The Gippsland Anglican October 2012

Volume 109, Number 9 October 2012 Published in Gippsland Diocese since 1904

The Gippsland Anglican is your award winning newspaper: Best Regional Publication Bronze Award (ARPA) 2012; Best RegionalPublication Silver Award (ARPA) 2011; Item or Feature that shows the most originality Highly Commended (ARPA) 2011; Best SocialJustice Story Highly Commended (ARPA) 2004; Best Regional Publication (ARPA) 2003; Most Improved Newspaper (ARPA) 2001.

Youth building theirown fences

Pages 9 to 16

Award for TheGippsland Anglican

Page 3

Mud does not deterSan Remo people

page 20

2 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries October 2012

The Gippsland Anglican

The GippslandAnglicanPrice: 90 cents +gst each

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Association of VictoriaRegistered by Australia Post.

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The Gippsland Anglican is the official newspaper of and is published by

The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland, 453 Raymond St,

Sale, Victoria, 3853,www.gippsanglican.org.au

Editor: Mrs Jeanette Severs,PO Box 1254, Bairnsdale, 3875

Tel: 0407 614661Fax: 03 5144 7183

Email: [email protected] all parish reports, all articles, photographs, advertisements and

letters to the Editor. Photographs asjpeg files. Articles as .doc or .txt files.

Advertisements as PDF files.

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All contributions must be received bythe Editor by the 15th day of the monthprior to publication. Contact the Editorto discuss variation to this date. TheEditor reserves the right of final choiceand format of material included in eachissue. The Gippsland Anglican and theEditor cannot necessarily verify anymaterial used in this publication. Viewscontained in submitted material arethose of contributors.

Advertising Rates:$6.80/cm deep/column black & white.

Color is an extra $130.Contact the Editor in the first instance

for all advertising submissions, cost-ings and enquiries, including about in-serts in the newspaper.

For Sale Classifieds:Parishes can advertise items for

free, for sale at prices up to $100.Email details to the Editor.

IndexNewspaper awarded 2

Word favors headship 3

First anniversary 4

Children’s puzzles 5

MU helps families 6

Children sing at Morwell 7

Women on safari 8

Changes to Cursillo 8

Youth feature 9-16

Emergency ministry 17

Diocesan calendar 17

Perspectives 18-19

Reviews 20-21

Teens and sex 20

Clergy ministry 22

Abbey retreat 23

San Remo renovates 24

One woman’s work 24

Orbost dances 24

Letters to the EditorRemembering Deaconess NancyDear Editor, I was in India last week to

graduate 200 pastors andspouses from my Interna-tional Biblical School southof Bangalore, when I heardDeaconess Nancy Drew hadpassed away.Nancy was a delightful

combination of spiritualityand down to earth wisdom.Her zeal for the Gospelnever dimmed and sheloved a fresh challenge. I found her a real source of

information about EastGippsland and other parts ofthe diocese. I recall her direct gaze and the crisp words. Hers was a meta-life, overarching trivialities and al-

ways straining towards the goal in Christ Jesus. She wasa woman of the people. She will surely rest in peace and rise in glory!

With love from Bishop Arthur Jonesin Manila, the Philippines

Editor’s note: A tribute to Deaconess Nancy Drew was inlast month’s issue of The Gippland Anglican.

Award for The GippslandAnglican

THE Gippsland Anglican newspaper has won an-other award, in the 2012 Australasian ReligiousPress Association’s annual awards for excellence.Jeanette Severs, editor of the monthly newspaper

since late 2006, received the Bronze Award for BestRegional Publication at the awards ceremony, inWellington, New Zealand, on September 8.The judges comments were: ‘Very little of the con-

tent is other than local, giving The Gippsland Angli-can a strong regional emphasis; and that which isimported is re-worked to emphasise the local angle.The high number of photographs featuring Gipps-land people is laudable, but fewer of better qualitywould improve page appeal.’The gold award went to Tasmanian Catholic mag-

azine and silver award went to Aurora, published bythe Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.Overall, the judges commented on the importance

of focussing on news about local events while in-cluding relevant and carefully-selected materialfrom beyond diocesan boundaries and linking it toregional issues, in this category.“I am really pleased to receive this award, consid-

ering the quality of publications in the Christianmedia market-place, many of them glossy maga-zines,” Jeanette said.“The award recognises the quality of work put in to

