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

Sunday	Num­bers 21.4–9	Ps 39	Mark 15.21–41
Monday	Jeremi­ah 40.1–12	Pss 52; 53	2 Cor 5.14–21
Tues­day	Jeremi­ah 40.13–41.10	Ps 55.13–15, 18–28	Luke 20.19–26
Wed­nes­day	Pro­verbs 8.1–21	Pss 122; 131	Mat­thew 1.8–23
Thursday	Jeremi­ah 42.7–22	Pss 63; 67	Colos­si­ans 2.8–15
Fri­day	Jeremi­ah 43	Ps 66	Hebrews 9.11–26
Sat­urday	Jeremi­ah 45	Ps 68.24–35	Hebrews 4.1–11

 

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?