Moving article in Herald today
Ninety years to forget, but his bloody war lives on

We visited Ypres in May so it is fresh in my mind

"His membership of that steadily dwindling band of veterans of the war to end all wars has earned him audiences with the Queen and the French Legion d'honneur. A few years ago he was taken to meet a German veteran who had fought opposite him in Flanders. "Nice old chap. A pacifist. Same as me. Why did they suffer, those millions of men?"

The afternoon is wearing on and Patch is tired. He pauses to listen to the children playing. What does it feel like to be the last of those millions, that army of ghosts? "I don't like it," he says. "I sit there and think. And some nights I dream - of that first battle. I can't forget it.
"I fell in a trench. There was a fella there. He must have been about our age. He was ripped shoulder to waist with shrapnel. I held his hand for the last 60 seconds of his life. He only said one word: 'Mother'. I didn't see her, but she was there. No doubt about it. He passed from this life into the next, and it felt as if I was in God's presence.

"I've never got over it. You never forget it. Never."

Also a comment in the movie :”History Boys” seen this week that all the memorials to the dead of the First World War were to salve the consciences of those who started that dreadful unnecessary war. Pity some of our politicians today still do not understand that war solves nothing.

Anglican Covenant?

Three cheers for the Dean of Southwark who concludes an article in the Guardian

Will the Anglican communion fall apart without a covenant? The communion is voluntary - let the independent provinces choose to belong, or not; but let none of us dictate terms to one another and determine who's in and who's out; let the church be as mature as the Commonwealth and accommodate differences of opinion in something more durable than toleration: love.

· The Very Rev Colin Slee is Dean of Southwark

Cardinal Pell and Catholic Schools

From the Sydney Morning Herald "Pell plans fidelity oath for principals" especially worth viewing for the cartoon. Principals will have to publicly commit to a "vow of fidelity" by adhering to church teaching on homosexuality, birth control and women's ordination.
In the 80's I was a teacher in a Senior Catholic Boys' College within the Sydney Archdiocese and my sexuality was common knowledge.
 A very few boys approached me for counselling , a lot made life difficult, 
a few stated they had formed different views of homosexuality as a result of being 
in my class, the Principals at the time (religious Brothers) were probably uncomfortable but supported me.
Occasionally I receive an email such as the following from an ex-student (now with a PhD) 
"although not apparent as a young guy it was important to have people like you in the school. Made life a little easier.
Anyway won’t go on, just wanted to say hi and let you know that there are people out here who appreciated knowing you." 
Eventually I moved to a different school with younger children
and decided life would be easier if I was more discreet. 
It makes me angry to think that young people struggling with their self identification are still prevented from observing role 
models. Fortunately I have been in State schools and heard Gay teachers 
being quite open with their senior students. I can inform Pell that it will not stop young men discovering 
and hopefully accepting their homosexuality. 
Just from looking at class photos of the 70's I can 
list many young men I later met in gay bars. Not many of them, however, would still be found attending the church despite attending Catholic schools
for their whole primary and secondary education .. 

testing

This site will not work with my old version of Safari. I need a new computer (coming) before I can upgrade Safari. Have been using Netscape but it now crashes continually so I am testing Opera. Not much use blogging if I cannot link so if this does not work, then my blogging will have to wait until new computer arrives.  
I really feel for people my age without the finances to upgrade their technology.
My favourite newspaper is the Sydney Morning Herald 

