The Anglican Parish of St George with Dirranbandi in Saint George, Queensland, Australia | Community organisation

The Anglican Parish of St George with Dirranbandi

Locality: Saint George, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 7 4625 3044

Address: 133 Victoria St 4487 Saint George, QLD, Australia

Website: www.stgeorgeqld.com/Community/AnglicanChurch.aspx

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25.01.2022 Fr Paul Mitchell will be taking services this weekend .StMarks Dirranbandi Sat 21st Nov and Christ Church StGeorge Sun 22nd Nov 8.30am. Sunday services in StGeorge now at 8.30am . I wonder what furry or feathered friends Fr Paul will be bringing with him this time ??

24.01.2022 Celebration of the Eucharist from St Lukes Toowoomba on Sunday 23 August 2020.

22.01.2022 Celebration of the First Sunday in Advent. 29 November 2020

22.01.2022 The funeral for Brian Wippell, a long term resident of St George and more recently living in Toowoomba, will be held in Toowoomba at 2pm on Tuesday 1 September. Due to restrictions on space in the church building the family have asked members of the parish and the wider community to access the zoom connection to join in the funeral at that time. This can be done through the following link:... https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82548308990 (note that the letter after us/ is j, not i) For more information please contact the Reverend Paul Mitchell on 0437391910

22.01.2022 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. 6 September 2020. The gift of something strange. Today, in the calendar of days as our nation, and around many parts of the... world, we mark Fathers Day. It is a day to remember, to cherish, to connect and reconnect, and even for some to be brought to look again with honesty, compassion and forgiveness at some difficult relationships. As much as Fathers Day is a day of celebration it is not an easy day for everyone. I wonder where our thoughts go on this day, this Fathers Day? Do we look UP to those who are our parents? Is that where our eyes go and our focus begins? I certainly think of my father on this day, thinking back nearly two decades to the last time we spoke shortly before he died, remembering a relationship which was not always easy or simple. But even with all his foibles I still love my dad. Or is our attention first or primarily focussed in the opposite direction generationally? Do we look DOWN to those who are our children? Everyone has a father, even if they are no longer with us or even, perhaps, were unknown. Not every man has children though, those of his own or blessings brought into new families which may have been created. For those who are blessed with children, is the primary thought of this day about BEING a father? My boys are far away down south. Claire is here. I know that I am blessed. It is not necessary to be a dad to be celebrating this day though. Is this a day on the calendar which we only feel we share because it is something with which we have a clear and close connection? Or is it something which we celebrate because we look around and we share the joy, and the trials, and the often complex relationships of being fathers and which fathers have with their children? Do we have to feel a close personal connection to a celebration before it is something meaningful for us? Can we join in with something which is outside our own immediate experience? I am asking, how wide open are our eyes? How we think about connecting to a day in the calendar which might or might not involve us directly opens us to reflect on how wide we see and think in other ways. It is a serious issue in our world today that so many people live with vision which is closed down, tunnel vision, looking only or predominantly at themselves and those immediately around them. Anything which does not feel important to them doesnt matter. As members of the family of God, we are encouraged to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15). There are no boundaries on that encouragement. Yet that is not a popular way of approaching life in this time. People are being persecuted, abused, treated horribly all around us in our world. People are being treated as if they were of no value. For so many people in our world today that doesnt seem to matter at all. All that matters is what is inside the tunnel and close enough to touch. The same as well for having an open mind on the cultural gifts of people who live life in ways different to ourselves, the gloriously delightful gift of languages other than English, the richly coloured and tantalisingly nuanced variety of experiences of the divine from differing perspectives. To a life lived in a closed focus these things do not matter and may even be seen as threats or something to be confronted and kept at bay. If, when we have an experience of something new, or someone new, an