Notices — The Feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary — March 21st 2021

NOTICES:

Con­grat­u­la­tions to our appoin­ted:

• Church War­dens – Fabi­an LoS­chiavo (Rect­ors Warden), Stu­art Veitch & Eddie Reddy.
• Par­ish Coun­cil – Andy Ser­afin, Susan Hill, Peter Sey­mour, Tony Brown­low, Kath­er­ine Old­field, Steph­en Gates, along with Kathy Drum­mond & Stu­art Grigg (Rector’s appoint­ments).
• Par­ish Nom­in­at­ors – Moya Holle, Mandy Tib­bey, Susan Hill, Kath­er­ine Old­field, and Stu­art Veitch.
• Syn­od Rep­res­ent­at­ive – Peter Sey­mour (repla­cing Diana Jef­fer­ies) who joins Tony Brown­low in attend­ing Syn­od this year.

Thank You from Fr Jeff.  Thanks to all for your pray­ers and best wishes dur­ing my recent trip to hos­pit­al and recov­ery time.  Much appreciated.  JP

Many thanks to the Nath Fam­ily — who have provided us with Palm crosses for the whole par­ish.

TODAY: Singing Rehears­al with Jo Bur­ton — after morn­ing tea: For our volun­teer sing­ers who will be prac­ti­cing togeth­er for the Palm Sunday & East­er Day Ser­vices.

NEXT WEEK:

• Car park is not avail­able on Palm Sunday — 28 March 2021.  Park­ing is avail­able on Stan­more Road, or at the Cyprus Club on Stan­more Road, who have per­mit­ted us to use their car­park.

• Sunday 28^th March — Palm Sunday: 9.30am Ser­vice.
• Par­ish Coun­cil Meet­ing in church after morn­ing tea.

Len­ten Study: After the Wed­nes­day Heal­ing ser­vice and morn­ing tea, we will be dis­cuss­ing the read­ings of the day from the Lec­tion­ary.

Holy Week Dates for your Diary:

1^st April – Maun­dy Thursday: 7.30 pm Ser­vice.

2^nd April – Good Fri­day: 9.30am Ser­vice & 12pm — Way of the Cross.

4^th April – East­er Day: 9.30am Ser­vice.

ABM 2021 Lent, Good Fri­day & East­er Gift Appeal

We encour­age parish­ion­ers to use the QR Code on the digit­al dona­tion cards or make a dona­tion online at abmission.org.au.

Please note: There are some dona­tion envel­opes in the church foy­er and hall for those who do not use mobile phones or have no inter­net access.

Email Etiquette Policy:   In these ‘days of email’ we must be care­ful how we use this meth­od of com­mu­nic­a­tion.

The fol­low­ing rules must be observed in this com­munity to avoid dis­turb­ing and upset­ting each oth­er:

• We must NOT add any­one to an email­ing list without their pri­or con­sent.
• If we have done this in the past, then either (1) ask that per­son if they want to remain on the email­ing list, or (2) remove any such per­son from your mail­ing list.
• If you are receiv­ing unwanted emails from any­one in this par­ish com­munity then let them or me know and ask for your name to be removed from that list.

This does not apply to par­ish emails regard­ing attend­ance.

Thanks for your cooper­a­tion.

Let’s Start Think­ing – From Fr. Jeff.  2020 was in some ways a year in which the aim was to “get through and make the best of it.”  2021 brings with it the hope of a vac­cine and the chance to re-set our course forward.  I am very inter­ested in hear­ing the ideas of ALL parish­ion­ers as to what we need to do, change, do more of, do less of, add to our activities.  It is best to put these ideas on paper rather than in a con­ver­sa­tion.  There will be a more form­al pro­cess later in the year, but let’s start think­ing now.  Please email Fr Jeff parkerj272@gmail.com

Art in the Hall:  This month’s piece is Sun­flowers by Vin­cent Van Gogh,1889.  The Par­ish Coun­cil has now endorsed the idea of allow­ing parish­ion­ers to have art works hung in the Hall on a tem­por­ary basis.  Please note that no respons­ib­il­ity is taken for the secur­ity or pro­tec­tion from dam­age or theft of any art­work on loan.  A form waiv­ing any claim by a lender/donor must be signed before any art­work is accepted.  Pref­er­ence is for art with a recog­nis­able Anglic­an con­tent.

Lea MacNeil has jam to sell and vari­ous sauces; please email her lea.macneil@gmail.com if you would like to give her an order.  You may, of course, ask her what type of jam and/or pre­serve or sauces she has on hand.  Don­ald, her hus­band can deliv­er your spe­cif­ic order to the Opshop where you are able to pay for it.

Food for our worms – Food scraps (no dairy, cit­rus or meat) can be left in the buck­et provided.  This is part of our Par­ish envir­on­ment­al ini­ti­at­ive.

 

Weekly Inter­ces­sions for our Com­munity:

Sunday: Kay Younie, Nata­sha & Timothy; Shir­ley Allen, Bar­bara & Jade; Vic­tor Any­ar­isi; and Beth Arm­strong.

Monday: Ian Barnett; Ken­neth Bar­ongo; Jen­nifer, Peter, Elise & Blake B.

Tues­day: John Bowen & Joanne; and Fr Philip & Rose­mary Brad­ford.

Wed­nes­day: Chris­toph­er Brooks; Tony Brown­low; and Ruth Cham­pi­on.

Thursday: Nancy Cheng; and Ron, Binh, Milly, Nam & Viol­etta Clarke.