Howard meddles in US affairs

Quote from the editorial in today's Sydney Morning Herald.
"Instead of looking like a statesman bolstering the Washington link, he (John Howard) looks like the reverse - like a partisan politician meddling in another country's election for his friend and ideological ally, George Bush."
My only addition is that this idiot has never and could never look like a statesman.
Barack Obama had his number quick, pointing out he is all rhetoric and no action. Our actual contribution to the war in Iraq is piddling and would never be missed. Howard, however, is clever. He knows his reelection would be in jeopardy if (like in the USA) lots of our boys started coming home in body bags. Thankfully our only loss has been a guy who fooled around with his gun and shot himself.
In the last election Australian's were more interested in their own mortgages and interest rates than what might be happening in the world. They wrongly believed Howard's lies and as a result I am now ashamed to be an Australian. Hopefully they are now waking up. They can see Howard struggling to reverse his statements about Climate change and are becoming angry about the treatment of Hicks in Guantanamo Bay. Most are also turning against the war in Iraq. They are beginning to see that contrary to Howard's views, Al Quaeda see Bush's attack on Iraq as being a gift to their recruitment campaign.
The cartoon in today's paper shows Howard with all the chickens coming home to roost - oh if only it can only be true. I long to see the day when he faces the media, not with his usual self-satisfied grin, but to announce that he has lost the election. I will be delirious with joy.
The only thing I would miss would be watching him eat humble pie as he has to deal with Obama as president but no, I cannot wait that long.

Great article in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald 'Room for Religion as Moral Compass'
by Rev Tim Costello. He is a Baptist and brother of our Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer though that has not stopped him criticising the Government. He is also chief executive of World Vision Australia.
He was quoted by our Lay Reader Assoc. Professor Michael Horsburgh who as usual gave a great sermon this morning. I will link to it when it becomes available online. He managed to move a sermon on the Baptism of Jesus to a discussion of Church and State by linking via the stance John the Baptist made to Herod Antipas. Michael quoted from Tim Costello
" It is striking that the textbook for Christian faith, the Bible, has some 3000 verses urging us to care for the poor and marginalised, and only a handful of verses on two of the topics that the religious right trumpets as its main values criteria: homosexuality and the family."
We need Christians to apply their faith to politics by standing up for the minorities and applying values of social justice to refugees and Hicks to mention two, not trying to enforce their own personal piety and private values on others.

Worshipping in New Zealand (Aotearoa)

It has been a delight to worship in the South Island Cathedrals of New Zealand.
On October 29 I attended Choral Eucharist at Nelson Cathedral. Nelson has always been regarded as evangelical and has provided bishops for the Sydney diocese but probably not these days. However the service was Anglican (which is a term difficult to apply to much of the Sydney diocese these days).
The celebrant was the Dean (Very Rev Charles Tyrrell) and the preacher was one of the assistant priests Rev Yvonne McLean. The Cathedral dominates the city from a hill to the south and is quite modern having been completed in the 70's. The pews were very comfortable and I was made to feel welcome. However I do not like having to keep the wafer and dipping it into the chalice. They were to have a family fun night on October 31 as an alternative to Halloween (Better than fulminating against it). I gather Halloween is bigger in NZ than Australia.
On November 5th I attended Choral Eucharist at Christchurch Cathedral. This service was packed as it was the 125th Anniversary dedication festival of the Cathedral.
Again the celebrant was the Dean, Very Rev Peter Beck, who welcomed me twice but there were a lot of people, assisted by the Associate Dean, Rev Diana Rattray. The preacher was Bishop David Coles.
The Offertory hymn was "Give thanks for life" words I do not remember seeing before although the tune was familiar. I became quite emotional at the verse
" And for our own,
our living and our dead,
thanks for the love by
which our life is fed,
a love not changed by time
or death or dread,
Alleluia"
I had been disappointed that my itinerary meant I missed All Souls Day at St James the week before as I had wanted to attend in memory of Mum. This hymn assisted.