The Gippsland Anglican by myself and the manyparish correspondents, who work hard to providenews and photographs of local events.“This is the second year in a row The Gippsland An-

glican has won an award in this category and bothtimes the judges focussed on the newspaper’s com-mitment to its readership.”There are 87 publications among the 192 members

of ARPA. The Gippsland Anglican has received threeawards in the Best Regional Publication categoryand three other awards in the past decade.Jeanette was in Wellington for the annual ARPA

conference. She was also asked by the ARPA com-mittee to chair a conference workshop on digitalpublishing, discussing similarities and differences inthe processes and purposes of hardcopy and onlinepublishing.

ABOVE: Judging Coordinator, Julia Stuart, congrat-ulates Jeanette Severs (right) on the bronze awardfor The Gippsland Anglican.

Photo: Stephen Webb

October 2012 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries 3


I WILL never forget thestunned silence, at a churchconference in the 1970s,when the wife of an Angli-can clergyman publicly de-scribed the many forms ofabuse suffered by manywomen in Christian homes,where men demanded theirwives submit to them.It awakened me in an

alarming way to the awfultruth that what we say,whether or not we mean itto, can be taken by those towhom we say it, to justifywhat we never intended. Nomatter how well we mightargue our case theologicallyand logically, others willhear it as they want to hearit and justify all manner ofbehavior on the basis of it.This, presumably, is onereason why we are warnedin Scripture that to havethe authority of a teacher inthe church is an awesomeresponsibility.Imagine my alarm, then,

when I hear fellow Anglicanbishop, Archbishop PeterJensen*, announce publicly,women should be asked tosubmit to their husbands intheir wedding vows. Thisagainst the background ofan Australian society whereevery year on average114,600 women experienceviolence by a current orprevious partner; where atleast 68,000 of the casesare witnessed by children,and where in 30 per cent ofthese cases, the child wit-nesses are also abused.Now, I am certainly not

saying the Archbishop ofSydney would not be con-cerned about this violenceagainst women and chil-dren. Hardly. I believe he isas horrified as I am aboutdomestic violence, and Ihave heard him speak outstrongly against it.

Nevertheless, I also be-lieve he is naïve not to un-derstand, like it or not, hispronouncement, thatwomen should submit tomen, will inevitably be acatalyst to ongoing domes-tic violence for those menwho perversely take hiswords, as some will do, tojustify their dominance andabuse of women and chil-dren. It is certainly whatthe wife of an Anglican cler-gyman made so clear to meso long ago.There are two issues to

address on this matter. Thefirst is the issue of lan-guage. The English word‘submit’ is today so associ-ated with being submissive,or even forced into submis-sion, that it can no longerbe used in the nuanced waysuggested by the Arch-bishop. He correctly pointsout ‘submit’ has othermeanings to being submis-sive or forced into submis-sion, but the word is now sotainted by common usage itis largely beyond redemp-tion.It is certainly true the

word ‘submit’ has beenused in some cases as theEnglish translation of aword used by St Paul to de-scribe, in the first place, theduty of every Christian,whether female or male, inliving out all our relation-ships with one another. Heasks all Christians to live inthis way “out of reverencefor Christ” (Ephesians5:21). In other words, hesays that if we truly revereJesus, we will live as helived and this will bedemonstrated in the atti-tude we have to each otherin all our relationships.Now, it is clear Jesus was

neither submissive nor washe forced into submission.

