CORIO FOOD BANK - Queenscliff Point Lonsdale Anglicans

THIS MONTH, APRIL, SUNDAY 10AM WORSHIP AT ST GEORGE’S QUEENSCLIFF
                               (MAY AT ST JAMES POINT LONSDALE)

CORIO FOOD BANK
From Fr Peter,
On Friday I called into the Corio Food Bank to drop off some groceries which we had collected in the parish
over the Holy Week and Easter period. The Food Bank operates out of St Andrew’s Anglican Church
opposite the Corio shopping centre. Normally John Crisp or John Oxbrow would make this trip, but as I
was in that part of the world anyway, I though I would take my turn. Derek (pictured) and Anne are at the
food bank 4 days a week handing out food parcels. That day they had 15 households needing food relief.
The demand is expected to increase now with the onset of winter and the finishing up of Jobkeeper.
What do they need RIGHT NOW?
   • Long life milk                                          • Non-perishable middle eastern foods eg
   • Breakfast cereals                                           canned chick peas; rice; any dried beans;
   • Women’s sanitary items                                      lentils; tahini; canned tomatoes; cous cous

 Food Collection at St George’s in    Derek Wyse who, with Anne,      Food Collection at St James’ in Point
 Queenscliff, cnr Mercer & Hobson     operates the Corio Food Bank    Lonsdale, 1 Albert Street.
 Streets.                             at St Andrew’s Anglican         The weather proof bin for food
 The weather proof bin for food       Church, Corio                   collection is in the breeze way
 collection is in the side porch of                                   between the church and Gill Hall.
 the church. Along with ABM                                           Along with ABM envelopes for your
 envelopes for your Lenten/Easter                                     Lenten/Easter offering. These can be
 offering. These can be placed                                        placed either in the collection on
 either in the collection on Sunday                                   Sunday or in the locked letter box at
 or in the locked letter box at the                                   the top of the St James Office
 top of the St James Office                                           driveway.
 driveway.

‘ORDINARY, HIDDEN AND LABORIOUS’
In a world where marketing, spin, and using the right combination of social media platforms are seen as the
determinates of the success of an enterprise, it is all to easy to buy into this way of thinking. We can see how this
way of seeing the world is impacting on our public political discourse where all too often serious policy development
is secondary to capitalising on the daily and weekly media cycle. By moving on to the next big splash, challenging or
electorally damaging issues, which really should be faced and dealt with, are conveniently left behind and forgotten.
some commentators call this ‘retail politics’.
I see the same thing happening in the church: ‘retail religion’. That is, desperately seeking relevance in a perceived
market place while sitting too lightly on theological integrity, and walking away from lineages of age-old wisdom and
the spiritual practices associated with those lineages.
In the enclosed monastic community of which I was a member for 10 years the life we lived was said to be ‘ordinary,
hidden and laborious’. These were marks honour and indicators of being on the right track.
In our own parish life much of value is hidden. For example, just like the circulation of blood in the human body is
hidden from open view, so the daily cycle of morning and evening prayer sustains not only those who join in, but the
very life of the parish: as the priest, I see this daily discipline as the very pulse of parish life. These days, with the
provision of Zoom, participation has extended beyond the geographical boundary of the parish. Here, everything is
brought to God, including the specific needs of those who have asked for our prayers. Early this morning a mother
asked for urgent prayer for her son who has received a serious diagnosis and is about to embark on a medical
journey towards, we hope and pray, healing and wholeness. I brought that request to morning prayer (in a way that
safeguared the anonymity of those making the request).