At the beginning of the service a new altar cloth was dedicated. It was bright red and had many languages embroidered in gold. There was a comment about the dedication being delayed due to controversy. On returning to the Cathedral later I asked the guide about this controversy. He said it had been opposed by evangelicals because it included writing from the language Sanskrit which is pre-Christian ?????? He asked "Do you know the sort of people who run the Sydney Diocese? I groaned and said "Only too well."
Finally on November 12 I attended St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin . Being Remembrance Sunday the morning service was a special service of Thanksgiving with both the RSL and the Cathedral Choir. This was very moving but I attended again in the evening for Choral Eucharist. A small congregation as this is usually a service of Evensong. At both services the preacher (and celebrant at the Eucharist) was the Dean, the Very Rev David Rice. His accent obviously shows he was educated at Duke Divinity School, North Carolina.
I was excited to see that, in the week before, the Bishop of Dunedin had created controversy by ordaining as deacon a man who is living openly in a gay relationship. Apparently this man is a member of the cathedral congregation and the Dean has had to front the media on the matter. The Diocese of Dunedin also made history by consecrating the first woman Anglican bishop Bishop Penny Jamieson in 1989. Of course she was not welcome in the Diocese of Sydney.
It was nice to worship back at St James, King Street but I did not enjoy the 85 km drive each way. (I walked in Nelson and Christchurch and it was only a 4km drive in Dunedin.) However St James is still under the control of the Archbishop of Sydney so we are unlikely to see women priests any time soon and as for the ordination of an openly gay man !!!!!!!!.
So much points to my emigrating to Dunedin - time will tell.

Women priests

I will continue to push this point. Below is a letter to the SMH last week by Sue who is a good friend and officiated at my mother's cremation and memorial service. Before Mum's death, Sue came and anointed and prayed over her. Mum appreciated this very much. We had to ask a male priest who only knew Mum slightly to celebrate communion with us. He was very kind and helpful but it would have been wonderful if Sue could have celebrated communion. I cannot understand or support the Sydney Anglican diocese in their out of date ideas. My career has been in a female dominated profession and so I have had a number of women as bosses. Some have been marvellous, others hopeless as was true of the men. I do not see why in the 21st century women should be subordinate to men.
Ban makes no sense

I am an Anglican deacon ordained in Sydney in 1996. At that time I was chaplain at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. Because I did not become a priest when the men in my cohort did, I was not authorised to administer communion to families at the hospital, many of whom were from the country and missing their country connections.


In the two churches in which I have since ministered, I lead services, preach, conduct baptisms, funerals and weddings and engage in pastoral care of our church family. When my senior colleague goes on holidays or is away on Sunday, my congregations are puzzled that I cannot conduct services in his absence. Ours being a tradition that values communion services, we are forced to arrange for a locum minister to conduct services on those days because I am not authorised to do so.

The system makes no sense. Your article ("Anglican women regroup to fight ban on ordination", October 5) points to Chris Albany's motion in the October Synod, which simply asks for women to be recognised as priests so that parishes which would like to have a woman in that capacity are free to do so.

Reverend Susan Emeleus St George's Anglican Church, Paddington

Peter Norman

For a person who does not usually follow sport and dislikes the Australian passion for it above everything else, I have been very much moved by the death of Peter Norman.
As you approach Central on the train, you can see the famous photo from 1968 which some person (most likely an Aborigine) has painted on the wall. What an inspiring man and how wonderful that the two Black men involved that day should fly to Melbourne and be his pall bearers. They are truly sportsmen of whom we can be proud.

Exclusive Brethren

In the early 90's I was retraining as a librarian and sought work wherever possible. I had one job which required me to interview 8 people in a street and hopefully finish on Saturday. In one of my areas of Katoomba-Leura were households of exclusive brethren. I loved interviewing them as one could turn over the pages on cigarettes, television and radio as well as voting patterns and finish the interview in quicktime. When I asked one, who told me he did not watch television, listen to the radio or read newspapers, what he did with his time he told me he went to church and prayed. I nearly said "How do you know what to pray for?"
Apparently they are no longer willing to leave democracy up to God but are working surreptitiously to prevent leftist parties , particularly the Greens, from being elected. They have tried to dig up dirt about Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Heavens her husband was seen being hugged by a man on the night of her re-election!!! They particularly have it in for the leader of the Greens in Australia, Senator Bob Brown who, as an openly gay man, must be the devil incarnate.
Of course that weasel, Howard will not speak against them because they support his conservative views. He thinks it better to criticise Muslims who might hold unAustralian values. I know whose values I would rather adopt and it is not those of the Exclusive Brethren.
We are told they are astute and wealthy business men but I have been unable to find which businesses they own. I wish someone would tell me so that I might avoid doing business with any of them.