It is also clear Jesus waswilling, in freedom andlove, to give of himself toothers so they might havelife. This is the pattern ofhis life to which St Paulpoints as the pattern forChristian life. Acts of de-voted costly love for thesake of the other, in whichwe count the other as bet-ter than self, indicate theattitude St Paul sees inJesus and fill out the mean-ing of the word he uses inthis passage. But in com-mon usage, the Englishword ‘submit’ does not con-vey this meaning.The second issue to ad-

dress is the issue of Biblicalanthropology. So long assome argue there is a hier-archy of male over femalein Biblical anthropology, wewill continue to have prob-lems. In such an ideology, itwill not be seen as strangeto require submission of awoman to a man.The problem is, this is not

a true representation ofBiblical anthropology. Fromthe very beginning of Scrip-ture, it is clear in the cre-ation stories of the ancientHebrews that man andwoman are made in theimage of God. As such,both in their own right aregiven authority on God’sbehalf to play the same roleas each other in God’s cre-ation. There is no subordi-nation of one to the other,implicit or explicit, in thesefoundational stories. This isall the more extraordinaryfor the fact these storieswere originally told in an in-tensely patriarchal age, aculture that certainly im-pacts on many other ac-counts in Scripture. Surely this means they

must be understood as acorrective to patriarchy. Ac-

cordingly, any attempt toread the subordination offemale to male in any otherpart of Scripture, or to readsubordination back intothose foundational storieson the basis of a misinter-pretation of another part ofScripture, is simply badhermeneutics (interpreta-tion).In the end, the real prob-

lem is the wrong messagesent to the community bythe use of language thatwill be misunderstood andby statements based on aninterpretation of Biblical an-thropology that subordi-nates women to men. This is a problem because

of the inevitable detrimen-tal impact it has for womenand children right now.Sadly, it brings the Gospelinto disrepute, because itopposes the Gospel’s fun-damental message of liber-ation to all who areoppressed.

*Archbishop Peter Jensenis the Anglican Archbishopof Sydney and Metropolitanof the Province of NewSouth Wales in the AnglicanChurch of Australia. He wasrecently in the Australianmedia when Sydney dio-cese released a new versionof marriage vows for in-tending couples.

A damning word

Right Reverend John McIntyreBishop of Gippsland

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4 Our Diocese - Family and Children’s Ministries October 2012


TWO of Sale parish’s Su-danese families led a spe-cial celebration service at StPaul’s Cathedral in August.Elizabeth Ajiel organisedwith Dean Dr Don Sainesand Reverend AbrahamMaluk, from Moe, to makethe monthly Dinka service atime to celebrate the firstanniversary of the Inde-pendence of South Sudan.Elizabeth and Anyiik

Acuoth cooked throughoutthe night to serve a tradi-tional Sudanese meal toSale parishioners and visi-tors from the eastern re-gion deanery, who weremeeting at the Cathedralthat afternoon.To begin the service, Eliza-

beth and Anyiik, with theirhusbands Samuel Luethand Alier Wei, led somesinging in Dinka, accompa-nied by drumming fromtheir children. Alier wel-comed people to the serv-ice and, after more singing,Samuel asked Dean Don toread from the Prophet Jere-miah. Samuel spoke of the jour-

ney to freedom of theSouth Sudanese and theirtrust in God who broughtthem to their new country,Australia. Pastor Abraham

added his own words of en-couragement, celebrationand prayer.All attendees then enjoyed

the many traditional dishesprepared by Elizabeth andAnyiik. The celebration con-cluded with the cutting of alarge cake depicting theflag of South Sudan, madeby Julie Lanham, also ofSale parish.The families hope to make

this an annual celebrationof sharing with their parishfamily, around the Inde-pendence date of July 9.

Contributor: J Macqueen

TOP: Members of the Dinkaspeaking Sudanese congre-gation of Sale parish, withother members of theparish, celebrated the firstanniversary of the inde-pendence of South Sudan.ABOVE: Gabby Simon andSarah and James Gover en-joyed the lunch prepared byElizabeth Ajiel and AnyiikAcuoth.FRONT page: Jane Mac-queen, Elizabeth Ajiel, JulieLangham and Anyiik Acuothwith the cake made byJulie.