Also hidden are the visits to hospitals and homes, often for Holy Communion and annointing.
We have a sustained ministry to aged care facilities, especially Arcare in Point Lonsdale, to which we gave top
priority these last 12 months due the extra burden placed on aged care residents, and their families, by way of risk
and lock down requirements during COVID.
Our ministry of hospitality is hidden by its nature, as we safegurad the anonymity of our guests who are here on
retreat or to receive the ministry sometimes called ‘spiritual direction’. Just today I have booked in two people for a
retreat in the St James’ House of Prayer later this month. Another person has made an appointment with me to
discuss having regular spiritual direction sessions.
All hidden dimensions of our life.
There is an old saying that captures something of this wisdom around hiddenness:
‘The church is like an olympic pool; all the noise is at the shallow end’. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having a
shallow end of the pool, after all, that’s where people learn to swim. But without a deep end, it’s all noise and ‘retail
religion’.
Fr Peter

Intention of Giving
We are inviting you into what God is doing here and through our church.
What a busy time in our Parish. The more involved you become the more you realise there are hidden gems
happening all the time. Behind the scenes there are wonderful acts of service from our Parishioners that keep the
Parish ticking. Father Peter, as always, is meeting the needs of the Parish in terms of pastoral care and being active
with the Aged Care, and much more. Our Parish Council is a vibrant and energetic team who have recently
submitted a Living Heritage Grant for the restoration of the Bell Tower at St George’s, been working with the
insurance company and the Diocese to repair the back wall of Gill Hall, organised rosters for delivery of the
newsletter and brass cleaning and much more. Now that the Old School Hall has been revamped, Helen Martin,
Jenni Farrar and myself have been working on a Business Plan for using the Hall. The Old School Hall will have a new
lease on life and support our mission of supporting Emerging Artists, musical and cultural activities within the
Community. This is but a snippet of some of the activities going on behind the scenes.
We have seen a rise in new people attending church. This is an optimistic sign that people are receiving solace and
inspiration from coming along and sitting alongside our Parishioners on a Sunday. It would be wonderful if we can
make ourselves known to them and welcome them with open arms.
Sally Hawkins - Treasurer

OUR PRAYERS THIS WEEK
 A Prayer for the Duke of Edinburgh
 ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter
 thou into the joy of thy lord.’ (Matthew 25.21)
 God of majesty, give rest to your servant
 Philip who, having served his Queen, and
 commonwealth, has passed from this life,
 full of years yet strong in spirit.
 As we give thanks for his life, as Prince and
 husband, as Consort and family man, we pray
 that all the good that he has done may
 continue to bear fruit in the lives of
 individuals and the life of the commonwealth,
 to your honour and glory, through Jesus
 Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer of the Week                                             Community          Corio foodbank and the households they
Risen Christ,                                                  support coming into winter and with the cessation of
whose absence leaves us in despair                             Jobkeeper.
but whose presence is overwhelming:                            Requests Shane; Ann; Patricia; Julia; Barry (& Anne);
breathe on us with your abundant life,                         Philip; Greg; Ron; Alice; Betty; Carlie; Lucy; Parvin; Sisi;
that where we cannot see                                       Pixie; Julie; Angela; Jennifer; Ben; Terry; Trish;
we may have courage to believe                                 Ros.
that we may be raised with you. Amen.                          Thanksgiving         New life and solid ground for hope given
Nations and Peoples Equitable and strategic global             in the Easter Mystery
distribution of the COVID vaccine. Northern Mozambique;        Communion of Saints
Myanmar and the Karen people on the border and seeking         Recently Died: Joy Wendolen May d.24.3.2021; Matt
refuge in Thailand                                             King;
The Church                                                     Anniversaries:     Edith Edna Edel Maudsley 12.04.1987;
Our Parish:         Our Partnership with St Stephens Karen     Ernest Alexander Rothwell 13.04.1995; Margaret Ann
congregation in Werribee and Fr Peter’s visit today to         Riddell 13.04.2013; William Imrie 14.04.1962; Franis (sic)
preach at the commissioning of lay people graduating from      Arthur Howes 15.04.1983; Ellen Esther Green 15.04.2002;
a ‘Sharing the Gospel’ course.                                 Robert Lumsden 15.04.2009; Beryl Dorothy Anderson
This week’s prayers for the church go to: The Melbourne        15.04.2014; Florence Olivia Hudson 16.04.1985; Ada
Anglican.                                                      Marion Allison 16.04.1993; Freda Eveline Richards
Our Common Home-Earth More ambition from Australia for         17.04.2006; Jennifer Margaret Robin 18.04.2017 An
achieving net zero cardon emissions for COP 26 in              asterisk* signifies those whose ashes are interred in the St
November in Glasgow.                                           James’ Memorial Garden. A hash sign # signifies those
Hospitality         Those who come to us for retreats and      whose ashes are interred in the St George’s Memorial
spiritual direction                                            Garden