encounter which is unfamiliar and very different to our usual way of seeing, how do we react? If the first reaction is to pull back, dismiss, move away, we may be in a tunnel way of thinking. I ponder these questions partly because of the dreadful state of our world in which it seems that having a different opinion is treated as an attack. Many of our politicians, from their public performances, seem barely able to be civil to one another and barely able to appreciate that there may be any merit or reason in the views and actions of political opponents. Their pettiness sets a devastatingly bad example. Further away, we have seen that approach to life, that narrow lack of appreciation, erupt into acts of violence. When a 17 year old boy with pale skin is allowed, even encouraged by his mother, to travel a significant distance so that he can use the gun his mother bought him to shoot people with a darker skin complexion, whose views and perspective on the world differ from his, we are in a dark place. That happened this week in the USA. We recently celebrated the day on which we remember an early Christian Saint and profound writer, Augustine of Hippo. Among the literally millions of words which Augustine wrote which have survived to this day there is an exploration of what Christian society can look like. His book, The City of God, explores what it means to apply what we learn about how God calls us to interact with one another and to be deliberate in fostering civil society. At the heart of a civil society is not keeping the economy going. It is justice. Wealth and prosperity are false ideals if they determine what is right. I am not saying they are unimportant but there is something far higher to which we should aspire. Augustine wrote What are kingdoms without justice? They are just gangs of bandits. Augustine was applying what he had read in Proverbs 29:18. Without vision the people perish. That passage in Proverbs expands that idea of necessary vision to having open eyes, to see clearly and with compassion, AND a commitment to justice. Unless we see and act justly and with an open, compassionate, loving perspective, we end up closed down as individuals and as communities. It was not only reflecting on the state of the world that led me to thinking about having open eyes. Our first reading, from Exodus 12 tells the story of the Passover. We may be so accustomed to reading it that we are numbed to its strangeness. By any reading it is a complicated story, full of tension, hopes, dreams, violence, pain, promise and a rather unusual meal. What we read here is a form of the story which had already been shaped by generations of re-telling. This had become a story which communities shared as a way of understanding their identity and their relationship to God. In modern celebrations of the Passover 21st century Jewish people include in their celebration the words When WE came out of Egypt. This is not a story of back then, over there, something which happened to THEM and had meaning to THEM, those people from the past. It is a present connection, which makes the story a gift. It is a gift because it becomes an invitation to see how WE are cared for by God, how WE use ritual to bring meaning into the everyday things like eating and journeys and being part of families. As Christians, this is a gift placed in our hands in this way. It is a story about people far away in distance and time, very different from ourselves, living in circumstances which may be almost unimaginable but retelling the story, connecting with this event, becomes a gift to invite us to discover deeper layers of life. Living with eyes open to encounter the experiences and stories and people and languages and tastes and smells and approaches to life which differ from where we stand in this moment is an invitation. It is an invitation to live with a delight in receiving gifts and unwrapping them. The closest and best relationships in our lives are gifts, most easily unwrapped. The difficult and tumultuous relationships in our lives are also gifts, opportunities to learn. Encountering strange people and places and situations which challenge and stretch us are invitations to set aside our precious protected perspectives and walk a moment in the shoes of someone who looks at life very differently. That is a gift. Happy Fathers Day. Whether you are looking up, down, around .. with joy or sadness or observing this day in the lives of others, take the gift of the opportunity to reflect on the call to be people whose relationships reflect the love we see in Jesus, who called his father Abba, the Aramaic equivalent of daddy. And welcome again, with open eyes, to a complex world, in which we do not all see or live or experience or express life in the same way, and that is ok. See the gift in what is strange and new and odd and unfamiliar. And unwrap it, with love. Amen. Paul Mitchell