Photos: Christine Morris

LEADERS or families withyoung children are re-minded of the Traffic SchoolFun Afternoon on Sunday,November 18, on thePrinces Highway at Morwell.The activity begins at3.30pm. There is no charge and a

free sausage sizzle will beprovided by the GippslandDiocesan Kidsplus+ Net-work. Bring your wheeled vehi-

cles for lots of fun.The annual Kidsplus GFS

meeting will be held at StJames’ Traralgon on Sun-day, October 28. Interestedpeople and representativesfrom affiliated parishes aremost welcome to attend.Discussions about the 2013diocesan camp at Coon-awarra Farm Resort, Strat-ford, will be on the agends. Another reminder to

parish youth and children’sgroup leaders that we wel-come their participation in

the leadership team. The best way to encourage

the participation of youryoung people is to accom-pany them through the ex-perience. Feel free to do soon May 3 to 5, 2013. (Seeadvertisement in this news-paper.)Our annual thanksgiving

service and lunch at Gipps-land Heritage Park, Moe,will begin at 11am on Sat-urday, November 11. This isalways a great occasion foradult friends of GFS Kid-splus. Lunch cost is $25.Thirty Gippsland GFS

members will attend the130th birthday celebrationsof the society’s ministry inthe dioceses of Bendigo,Ballarat and Melbourne. Aday has been organised forSeptember 29, at Black-burn North, with GFS WorldChairman, Gladys Payne,from Wales and AustralianChairman, Julie Smith,from Tasmania. Our Gippsland Kidsplus+

activity trailer will providesome of the entertainmentfor participants on the day.The trailer of games

equipment, giant balls andactivities is still being wellused across the diocese byinterested parishes andyouth groups. The AugustHeyfield Birthday Celebra-tion Market made good useof the trailer and equip-ment. Trafalgar parish will again

use some equipment duringtheir community’s annualBattle of Trafalgar festival,on October 20. The mainlymusic groups are findinggood use for the colorfulparachutes.Contributor: Mary Nicholls

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"#$%&$'!()**+!,-'$.)/!01.$2#3.+!!!

"#$%!&'!()!#*'(&!'(+!#&,-../0!1+.,1#2/!'+!1+.,#++#-3./!4(-.+#$!).+526.)7!!!!456!789:!";<==;!(89<:"08>=!!?)//!@A!&3-.+!3'!B5B6!@5BC!3.!D1+1#!-+!)#!EEEF+#$%&$'G)**+F23HF)-!

Sale celebrates

ABOVE: Sale parish mainly music group recently held apriates-themed activity. Pictured are the mainly musicleaders dressed in theme.

Photo: Christine Morris

At traffic school

October 2012 Our Diocese - Family and Children’s Ministries 5


Color in the pictureAgainst Us or For Us?"For whoever is not against us is for us." Mark 9:40 (NIV)Puzzle is based on Mark 9:38-41

ACROSS4. A person who gives instruction

to other people6. A wonderful and supernatural

act of God7. To be opposed to someone or

something8. An evil spirit

DOWN1. The word by which a person is

known; John, for example2. A prize given for good behavior3. To be in favor of someone or

something5. To bring an activity to an end

REWARD DEMON FOR AGAINSTSTOP MIRACLE NAME TEACHER

1 2

3 4

5

6 7

8

Puzzles

Copyright www.sermons4kids.com

ACROSS4. A person who gives instruction

to other people6. A wonderful and supernatural

act of God7. To be opposed to someone or

something8. An evil spirit

DOWN1. The word by which a person is

known; John, for example2. A prize given for good behavior3. To be in favor of someone or

something5. To bring an activity to an end

REWARD DEMON FOR AGAINSTSTOP MIRACLE NAME TEACHER

1 2

3 4

5

6 7

8

Crossword puzzle

Word Search

LEFT: The mainly music group’s leaders in Sale parishdance a pirate dance, at the pirate-themed session.