Fri­day: We pray for Fr John Bunyan’s pas­tor­al care min­istry at Bank­stown Hos­pit­al and all those he min­is­ters to.

Sat­urday: Dear lov­ing Fath­er, please deliv­er us from the coronavir­us and lim­it its impact on Aus­tralia and the world. In your mercy bring a swift end to this crisis.  Please pro­tect with your lov­ing care those we love — our fam­il­ies, friends and neigh­bours.  Let your fath­erly hand guide, shel­ter and strengthen them.  Cast out all anxious fears and doubts.  Give us an increas­ing trust in you and fill our hearts and minds with your peace.  We pray for those around the world now strug­gling with COVID-19.  Heal and com­fort those who are sick and suffering.  Pro­tect and guide the health pro­fes­sion­als who are at the front line.  Please give wis­dom and cour­age to those who bear respons­ib­il­ity for con­front­ing this chal­lenge. We ask these things through the power­ful name of Jesus.  Amen.

 Pray­ers for the sick:  Kristen Har­ley; Steph­en Thur­ley; Fr John Bunyan; Louise Trott; She Kar Nair; Maur­een Clunas; Wolf Winter; Peter Cinelli; John Can Pahali; Alex Regos; Aman­da Cow­ley; Gra­ham Sadler; Fr Phil­lip Carter; Peter Knox; Sr Colleen Crook; Nada G.; Br Wil­li­am; Ron Clarke & his fam­ily; Lyn­dall McCar­ron; Maurice Pope & his fam­ily; Christine Pick­ard; Raul (Skid Row Radio) & Fam­ily; Barry McKay; Ron­ald Saun­ders; and Christina Rees (CBE).

 

Anniversar­ies of the Depar­ted:  Bessie O’Reilly; Beryl Good­man; Edith Spur­ri­er; Elsie Dav­is; Wendy Clarke; Ida Ross; and Joan Bur­ton.

Saints Com­mem­or­a­tion: 24^th March: Paul Cou­tur­i­er, ecu­men­ist (d.1953); and Oscar Romero, Arch­bish­op of San Sal­vador, Mar­tyr (1980); and 25^th March: The Annun­ci­ation to the Blessed Vir­gin Mary.

 

Long Term Pas­tor­al Pray­er list: John Dick­son; John Hardy; Andrew Reddy; Shir­ley, Bar­bara & Jade Allen; Br Noel Jeffs (SSF); Kiki Chun; Beth Arm­strong; Ann Jeffs; Rhi­an­non Henry-Edwards; Marissa; Jude, Isla, Meg & Al Don­nell; Suz­anne Camp­ton; Pau­line Newell; Bar­bara Beec­roft; Ann Con­nolly; Day­alan Sam­inath­an; Grace & Han­nah Ashton; Anaisha, & her par­ents Anu & Digvi­jay; Ron Nath; Ron­an Nath; Veron­ica Nath; Rose­mary Brad­ford; Rev Laurie McIntyre; and Ver­ity Wright.

 

Read­ings for the com­ing week: Even­ing Pray­er

 

Read­ings for Next Sunday — Palm Sunday:  Liturgy of the Palms: Mark 11.1–11; First Read­ing: Isai­ah 50.4–9a;  Psalm: 31.9–18; Second Read­ing: Phil­ip­pi­ans 2.5–11; and Gos­pel: Mark 15.1–39??

Court­ney V. Buggs

Vis­it­ing Assist­ant Pro­fess­or of Homi­let­ics and Louis­ville Postdoc­tor­al Fel­low, Chris­ti­an Theo­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary Indianapolis, Indiana, United States

 

To a girl named Mary an angel came.¹

Greet­ings favoured one, the Lord is with you.

 

This assur­ance of the present-ness of God sets the tone for the mes­sage that is to come. Mary does not know her life is about to be both upen­ded and estab­lished forever in the his­tory of human­kind. She does not know that her humble begin­nings are not indic­at­ive of her call­ing as the moth­er of the Mes­si­ah. She does not know that the favour upon her will not trans­late to per­son­al gain, or pop­ular­ity, or priv­ilege.

We have the advant­age of know­ing what is next, but Mary does not know why an angel would dis­rupt the nor­mal course of her life with the simple words, “Greetings favoured one, the Lord is with you.” It is no won­der that she was “perplexed and pondered” (1:29). Mary’s life cir­cum­stances would reas­on­ably cause her to ques­tion — Am I favoured? Is God with me? What will this favour entail?

Con­tem­por­ary read­ers might explore how God uses “Gabriels” as holy inter­rup­tions that shift the course of life. Unex­pec­tedly, sud­denly, unanti­cip­ated — Gab­ri­els appear and alter what seem to be fixed and pre­dict­able paths. But engage­ment between divine mes­sen­gers and human­kind is not a new phe­nomen­on. An angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wil­der­ness (Gen­es­is 16:7). An angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flam­ing bush (Exodus 3:2). In the Hebrew Scrip­tures, Gab­ri­el and Michael are the only two named angels, but they are amidst a cloud of oth­er angel­ic hosts.

The psalm­ist writes, “Angels encamp around those who fear God” (Psalm 34:7). This is often how the Divine mani­fests. Sim­il­arly, in the Gos­pels Gab­ri­el appears with the rev­el­a­tion of John and Jesus. Rather than ask why Mary would have a divine inter­ven­tion, per­haps con­tem­por­ary read­ers should ask, why not Mary?