Notices — Feast of Transfiguration — Sunday 14th February 2021

NOTICES:

The Latest news on Cov­id-19 for Churches from Bp Michael Stead

From Fri­day 12^th Feb­ru­ary 2021, Face masks are no longer man­dat­ory in places of wor­ship.

Do we need to wear masks while present­ing at church?  NO.  Atten­tion should still be paid to prop­er hygiene when it comes to the shar­ing of micro­phones or lecterns.

NO Singing in Church

From 20th Decem­ber, 2020 we are not able to sing in church.  We hope to be able to sing again soon.

Thank you all for your patient endur­ance,

Fr Jeff

This Week:

16^th Feb­ru­ary – Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day.

17^th Feb­ru­ary – Ash Wed­nes­day Services: 10am & 7.30pm

 

Len­ten Stud­ies — Begin Wed­nes­day 17th Feb­ru­ary:

‘CLIMATE for CHANGE’ sponsored by ABM.  Wed­nes­days after morn­ing tea, around 11.00 a.m.  Some cop­ies will be avail­able, also can be down­loaded from the ABM web­site.

Future Dates for your Diary:

21^st Feb­ru­ary – First Sunday in Lent: 9.30 am Ser­vice.

28^th March – Palm Sunday: 9.30am Ser­vice.

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.

Len­ten Quiet Day — Sat­urday, 6 March, 2021 at 10am:  The Sydney Mis­sion-Col­lege of the Oratory of the Good Shep­herd invites you to share in their annu­al Quiet Day for Lent, in the church and grounds of St John’s Church, Bal­main, in Spring Street, Birch­grove.  The event is free of charge, and par­ti­cipants usu­ally bring their own packed lunch.  Tea and cof­fee will be provided.  This is a silent retreat, but as well as Morn­ing and Even­ing Pray­er and a mid­day Euchar­ist, two lay Com­pan­ions of the Sydney Mis­sion-Col­lege will give short present­a­tions, based on their read­ing and exper­i­ence, on the prac­tice of prayer.  We gath­er in the church at 10 am.  The Day ends at 4.15 pm.  Register by email­ing rhenderson@ogs.net or on arrival at the church door.  All very wel­come.

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.

Art in the Hall:  At our recent Poetry Day, parish­ion­ers dec­or­ated the Hall with some art­works loaned for the occa­sion which was much appreciated.  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.  This month’s piece is a tapestry ver­sion of Canaletto’s “Westminster Abbey”,1730.

The new ver­sion of the video from our “Words of Hope’ Poetry Day is now avail­able at: https://www.stlukesenmore.org.au/poets/words-of-hope.html

The poetry board in the par­ish hall has recently been updated by Jo Middleton and Louisa Silverman.  The work of anoth­er poet, Judy Ann Phil­lips (bio is on the board,) is now avail­able to view in large print.

We need parish­ion­ers spe­cially to assist with wel­com­ing: Thank you to those who have already volunteered.  Please speak to Ruth Cham­pi­on if you can help Mob: 0400 166 041.

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: Fr John & Joanne Bowen; Fr Phil­lip & Rose­mary Brad­ford; Chris­toph­er Brooks; and Ruth Cham­pi­on.

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

Tues­day: Ron Cross & Fam­ily; and Brett Dav­ies & Amrit MacIntyre.

Wed­nes­day: Edi & Oscar Dav­is; John Dick­son; and Kathy Drum­mond.

Thursday: Dav­id Dun­lop; and Michael Flem­ing, Eliza­beth Arm­strong, Thomas, Ellen­or & Nich­olas.

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; Mary Middleton; Fr John Bunyan; John Hardy; Louise Trott; She Kar Nair; Maur­een Clunas; Wolf Winter; Linda Mac­qual­ter; Esth­er Middleton; Peter Cinelli; John Dick­son; Rita Mus­cat & her fam­ily; Tamara & Craig; John Can Pahali; Alex Regos; Aman­da Cow­ley; Gra­ham Sadler; Fr Phil­lip Carter; Phil­lip Kuwert; Peter Knox; Sr Colleen Crook; Nada G.; Br Wil­li­am; Ron Clarke & his fam­ily; and Lyn­dall McCar­ron.

 

Anniversar­ies of the Depar­ted: James Hag­ston; Mur­i­el Blatch; Bert Blatch; Nola Barr; Ivy Lawson; Eric Juer­gens; Edgar Fish­er; and Mar­garet Turn­bull.

Saints Commemoration: 20^th Feb: Wil­li­am Grant Broughton, First Bish­op of Aus­tralia (d. 1853).

 

Long Term Pas­tor­al Pray­er list: 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; Lyn Car­ring­ton; 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 Next Sunday — First Sunday in Lent: First Read­ing: Gen­es­is 9.8–17; Psalm: 25.1–10; Second Read­ing: 1 Peter 3.18–22; and Gos­pel: Mark 1.9–15

Read­ings for the com­ing week: Even­ing Pray­er

Dis­cus­sion Ques­tions from WorkingPreacher.org

1. What does the nature of Eli­jah and Elisha’s proph­et­ic com­munity teach us about com­mun­al min­istry? (2 Kgs 2:1–12)
2. Who has been a ment­or to you, and helped you through a trans­ition? (2 Kgs 2:1–12)
3. When have you exper­i­enced light shin­ing in the dark­ness, per­haps your dark­ness? (2 Cor 4:6)
4. Peter, James and John saw Jesus on the moun­tain top. Where do you see Jesus? (Mark 9:2–9)

This week’s Reflect & Con­nect ques­tions writ­ten by Julie Sev­ig.