What did Joseph’sbrothers think of hisnew coat? Read Genesis37, verses 3 and 4.Copyright: Bible Society Aust.

6 Our Diocese - Family and Children’s Ministries October 2012


By Jeanette Severs

MOTHERS’ Union is under-pinned by three actions:Enabling projects and pro-gramming; Campaigningsocial policy issues; andPraying, the pivotal action.At the recent annual gen-eral meeting of Mothers’Union Gippsland, thesethree actions were appar-ent in all the reports tabled.While keeping these three

actions foremost in theiraims, MU members alsoknow life is not aboutchoosing to exert ourrights. Wendy Mayer, MUAustralian Education Coor-dinator, recently wrote lifeis also about choosing togive up our rights, whenthat will help to meet some-one else’s need. “We may have a right, but

we don’t have to exercise it.Jesus gave us the greatestexample of this when hegave up all the glory ofheaven to come to earthand then gave up his life sowe can live eternally if weplace our faith in him,”Wendy wrote.“So let’s practice being

people who share with oth-ers, starting with littlethings, because then whenthe opportunity comes toshare something that is big,we will already be in thatmindset.”MU Gippsland chaplain,

Reverend Thelma Lang-shaw, believes starting withpeople at the centre ofChristian faith is the realityof being members of MU,

living in fellowship with oth-ers.“We can’t be people of

God and therefore Christianunless we believe what Godhas taught us and realisewe belong to that group ofpeople who have the samesense of belonging not onlyto God but to one another,”Thelma writes in the latestGippy News of Mothers’Union.The following article

shares the work and goodfellowship offered by MUmembers to each other andto families in our commu-nity and further afield, un-derpinned by the theme for2012, Faithful Relation-ships.Also apparent is the inno-

vation displayed by Moth-ers’ Union and itsmembers. Recently, MUAustralia launched its web-site, atwww.muaustralia.org.auand MU is now on facebook,encouraging social net-working among its mem-bers and the use of newtechnologies. People areavailable to assist membersto learn the skills they needto join in.MU members have also

been told they need to bepeople of vision, creativeand flexible, personally in-volved in their work withfamilies and faithful in step-ping forward. The EastGippsland branch held aservice of Holy Communionin a bush setting and, atanother meeting, heardfrom a policewoman with

the Special Youth TargetForce.A highlight of the past

year’s meetings of MUmembers in Gippsland wasthe presentation fromDavid Spitteler, of the Asy-lum Seekers Centre in Dan-denong, at the JuneJoin-In. The ASC assists on-shore applicants for refugeestatus in Australia with ma-terial aid and referrals toother agencies.The second annual MU

family retreat, in the Sep-tember school holidays, hasjust come to an end. Threefamilies were invited tospend time at the Abbey ofSt Barnabas at A’BeckettPark, hosted by ReverendThelma Langshaw, MUchaplain, and her twodaughters, Lauren and Kay-cie. MU members kindlycontributed the funds topay for these families’ ac-commodation.At Drouin branch, a DVD

sale raised money for theMU family retreat fund,supporting this initiative.The sale came about afterAnne Connelly shared aDVD film of an Englishcountry garden at a meet-ing.Reverend Janet Wallis

spoke about the Lord’sPrayer at the MU Quiet Dayat Leongatha, encouragingparticipants to think aboutthe prayer and its meaning.They were also able tomove through a labyrinth inthe church, stopping ateach station to reflect andpray.MU members learned

about the Mae Salit KeesNursery School in a refugeecamp for Karen people, onthe Thai/Myanmar border,from Anne Kennedy, MUAustralia vice president, atLady Day this year. Thenursery school is supportedby MU Australia’s Overseas

Target Fund. There are 500MU members among thisKaren population.Among our local parishes,

Cowes branch has madebaptismal cards; an MUmember attends each bap-tism service and presentsthe card to the parents.Maffra Guild and Mothers’

Union branch reached intotheir community by servingafternoon tea at the localaged-care facility severaltimes during the year. Theyalso provide catering serv-ices in the community andmake Christmas cakes andpuddings for sale.The Moe branch uses St

Patrick’s Day as an annualfundraiser, while Morwellbranch keeps busy withcatering, flower arranging,working bees, nursinghome visiting and givingbaptismal folders and booksto families.