20.01.2022 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Resting in the Faithfulness of God. Exodus 1:8-2:10. Peter Mayen Prayer: In the Name of God, the Father, the Son and God the H...oly Spirit Amen. As humans, we usually know when it is a right time to make significant decisions or choices in life. We know when to start a new career path, family, or a business and, even at this uncertain time of COVID-19, we know we must respond, responsibly for our safety and those around us as well. But what happens when we are waiting on Gods promises to save us or when, our prayers seem to go unanswered during our time of need? How can we respond? Some people may choose to give up on their prayer lives and give up to resting in God faithfulness, which might cause them a challenging time. In other times, people may remain hopeful and trusting, or ignorant amidst adversities and oppressive times, which may be a good thing to do. We are encouraged to be resilient and courageous in the face of trials, injustices and oppression against all people. We have the moral responsibility to stand in solidarity with those victims of racial divisions, supporting homeless people, domestic violence victims, opposing structural violence and institutional abuse. There are many ways we stand against all form of oppression and social injustice in our world. We know on the 16th of July this year, the US and the World was stirred and rocked with the death of George Floyd at the hands of a law enforcement officer, resulting in worldwide protests and demands for equal treatment for all people, especially the black and Hispanic population of the world. Although some people took advantaged by looting and vandalised businesses and properties, the whole message was clear. People were tired of deep injustices and racial division in the systems of governance. These exist all over the world including in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia, and other parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. People were naming and pointing to the sources of injustices, calling for transformation and new ways of treating other humans with dignity, respect and love. In Exodus chapter 1 and 2, we see the people of Israel being subjected to forms of inhumane mistreatment at the hand of authorities in Egypt. They were subjected to harsh labour, and infanticide used as a form of control. Boys were to be murdered by the Egyptians midwives. This was a shocking way to treat any human being. But the people of Israel had no choices and no power to defend themselves against these pernicious harsh conditions. What they did was trust and rest in the faithfulness of the God of their Ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We knew early in the second chapter of Exodus, God protected Moses by instilling obedience and kindness into the midwifes hearts to save him. Because of fear, the family had to place Moses in the Papyrus reed basket and throw him into the Nile River, as way to protect him from harm. By Gods grace, the Pharaohs daughter found him floating inside the basket among reeds. With her compassion to the baby boy, she took and adopted him as her son in the palace, which was a beautiful and better place for Moses to grow and be safe. We all know what happened when Moses grew up in the Palace of Egypt. Injustices and oppression against the Israelites increased, but God never left the people alone. God raised Moses up, preparing him to lead his people out slavery into freedom. There are times in our relationships when someone we know, and trust says, or does something that may transform or improves our lives if we were struggling along. It could be your teacher, friend, parent, a colleague at work and even a word or phrases from the Scripture during your devotion time or when listening to a podcast or sermons. God our Creator knows how to care for our safety and living. Different circumstances reminds us to reflect on what others might have told us, taught us how they encourage us still. When we connect all the dots because of the ways others have influenced our own lives, we can begin in turn to demonstrate gratitude, thankfulness, and faithfulness towards others. In the Gospel of Mathew 16 verse 16, Saint Peter declared Jesus Christ as the Son of God unequivocally. Amid questioning about who he may be, Peter identified Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. And immediately, he was blessed by Jesus Christ. We are blessed when we experienced Gods love and forgiveness in our relationships. We all know that in life, there are times when our trust in God and others is tested. But we are called to be trusting with confident, resting in God, trusting Him for His love and care. We are also reminded to be trusting our friends and others as well. In all the Scriptures and from our human experience, God calls us to embrace justice, mercy, and kindness to all people. We are reminded to fight injustice in our own lives and in our shared common vocation in our societies. As humans, we know when it is a right time to make a significant decisions or choices in life in order to challenge AND transform human conditions. Let us continue resting our faithfulness in God through Christ Jesus our King and Friend. Because His faithfulness means that God always does the right in our living. Amen. Peter Mayen.