ST JAMES LIBRARY
New acquisition: ‘Vera Deakin and the Red Cross’ by Carole Woods.
This is the story of a women before her time whose gifts of vision and leadership came the fore in the tumultuous
and traumatic years of the first world war and its aftermath.
Of interest to the residents of the Borough is her association with the place and in particular the influence of St
George the Martyr Church in Queenscliff upon her and her husband, Captain Thomas White (whose biography is
also in the St James Library):
“Vera and Tom White's musings on old churches in England as
repositories of history and memorials reminded them of the
Anglican Church of St George the Martyr in Queenscliff. The
township was named in 1853 after Queen Victoria, the monarch
who was to preside over the zenith of the British Empire. The
square-towered Anglican Church of St George, built of pale
limestone and designed with high-pitched roof and lancet windows,
opened for worship in 1864. Symbolism and memorials abound
within the church and it is richly endowed with stained glass
windows. In the entrance porch a window depicting a crown
commemorates the reign of Queen Victoria, and high in the western
end of the nave a quatrefoil window portrays the martial St George,
red cloak flying and sword in hand, riding into combat with the
dragon.
 Memorial plaques in the nave honour members of the local
community who died in defence of what they believed to be the
righteous causes of empire. Among those commemorated is
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Umphelby who was killed in the Boer
War on 12 March 1900. Other memorials recall the fallen from the
Great War. One tablet lists the names of all the men from St
George's Church who fell while others honour individual soldiers.
Lieutenant Edward Henry Richardson of the 30th Battalion,
Australian Imperial Force, 'willingly offered himself in the cause of righteousness, justice and peace', and fell on the
Somme in France on 22 June 1918. The memorials conjure up images of remote battlefields and at times the noise of
the wind whipping round the little church sounds eerily like the dull boom of cannon.
 St George's Church stands serenely on the side of a gentle incline that slopes down to the sea. From time to time the
traditional flag of England, the red cross of St George on a white field, is hoisted on the flagpole at the front of the
church. It is a quintessentially English scene, evocative of the historical and literary England that has beguiled
countless Australians, including Vera Deakin and Tom White. It is the kind of scene that might bring to mind 'This
sceptred isle' speech from Shakespeare's King Richard II or the 'God for Harry! England and Saint George!' cry from
King Henry V. And it is a scene that encapsulates salient aspects of the lives of Tom and Vera.”
From page 7 of ‘Vera Deakin and the Red Cross’ by Carole Woods; Royal Historical Society of Victoria 2020.

          The parish in a member of the Australian Religious
                        Response to Climate Change (ARRCC)

 Parish members participate in the local community movement, Queenscliffe Climate Action (QCA)

We acknowledge with gratitude that we worship on the traditional lands of the Wathaurong people of the Kulin
nation and we acknowledge and pay our respects to their elders past and present

                                                     CONTACT US
                                   Webpage             www.queensclifflonsdaleanglican.org
                      Office Admin         Jenni Farrar. Office Hours 11.00am to 3.00pm Tues, Wed, Fri
 Parish Office     1 Albert Street, Point Lonsdale Vic. 3225 Ph.03 5258 4624 Email:admin@queensclifflonsdaleanglican.org
                  Vicar Rev Peter Martin Mb 0438 231 118 Email: vicar@queensclifflonsdaleanglican.org
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