Newborough branch inten-tionally learnt more aboutSudanese culture, hosting aguest speaker in Elizabethduring the year. Warragulbranch members continueto knit beanies and rugs forAnglicare and the Youth forChrist centre and have fo-cussed on supportingchurch families withprayers.The two Gippsland Angli-

can schools continue tobenefit from music scholar-ships for their students.This year, Wonthaggi Inver-loch branch sent a donationto the Joyce Erbs fund inmemory of their late, es-teemed, members, MayBrooks, Norma Johnstonand Hazell Catell. Membersalso help with the weeklycommunity meal at theirchurch, sometimes hostingmore than 100 people.At the annual general

meeting, MU Gippslandpresident, Karin McKenzie,reported $44,700 was dis-tributed in the past year tothe Northern Outreach andIndigenous Women’s funds.Karin also thanked themany members who haveheld specific roles withinthe local and diocesangroups this past year.“Thank you for your tire-

less work for familiesthrough faith and action,”she said.She reminds Gippsland’s

164 MU members that nextyear, executive positionscome up for election. “Please consider people

for these roles. Ample helpis available, with job de-scriptions written up, listsof fellow coordinators avail-able and the fellowship ofthe MU Gippsland Execu-tive.”

Mothers’ Union helpsfamilies with faith

ABOVE: Ruth Sagewas the organist forthe Mothers’ UnionGippsland group’sservice before theannual generalmeeting recently.RIGHT: JoanneWinch and AnneRowe enjoyed fel-lowship at the Moth-ers’ Union annualgeneral meeting,held at Leongathaon September 11.Photos: K McKenzie

October 2012 Our Diocese - Family and Children’s Ministries 7


WORSHIP is the centre of our faith lives at Morwell.We often use new liturgies to express our worship.Archdeacon Heather Marten and Reverend LynWilliams have helped us become aware of the litur-gical riches of the prayer book. New prayers and new settings of the Gloria or the

confession engage our involvement in worship. Wehave also been learning some new hymns. Some-times these hymns have new words (new to us), withfamiliar tunes. Sometimes the tunes are also new.We need to practise these over a few weeks so wecan feel confident in singing the new hymn. Recently, the children, who are members of Chil-

dren’s Ministry at St Mary’s Morwell, have beenlearning a new hymn, so they can help the rest ofthe congregation learn the new hymn and sing outwith confidence.At the end of the service, the children from the Chil-

dren’s Ministry share with the rest of the congrega-tion what they have made that day. They also explainto us what this creation means to them. The adultmembers of the congregation all look forward to thistime of sharing.

ABOVE: Young people of the Children’s Ministry sharewith Archdeacon Heather Marten, the meaning of thepaper cutouts they made, ‘Jesus, Messiah and friendto everyone’.

RECENTLY, Morwell parish farewelled two wonder-ful people from our congregation. Archdeacon emer-itus Frank Lowe and his wife, Gill, have beenmembers of St Mary’s congregation for more than 40years. Archdeacon Frank was minister of Morwellparish for many years and Archdeacon Frank and Gillhave been influential in the faith life of many acrossthe diocese. Their facilitation and participation in many groups

made them well-known to many. They were influen-tial in Mothers’ Union, Anglican Women of Australiaand clergy conferences. They are leaving to live close to their daughter and

her family in northern Victoria. We will think of themhaving precious time with their daughter and theirgrandchildren.