19.01.2022 Eucharist Service, Sunday 30 August

19.01.2022 Morning Prayer. St Clement of Rome. 23 November 2020 from the banks of the Balonne River in St George.

18.01.2022 Feast of Christ the King. Christchurch St George. 22 November 2020.

17.01.2022 Advent 1. 29 November 2020. One day. What day are you longing for? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday (to quote The Godfather)? ... Is there a day in the week you long to get to? TGIF, ‘Thank God It’s Friday’, works for those who have a five day weekday working week, but not for everybody. I have Tuesday as a day off, so Monday afternoon looks good to me. But it may not be a particular day of the week. Many people who have retired tell me that the days of the week start to blur a little. It may be a day when something in particular is achieved. Many year 12 students have been longing and waiting for particular days all year: The day of the final exams. The day of the ‘Formal’. Graduation Day. The day the final results come out. The day University offers are released. Those are all important days yet, like most days which are significant, they are both endings and beginnings at the same time. The day of being appointed for a first job or a new job is an ending from one pattern in life and the beginning of a new pattern. Even the day of retirement from employment, from any position of authority or from any worthwhile and meaningful and significant connection in our lives is the ending of one pattern in life and the beginning of a new pattern. Longing for certain days is an expression of hope, not just that something will end but that something new will begin. For some people the day they long for with hope is a day when pain will end, when some trauma, physical or mental, will finally come to an end. It is a longing for release but that longing always has embedded in it the longing, the hope, for what comes after. In Mark 13:24 we heard words from Jesus about ‘those days’. They sound like terrible days, days of convulsing, tumultuous, disturbing crisis. They sound like days that no one would really long for, days that some may hope would never come. In the patterns of life of the people of God in those centuries the days to which Jesus refers were sometimes summarised as ‘the day of the Lord’. That phrase ‘the day of the Lord’ appears 86 times in the Old and New Testaments. It was an expectation and a hope which came out of dissatisfaction. People looked around their world and they could see that things were not as they believed they should be. They looked at the way that people interacted, the way that different parts of humanity treated one another and they could see that this was not the way that God calls us to live. They could see corruption, terrible violence, persecution, selfishness erupting in patterns of life which were not only self-destructive but rippling with destruction for communities. People looked around them and said ‘this all sucks’. So they longed for, hoped for, a change. They longed for an end to the way that the world had become. And they longed for God to come and make that change. The ‘day of the Lord’ was always longed for as a day of sweeping changes when God would deal with the terrible people, overturn the corruption and eventually, through the turmoil, bring about peace. The ending of one painful and terrible pattern was always bound together with the longing for a better pattern, the inauguration of a time of peace. For some people in our world they are looking at 20 January 2021 through just that window! The hope and the longing may be expressed as if that ‘day of the Lord’ is a once off event. Once the day comes then everything changes for ever. Is that true? Yes and no. For Christians the ‘day of the Lord’ has already happened. It was not just one day. If we had to pin it down to two days then it would be the day Jesus was born and the day of his resurrection. Both those days brought about significant change in our world, to the connection between God and humanity and among us all. The ‘day’ could also be said to be the entirety of Jesus’ life on earth. He came to bring peace, to restore right relationships among people and between us and God, to overturn everything negative and destructive. He fulfilled all the hopes. Yet the world is still a place where there is so much that happens which we look at and say ‘this sucks’, these things are not as we can be, as we should be. This is not the best of humanity. This is not who we are called to be. We look at the destruction of the earth in the name of progress or profit. We look at the persecution of minorities and groups in society in the name of ideology and concepts of ‘purity’. We look at the way that the vulnerable are treated so badly and we recognise that this is not how God calls us to live. Out of that dissatisfaction some people around our world call for a new ‘day of the Lord’, or they shape their hope with the thought that the day has not yet arrived but is coming soon. For us as Christians the ‘day of the Lord’ has already begun, in the life and presence and message and love of Jesus. The challenge is actually to live IN that day. The invitation is to live immersed in the change that has already been brought. The hope that we carry now is that what has already been revealed will actually be seen in hearts and in the lives of humanity. On 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King delivered his powerful speech including the ringing words I have a dream. King dreamed of a time when ALL people would be treated with respect and dignity, when hatred and violence would be set aside, when people would allow their hearts to be opened and cleansed of prejudice and division. King dreamed of freedom. That was a powerful expression of hope, a hope which continues because it is still not yet seen in so many places. The need for what has become known as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement reveals that so many people in our world still have not accepted that dream which King shared, nor have they heard and accepted the message which Jesus shared. That hope is not dead but it continues. The ‘day of the Lord’ has come. More of the people of our world just need to live in it. The end of my words in this sermon is not the end of the message because I want you to share a video called ‘One Day’. It is an expression of hope from an artist and composer, Matisyahu, who led a gathering of 3000 Jews and Muslims in Israel as they sang together, longing for a day when there would be an end to violence and hatred and prejudice and persecution. As you listen, please ask yourself, am I living in ‘the day of the Lord’? Am I living in such a way that I do all that I can to set aside prejudice, to foster peace, to overcome divisions, to promote harmony, to enable integrity, to discover hope again and again and again in the presence of love and the light of Christ in our world? Long and hope for the new beginning, for the peace to come. Live this day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gqw0WirTRQ Amen. Paul Mitchell.

