Tues­day Night Bible Study at 7.30pm:

Held at Fr Philip Bradford’s place.  We will be con­tinu­ing with the Gos­pel of Mat­thew.  Please bring a bible.  All wel­come.

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Palm Sunday Crosses required - Please have a look at home for last year’s palm crosses and bring them into church.  It is these we burn to make the ashes for Ash Wed­nes­day.

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Next Sunday 15^th Feb­ru­ary – Par­ish Coun­cil meets after 9.30am ser­vice and morn­ing tea — in the office

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Next Sunday 15^th Feb­ru­ary we will cel­eb­rate Pan­cake Day after the 9.30am ser­vice at morn­ing tea

We would like to make this a small fun­draiser for the par­ish, and we will ask for a mon­et­ary note of $5 or more for the pan­cakes, if you are able.  We can have the Eft­pos handy for those who nev­er carry cash!!  Some of us will assist the Chiew fam­ily with pan­cake bat­ter — which may actu­ally be more large pike­let size but will taste the same.  Maple syr­up and ice cream or straw­berry jam and cream will be avail­able.  We hope you will stay and join in the fun. 

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Read­ings for Next Sunday: Trans­fig­ur­a­tion

First Read­ing: Exodus 24.12–18              Psalm: 2

Second Read­ing: 2 Peter 1.16–21           Gos­pel: Mat­thew 17.1–9

Fr Philip, Moya, Ann, Kathy and I went to the cel­eb­ra­tion at St John’s Gor­don last Sunday after­noon, for Fr John Bunyan’s 90th birth­day.  The Rect­or, Fr Robert Hap­per, gave us a very warm wel­come and after­words proudly showed us the beau­ti­fully appoin­ted ori­gin­al small sand­stone church that is now their side chapel.  It was in this ori­gin­al church that Fr John’s mater­nal grand­moth­er was bap­tised in 1878. 

The after­noon ser­vice of Sev­en Les­sons, Sev­en Son­nets, Sev­en Songs, was held in the church where we were thanked by Fr John for com­ing and then the ser­vice was led by his niece Mrs Vicki Bridge, who flew in from Dar­win for the occa­sion.  Vicki, Chair of Darwin’s Ess­ing­ton School and voted N.T.  Woman of the Year, intro­duced the vari­ous fam­ily mem­bers and friends who read the Bible read­ings and son­nets, and we all joined in singing the inspir­a­tion­al hymns (writ­ten by Fr John) to well-known hymn tunes. 

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice we looked around the beau­ti­ful church — espe­cially at the stained-glass win­dows and at the gar­goyles on the bell tower out­side — you won’t see many of those in Aus­tralia! 

A won­der­ful after­noon tea fol­lowed in the smal­ler church hall, adja­cent to the church.  There were prin­ted pub­lic­a­tions freely giv­en away by Fr John, and dona­tions (in lieu of gifts) were invited for the Al-Ahli Hos­pit­al in Gaza.  We hope there were many dona­tions for this good cause!

Ruth

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Notes from the War­dens regard­ing our Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing,15 March 2026

“Par­ish Admin­is­tra­tion Ordin­ance 2008 (and related mat­ters) Amend­ment Ordin­ance 2025

(The Par­ish Admin­is­tra­tion Ordin­ance 2008 and the very many amend­ments, may be read in full on the Dio­ces­an web­site.)

Part 2 — Par­ish Coun­cil

2.3 Con­sti­tu­tion of the par­ish coun­cil

There is to be a par­ish coun­cil for the par­ish which is, sub­ject to these rules, the gov­ern­ing body for the fin­an­cial and prop­erty affairs of the par­ish and each church of the par­ish. (We only have one.)

