

St James has 9 Lessons and Carols this evening. It promises to be packed as usual but as my sister is still recovering from a painful knee operation just over a week ago, she is saving up to make it there on Christmas morning.  I went alone to Eucharist this morning.

I am looking forward to a full Choral Eucharist at Christmas. That will be St James at its best.

However the final hymn this morning was one of my favourites, of course appropriate for Advent being based on the Magnificat.  I love to sing it at full volume.
"Tell Out My Soul"   Enjoy

Lord of the Dance

I enjoyed the final hymn at church this morning. However, with Ireland to play Italy in the final Pool match of the Rugby World Cup here in Dunedin in a few hours, I think there might be some bias at play. I will be supporting Italy mainly because an Italian win will be better for Australia but I am in the minority.
Lots of choice on Youtube but, sorry my American friends, they have to pronounce dance properly for me to select this version.





VIVA ITALIA

With 4 Rugby Union matches today and one Rugby League Grand Final match (Auckland Warriors) in Sydney, I am feeling a bit over it all,  but there were friends at church going home to watch all 4 Union matches and also try to catch as much of the League as possible.

O Jesus I have promised

I had several posts prepared for today. Then at church the offertory hymn was that great favourite of mine ' O Jesus I have promised'. It followed the sermon on the great commandments in which Father John had emphasised that we do not love our neighbours in order to gain the Love of God but rather it is the knowledge that we live embraced in the Love of God that should inspire us to love our neighbours.

I am always emotional, and especially as we were preparing to receive the Eucharist, when singing the last verse.

Lord, let me see your footmarks,
And in them plant my own;
My hope to follow duly
Is in your strength alone.
O, guide me, call me, draw me,
Uphold me to the end;
And then in heaven receive me,
My Saviour and my Friend.

There are, of course, many tunes but we sing Wolvercote which I prefer.

Family Matters

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of Mum's passing into God's care. My sister joined me at the Eucharist at St James and was pleased to see I had put Mum's name on the service sheet in the list of 'Those whose year's mind falls about this time'.

The Offertory hymn was 'Be Thou My Vision' which we sung at Mum's memorial service. Mum chose it partly because she loved it but also because she knew it is my favourite hymn. Tears streamed down both our faces as we sung it.
It was the last day of our temporary music director (one of our organists, Peter Ellis) and he wrote the reason he chose today's music.
"Be thou my vision has been my comfort blanket for as long as I have had faith and the ability to articulate it"

I firmly believe God guided him in his choice.
Mum would have enjoyed the other hymns as well.
Entrance: We have a gospel to proclaim
Gradual : Jesus, good above all other
Post Communion: I heard the voice of Jesus say.

Peter is a former Baptist and says he likes to slide a few hymns under the incense barrier. He has my encouragement.

In the early part of my overseas journey I asked your prayers for my sister when it was discovered she had a melanoma on her back. Her doctor told her this week, after a further operation 2 weeks ago, that all of it has been removed and there are no further signs.

Thanks be to God.