16.01.2022 Fr Paul Mitchell is taking services Dirranbandi 1pm Sat 26th Sept and StGeorge 8.30am Sunday 27th Sept ALL WELCOME ! Covid precautions in place.

15.01.2022 Fr Paul Mitchell will be leading worship StGeorge 8.30am tomorrow Sun 30th Aug ALL WELCOME !Fr Paul Mitchell will be leading worship StGeorge 8.30am tomorrow Sun 30th Aug ALL WELCOME !

13.01.2022 Saint John Coleridge Patteson. 20 September 2020. If some people knew what John Coleridge Patteson did they might want to push statues of him off pedestals a...nd qualify any praise offered for the life he lived. Does that surprise you? He is remembered in the Church and celebrated as a saint, someone through whom the light of God shone. He is remembered as a martyr, in that he was killed while engaged in his ministry as Bishop of Melanesia, sharing the good news. Your response to my suggestion that his statue may be toppled may depend on how you feel about that movement in recent times of expressing criticism of figures from history in that way. Some see that as a valid way of showing that there ARE people who acted in despicable ways which caused enormous hurt and that honouring them in ways which seem to ignore those actions is inappropriate and damaging, causing ongoing pain. For some the toppling of statues is a bit of overkill. The serious flaws in peoples words and actions and personalities are acknowledged, but it is thought that there are better ways of bringing to light the debate about how people of power misused and abused their power over others and often tried to use their power and or their money to suppress dissent and cloud the truth of their misdeeds. For people looking through those eyes it is also often acknowledged that all of us are more as people than the worst of our mistakes. For others the whole practice is astonishingly ridiculous and they would rather not have debate about past mistakes and persecution and terrible acts of brutality brought into the light of the present. Whatever position we take, I hope we can take a moment to breathe and let that turmoil of statue toppling encourage us to ask the question about how we evaluate the actions and the intentions and the effects of the lives of those who have gone before us. In philosophy and specifically in the pursuit of ethics the debate continues, as it has for thousands of years, about what matters most in evaluating what happens in our lives. If we intend one thing to happen and what happens is different, and worse, does the negative consequence wipe out the value of a good intention? And if what we intend is selfish or determined by a very narrow or negative perspective, but the result is something which is a blessing, does the good result wash clean the poor intention? And what if, whatever the intention or the action, the main way of determining the good of any situation is the effect which it has and which abides in the lives of people who are touched by whatever was said or done? Paul knew he did not always do what he knew was the right thing. He struggled with that. Even when he knew what he should be doing (see Romans chapter 7). The intention of those religious leaders who opposed Paul, and Jesus, was to cause hurt to them both and the causes which they promoted. The opposite happened. In many parts of the world religious missions intended to bring advancement and growth and actually brought about destruction of societies into which they moved, at least in some ways. One of the histories of mission in central Australia is titled We could have done better. It is fair to ask questions of those figures of history who are remembered and championed and honoured in our society. Some had what seemed, at the time, to be good intentions. Even the removal of children from their families in various ways, black and white, has usually been justified with good intentions. Very often that ended badly. Some of our political and community leaders acted with intentions which were good for some but not for others. Lachlan Macquarie was trying to support the landowners and pastoralists and the spread of white settlement when he ordered native Australians to be shot on sight. Evaluating the good of intentions can depend on whether it feels good to you or benefits you. The consequences of Macquaries murderous decree, and many similar decrees by others, were devastating not only for those who were killed but also for race relations in Australia down to our present day. So why might I be casting any sort of shadow over what Bishop John Coleridge Patteson did and how he engaged in the ministry which became his life and resulted in his death? Patteson was an extraordinary man, committed and devout, passionate and inspired. He responded to the invitation to leave England soon after having been ordained and devoted his life to sharing good news with the people of the islands of Melanesia. It was thought at the time of his death that he had been mistakenly confused with those who took people brutally from those islands to enslave them on sugar plantations in Queensland and in Fiji. A ship doing exactly that had visited the island where he was killed only a few days before. Or it was thought that his murder was an act of revenge from people caught up in the frustration and grief of their inability to keep their people safe from those marauders. Yet more research into records of the time, and oral history, the accounts handed down through families across generations and in communities, suggests that Pattesons murder may have been a deliberate act by people who looked at his own actions and judged them to be damaging to the communities which he visited. The black-birders, as the slavers were known, came into the islands and removed people, especially young men who could be worked hard. Patteson had also removed young people from their communities. He did not take them by force but invited them and they all left of their own consent and with the blessing, usually, of their families, to be taken to a place where they received education to open their minds to the world beyond. Then they returned to their communities. It is recorded that what Patteson wanted to do was NOT to make these young men western but to give them an opportunity to help their communities to cope with what was inevitable, contact with the western world. That good intention was misread by some who just saw young men being taken away. A good intention, in the eyes of some had a bad result. The true effect was to do what Patteson had hoped, at least in part, He sowed seeds which helped communities to be more resilient and to be able to engage better with the sweep of the outside world which descended on them. Patteson also made the serious mistake of engaging with women in communities. I think this came from the sincerity and depth of his faith. When we look at the early church communities and the growth of the church through the book of Acts, Paul and other missionaries often made important inroads into communities by engaging with women, earning their trust and reaching their hearts with the message they shared. Patteson was doing what Paul did. Yet, to some, men and women, what he did showed deep disrespect for the traditions of the place, the islands, the culture. It is thought possible that those who murdered him were women who thought that they were protecting their culture. The tenderness with which his body was treated, being loaded onto a canoe and covered with palm fronds and set afloat, suggests remorse and honouring of Patteson. So, with post-colonial revisionist critique, how would we judge Pattesons actions? If anything he was perhaps too much of a pure soul, not recognising how his good intentions were seen and not seeing that the disruptions caused by his faithfulness to God were so disturbing to some people. Patteson valued education as a way to grow. He valued community and culture. He valued equality and cherished those among whom he came, with great humility. If we looked only through a narrow lens there may be calls to see him as a destroyer of culture, and so as someone worth toppling. Yet, as with many of the complex people so easily criticised through the recent movements, with wider eyes we see a broader picture and can be more compassionate towards the foibles of this wonderful, devout, holy man whose real legacy is the strength of the communities where he worked, the faith of the communities which he introduced to the good news and the love with which he is cherished and held and remembered there, still. I dont really want to topple his statue. Instead I thank God deeply for the life and ministry and witness of Bishop John Coleridge Patteson. Amen. Paul Mitchell

13.01.2022 Its the Lutheran Anglican combined service tomorrow Christ Church StGeorge . Pastor Ken Von Pein. ALL WELCOME!! 8.30 am. COVID precautions. No need to book Its the Lutheran Anglican combined service tomorrow Christ Church StGeorge . Pastor Ken Von Pein. ALL WELCOME!! 8.30 am. COVID precautions. No need to book

12.01.2022 Which animal friend will Fr Paul bring with him this weekend ? Services-communion and childrens story will be held in Dirranbandi Sat 26th September at 1pm and St George Sunday 27th at 8.30am ALL WELCOME !