2.4 Com­pos­i­tion of the par­ish coun­cil

(1) If there is only one church of the par­ish, the com­pos­i­tion of the par­ish coun­cil is –

(a) the min­is­ter, and

(b) the war­dens, and

© the qual­i­fied per­sons elec­ted and appoin­ted to the par­ish coun­cil at and after the annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing of parish­ion­ers in accord­ance with rules 3.1(1)(l) and 3.16 of the afore­men­tioned ordin­ance.

How­ever, if the annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing of parish­ion­ers determ­ines that the par­ish coun­cil is not to include qual­i­fied per­sons elec­ted to the par­ish coun­cil, the com­pos­i­tion of the par­ish coun­cil is the min­is­ter and the war­dens.”

Qual­i­fic­a­tions for a Par­ish Coun­cil­lor

The qual­i­fic­a­tions for a per­son to be a par­ish coun­cil­lor, in sum­mary, he or she must –

· be bap­tised,

· (updated in 2026) declare that he or she is a mem­ber of the Anglic­an Church of Aus­tralia in the Dio­cese, (pre­vi­ously you had to be a com­mu­nic­ant mem­ber) and

· have usu­ally, dur­ing 3 months in the pre­ced­ing 12 months, atten­ded ser­vices of pub­lic wor­ship in the rel­ev­ant church of the par­ish;

· be at least 18 years of age; and

(new in 2026) must have sat­is­fact­or­ily com­pleted Safe Min­istry Train­ing with­in three years pri­or to the com­mence­ment of their elec­tion or appoint­ment (each time they are elec­ted or appoin­ted). (See Safe Min­istry train­ing require­ments for par­ish staff and officers for more inform­a­tion.)

How­ever, if a per­son is newly appoin­ted to the par­ish coun­cil there is a grace peri­od in which to com­plete the Safe Min­istry Essen­tial Train­ing and attend the webin­ar to receive cer­ti­fic­a­tion. [For instance, if 6 mem­bers are nom­in­ated and voted on to par­ish Coun­cil, then the Rect­or (or Act­ing Rect­or) may appoint 2 addi­tion­al mem­bers who have not served pre­vi­ously, after they have com­pleted the train­ing and received their Cer­ti­fic­ate, with­in 28 days of the AGM.]

How­ever, per­sons with the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­ist­ics may not be elec­ted or appoin­ted as a par­ish coun­cil­lor of a church –

i. a per­son who is bank­rupt or men­tally inca­pa­cit­ated,

ii. a per­son who has been con­victed of a dis­qual­i­fy­ing offence lis­ted in Sched­ule 2 of the Child Pro­tec­tion (Work­ing with Chil­dren) Act 2012,

iii. (new in 2026) a per­son who has been dis­qual­i­fied by the ACNC Com­mis­sion­er dur­ing the pre­ced­ing 12 months from being a respons­ible entity of a registered entity under the Aus­trali­an Char­it­ies and Not-for- profits Com­mis­sion Act 2012,

iv. a per­son who holds the office of aud­it­or of the fin­an­cial state­ments and accounts of the war­dens.

“Part 3 — War­dens

(1) There are to be 3 war­dens for each church of the par­ish who, sub­ject to these rules, admin­is­ter the fin­an­cial and prop­erty affairs of the church. Par­ish Admin­is­tra­tion Ordin­ance 2008

(2) Two qual­i­fied per­sons are to be elec­ted as war­dens by the annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing of parish­ion­ers in accord­ance with rule 3.1(1)(j) or 3.1(2)(j). And one qual­i­fied per­son is to be appoin­ted as a warden by the min­is­ter in accord­ance with rule 3.15.”

The qual­i­fic­a­tions and dis­qual­i­fic­a­tions for a warden is the same as above for par­ish coun­cil­lors.

There is anoth­er new amend­ment, which is no two fam­ily mem­bers may serve togeth­er on a par­ish coun­cil.

If any­one has any ques­tions relat­ing to our AGM, please email the par­ish office (stlukes.enmore@outlook.com “Sub­ject” Par­ish AGM) and Jen­nifer will for­ward them to the war­dens.