09.01.2022 St Bartholomew. 23 August 2020. Evensong. Where is the word we need? Where do you find what you need? Some years ago I read a wonderful mystical theological ...novel by Ed Hays. Ed is a writer of parables and short, insightful stories. This was a longer story, yet it also included other short stories woven in as anecdotes and illustrations. The main character in the story was a guy called George. The title was ST George and the dragon. Now George was quick to explain that in his case the ST did NOT stand for Saint but it was an abbreviation of SENT. He was SENT George, because he had a strong sense of being sent on a journey. The book was about Georges preparations for going away, making his journey to that far away place where he would find meaning and purpose and find that which would give his life a renewed boost. That is not uncommon: that people set off on journeys to far away places looking for something which will complete them, make life better again, bring healing, sort everything out. I was drawn to Georges story in part because in my early 20s I did something like George felt he was called to do. I set off to rediscover myself and the direction of my life. To be honest I was quite happy to have a bit of space for a while between myself and a few messy broken relationships and mistakes that I had made. The search for meaning in far away and imagined exotic places happens in novels and dramas and fantasy movies. Whether it is Dr Strange in the Marvel Universe setting off to find healing, or many missionary journeys from here to there (or from other places to here!), or perhaps even something as mundane Australian as trekking to the centre to stand in front of Uluru and feel the vibe of being at the heart of this island nation. Many people go on journeys with a hint or a strong themed intention of searching for meaning and a way of sorting out their lives. For George there was a bit of all that but mostly it was that internal rumbling that he had to get up and go somewhere. As the story unfolds George is drawn to reflect deeply on the things he might take with him and also the meaning of the things he comes across in his house as he is sorting out his belongings ready for the journey. The book takes the form of Georges diary and begins as follows: (p9) George is undeterred. He finds his grandfathers rusty sword and various other items he thinks he will need for the journey. Yet he never quite actually sets off. I will not spoil the story and its 22 beautiful parables for you. That is something to explore for yourself. It is not too much of a spoiler to say though where the journey ends. It ends with George finding himself. He is assisted by a dragon with glowing wounds, whose name is Igor, a great companion for such a glorious quest! I should have said that there is a subtitle for the book. The full title actually is St George and the Dragon and the Quest for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail was not just the cup that legend has made of an item from the table at the Last Supper. Nor was it what Dan Brown made of some longstanding stories about the hypothesised lineage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The Holy Grail was the symbol which, when seen, would bring about completeness. At the end of the story Igor suggests that the best stories are those that dont actually have an end, and this story is like that. As George, with Igors encouragement, has set aside all the things he thought he needed, all the possessions and protections as well as setting aside other unnecessary baggage like the dark side of Georges own past which he sees, George comes to a point where he recognises that the journey is not to find something out there to sort out life and everything. The answer is actually quite simple and right in front of him. Actually, it is inside him, because to find the journeys climax is to be himself as he has come to realise that he truly is. Hopefully I have not let out too much of this wonderful book and you may search for a copy and explore that and other gems from the pen of Edward Hays. I was drawn to think about ST George and his quest by our readings from the Bible tonight. In Deuteronomy 30:11-16 the writer encourages us with words delivered by God to people who had been on a quest and who were about to reach the physical end of their travelling. What that passage encourages them, and us, to realise is that the journey set before us by God, the task and the challenge to find a meaningful, productive, positive and engaged life is actually quite simple. Like George, we can often complicate that quest as a way of obfuscation, a way of clouding what is before us to make it more difficult and so something which is made less easy to embrace. Actually it is quite simple. We find love in being loved. We find compassion in recognising that we have been treated with compassion. We find value by being valued. We find hope when we realise that there are those who place hope in us. We find community by finding community. We find strength by being vulnerable enough to allow ourselves to be strengthened. We find meaning and purpose by living out those gifts which have been given to us as blessings. We find those things in being loved by God and being called to love as God loves. That is what the writer to the weary travellers in Deuteronomy was saying. That is what Igor brought George to see. That is the heart of the Good news. You are loved. Each and every one of you. So live that and, in your turn, love. Amen Paul Mitchell

07.01.2022 What furry or feathered friends will Fr Paul bring with him this weekend? Communion Services with childrens' story Dirranbandi 1pm Sat 26th Sept and StGeorge 8.30am Sunday 27th Sept . ALL WELCOME !

06.01.2022 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. 30 August 2020. I am. God just ... IS. When the floods came through ten years ago, how many people were here, and had to ...evacuate? If you were not here at that time, have you ever been in a situation where you have had to leave your home, if not because of flood perhaps because of fire, some other natural disaster or some other danger? It is not uncommon that people will need to flee their homes, even in Australia. It doesnt happen to everyone but it does to some people, and when it happens it matters. We care. How would you have responded if you could never return? What about if all you had to keep and to go on with was what you could fit into the car in a rush, or even whatever you could carry or had on you at the time when you had to flee? For some people even the thought of that is extremely stressful. For others the thought results in planning for both protection and provision in case of emergency. Sit for a moment, though, with the feeling which this sort of situation evokes. We have seen the grief and pain in the faces of people forced from their homes last summer by bushfires, especially in the faces of those whose homes, properties, stock and livelihoods were destroyed. Some have still not been able to return fully to the way their lives were before that situation. Feel what it is like for them. Then consider what life is like, what feelings are evoked, what responses are prompted, among people forced from their homes by famine and warfare, natural disasters and persecution, extreme poverty and a host of other terrible circumstances. In our world today that is reality for over 75 million people. Approximately one percent of the worlds population have been forced from their homes and very, very few of them will ever be able to return. In most calculations 1% is a small amount. But if you were part of the 1% it would be very real for you. It matters. How would you want people to respond when you find yourself in a time of extreme need? For those who fled floods, or who have fled bushfires or other calamities, what welcome and support did you receive from other people? People fleeing their homes, including from domestic violence and other real and immediate dangers, often leave with very little. How would you hope to be met and welcomed and helped? That realisation, that empathy, that level of understanding either from personal experience or from having an active and compassionate imagination SHOULD move us to reflect deeply on our engagement with the plight of so many millions of people in the human family. We will and do care for people in our local community afflicted like this. Can we respond, or at least encourage a more compassionate and generous response, towards those who are our neighbours even though they do not live close to us or in the same ways and patterns of life which we have chosen? Most people leave without a clear idea of where they will end up. They flee their homes because they have to leave and that is the driving force. For some at the time, and for most eventually in some way, there is the hope which begins to well up that they might actually find a place of welcome, that there will be someone who cares. There is the hope that they are not alone in this world, not abandoned, not devalued to the point of being, in reality or in the minds of the rest of the world, thrown on the rubbish tip of life. Some people flee persecution and disaster and terrible situations with some sense of hope, even if the shape of that hope is not completely formed and clear. The projection by some hard conservative extremists in Australia and around the world is that refugees deliberately leave their homes because they covet what others have, what we have. It may be possible to find some people who are as calculating as that but the vast majority of refugees and asylum seekers and displaced people in our world would far rather be able to go back to their homes. But they cannot, and so they flee. And hope, even a little hope, gives the strength to move forward. The people of Israel, the tribes who had gone down into Egypt, were refugees when they went there, fleeing famine. Then they became settled but in the time of the early chapters of the book of Exodus they were again needing to flee. This time from harsh persecution, murder and extreme prejudice. As with most refugees they didnt leave that situation easily. The phrase better the devil you know is applied when people accept a terrible situation because they see only a glimpse of hope, or none at all. That is why those 75 million refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people are only those who got away. Many times more still live in terror and fear and desperation, or have already lost their lives to the disasters or persecution. When you look in the eyes of a refugee see the pain which is there for the family members who did not manage to escape, who have been killed or who have been lost. The people of Israel, mostly, were hard to pry out of Egypt. But doing that was what God sent Moses to do. God sent Moses to offer hope, the promise of a new start, the promise of a way forward. With that glimpse of hope, with that promise even partly articulated, Moses convinced the people to trust. One of the characteristics of many religions around the world, including both ancient Egypt and the land in which the people eventually settled, was that they put god in a box. A series of boxes really. The boxes were the ways of describing what gods with particular names did, what they controlled, their powers, their attributes. This approach is what lies behind the question Moses asks of the presence who encountered him in the burning bush. Moses wanted a name and through that name the people would know what to expect, how to invoke this god. Having a name was not just about identifying but also it was a way of trying to limit or control the relationship from the perspective of the people. The divine presence was not playing that game though. Moses is not given a name, even though what was given was turned into a name, Yahweh. The response Moses got was simply I am who I am. This is mind-blowing, still. The divine encounter which Moses had, which the people trusted, which continued which we see in Jesus who we meet here and in the relationship which is at the heart of being a Christian .. is an encounter with the one who simply IS. Beyond names. Beyond control. Beyond any attempt we may have to understand completely. Beyond time and space. This one who IS cares enough to step in when there are situations of desperation and to show a way out. This one who IS steps in and helps to create community as a way of building resilience and for life to flourish. This one who IS is beyond definition. Three thousand years after this story that we have read today (Exodus 3) an early Christian writer put a definition on the one who IS which points to that thread of compassion and caring which runs through and through the story we share. Two thousand years after that declaration that the God who IS, is LOVE, we are invited to continue to hold onto that handle which gives us a glimpse into the heart of the same divine encounter which Moses experienced at that bush. 5000 years between Moses and us. And there are threads of connection, especially on this day. To weave those threads into our lives, to be part of that continuing story, to be signs of the continuity, we are invited to care, to have compassion, to pay attention to those overwhelmed by life as it has unfolded and often unravelled. When we do that, the glow from the bush, the light from Christ, the glimpse of an eternal presence shines through us. This is our calling. Amen. Paul Mitchell.

06.01.2022 Saint Cyprian. 13 September 2020. Look out. How forgiving are we? How forgiving should we be? What about if we are the ones needing forgiveness? Imagine for... a moment that the doors here suddenly fly open. Every person in this building is gathered up and forced to stand against the wall. No matter what age or gender or whatever may even make it hard to stand there, we all end up against the wall. Through their thick masks the armed intruders say loudly: I am going to shoot all Christians here today. If you do not want to be shot and killed, you are free to leave. Now. We will not follow you or hurt you in any way if you walk away from the wall and step outside in the next five minutes. Your time starts now. How many of you would walk out? Be honest. There may be many reasons for walking away. Despite or depending on how righteous or brave we may feel I suspect that many of us would choose to walk rather than to be killed. Imagine then that you wait outside for a while. Finally someone checks inside the building again. You didnt actually hear any gunshots. Someone peeks inside and discovers that the intruders have all gone. Those few who remained standing against the walls are all still there. Some of those who walked out kept walking. They may never be seen again. Some return after a short time. Some stayed very close. What would the conversation be like between those who had stayed and chosen to die and those who walked out? Can you imagine that the people who stayed in the building might accuse those who left of denying their faith? I can easily imagine the waves of guilt in those who left rather than allow themselves to be killed. This may sound like a silly exercise but in many places across our world this has been played out for real. It has happened, with variations on place and form, from ancient times to the present day. In many of those times it was made very clear that leaving, fleeing, choosing to save ones life would be interpreted as denying faith in God. How to deal with such situations, how to treat those who left and then returned in particular, has been an ongoing debate in the life of the church for 2000 years, and beyond, because Jewish communities often faced very similar challenges in Old Testament times. How forgiving are we? How forgiving should we be? What about if we are the ones needing forgiveness? This has never been easy. Human nature being what it is, even if we read and hear and retell over and over about the unconditional love of God, the open arms and boundless forgiveness of God, the endless invitation to discover new life and new starts, human nature always kicks in. The people who have literally or figuratively placed their lives on the line for their faith have almost always called for a strong and often unforgiving position against the people who copped out and ran away, people who in their eyes denied Christ. That is especially true when people have actually been killed. Not always but often that has been the criticism. Several decades ago there were bracelets and badges and bumper stickers which asked the question WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? There are some parts of the church which focus very firmly on following rules where Jesus response is interpreted as a firmly negative and condemnatory response to those who are seen as having denied their faith or living outside the rules as THEY interpret the RULES. In other places love prevails with various responses ranging from completely open arms to those who look to see that there are signs in the people being considered for forgiveness, that they have learned and grown through the trauma of that experience. Cyprian, who we remember today, faced all this. He was one who hid rather than stay standing. He was a bishop in the church and he ran away. Fierce conversations and criticism confronted him when he returned. He then had to lead through the turmoil of reassembling community with all these tensions. Personally, I think I would have ended up in the car park. Perhaps. Unless by staying I might have been able to help others to escape. Perhaps. Thankfully the likelihood of being put in that situation is slim. But I can see that there are decisions we all make about how to live out our relationship with God and how that relationship will be determined and grow, which involve pressure from various directions suggesting that true faithfulness only exists if we do THIS or THAT or live in particular ways as THEY determine we should live. One thing that I am clear about is that I am not going to let the reality or depth or genuineness of my faith be determined by someone who is antagonistic towards me. Black and white harsh definitions have little place in the economy of God. This is a place of embrace and encouragement, not judgemental narrow-mindedness. There are ways in which we each live out our faith which differ from one person to another. There are invitations and challenges and inspirations which we hear week by week which differ from the threat of death, but they do shake some things which we hold very close and dear. Who do we listen to when we make moral decisions? Are our responses to refugees and asylum seekers determined in a party political manifesto or from the pages of the scriptures? Are our financial contributions to the work of God in and through the Church determined by what we have left over after our list of wants has been fulfilled or are they guided by generosity which allows blessings to bubble up? Are our attitudes towards the environment and the myriad of other issues, which are at the forefront of our community, determined by prejudice or self interest or some other narrow template or do we perhaps still let WWJD really guide us as a fundamental question about how to speak and think and act and live? Being people called into relationship with the living God and called into a community of faith and called into new life and invited to live with integrity and depth and passion is not easy. The more we pursue this the bigger and more important the questions become, and the more we are wrapped in love. We all live this differently, imperfectly. One of the things which inspires me about Cyprian is that he learned through that experience of having run away. He learned to be more compassionate and forgiving. He learned to be able to look around and recognise people who were also hurting, broken, vulnerable, frail, people who had failed in the eyes of others or in their own eyes and he learned to walk alongside them with love. As we remember Cyprian today, across nearly 1800 years, may we be moved with the same compassion, especially for ourselves when we do trip up, and may we be moved by the desire to learn and may we be taken deeper and deeper into the awareness of being loved and held and forgiven and inspired through which we are then able to reach out, in love, to one another and to those around us. Amen. Paul Mitchell