Contributor: Carolyn Raymond

ABOVE: Gill and Archdeacon Frank Lowe withArchdeacon Heather Marten and Reverend LynWilliams.

Photos: Carolyn Raymond

ABOVE: Mother’s Union members, Penny, Joan and Elsie, all from Moe, at the annualgeneral meeting of the Gippsland group, held on September 11 at Leongatha.

Photo: Karin McKenzie

Children singout at Morwell

FATHER’s Day was celebrated at a combinedservice at Churchill on September 2. Specialguests were Bishop John and Mrs Jan McIntyre.This occasion was the Bishop’s annual pastoralvisit, to preach and celebrate communion. His sermon message was about our inside

matching our outside; about not just appearinggood on the outside and being evil inside, butbeing pure on the inside. The singing group from Churchill sang The

Lord’s Prayer during communion. Psalm 45 wasthe psalm of the day and mentions: ‘Your throne,O God, will last for ever and ever.’ These wordsare reinforced in the Lord’s Prayer. We remembered in our prayers future growth

and work of the combined parish, our Bishop,minister and members of the new parish counciland those throughout the world who are victimsof hostilities, natural disasters and economicdownturns.The sausage sizzle held at Bunnings the previ-

ous week was a great success. Saturday break-fast sessions are still well supported and agarage sale was held on September 22. Rose-mary Young, CEO of Frontier Services, will be ourguest on November 18.Reverend Marilyn Obersby’s last service, on Oc-

tober 21, will be a Back to Sunday school one, torelive happy childhood memories of Sundayschool; for some a dim memory, for others’ notso long ago. Rev. Brenda Burney will be inducted as the new

incumbent on October 24. Contributor: Rae Billing

ABOVE: Bishop John McIntyre at the Father’sDay service at Churchill.

Photo: Rae Billing

Father’s day

Abraham’smission fororphanage

MEMBERS of Moe parish wereagain intrinsically involved with theLowanna College chaplaincy cater-ing committee, as we served forthe college’s year 10 debutanteballs, held on two consecutiveevenings in September. Our parish sends prayers and

good wishes to Reverend AbrahamMaluk (above) as he returns toSudan this month in order to es-tablish the Bor Orphanage project.A farewell service with our com-bined St Luke’s and Holy Trinitycongregations will be held on Octo-ber 14.This month’s parish guild outing

incorporated a visit to ChristChurch Drouin, where we werepleased to join in the fellowshipmorning tea with the midweek con-gregation. Reverend Amy Turnerand Iris Maxfield provided ourgroup of 10 travellers an interest-ing tour and explanation of the ex-tensions and innovations to theirparish centre. All good food for thought as

across the diocese we seek to de-velop centres best able to serve ourcommunities. We all appreciatedthe hospitality extended by Drouinmembers. Lunch at Warragul wasenjoyed on our way home.

Contributor: Mary NichollsPhoto: Jeanette Severs

8 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries October 2012


CHRISTIAN women com-municating internationally(CWCI) is hosting anothersafari, across East Gipps-land, this time with thetheme of Finding Treasurefor Life.Guest speaker is Ro

Verspaandonk (right), ofSale. Ro is married to a re-tired minister. They havefour children and 12 adultgrandchildren.Ro loves sharing God’s

word with women andteaches CRE school classes.In her spare time, she en-joys gardening and reading.Ro is looking forward to

travelling across East Gipp-sland, from Mallacoota toMetung, from October 15 to18, and speaking withChristian women.CWCI is a worldwide, bible

based ministry which beganin Australia in 1957, with asmall group of women whowent away for a weekend ofbible teaching. Local CWCIactivities are held in cityand country locations, of-fering encouragement, in-spiration and bibleteaching.CWCI also has 2300 Know

Your Bible groups, wherewomen meet on a regularbasis to discuss the bible.Studies are available in 45languages and used inmore than 70 countriesaround the world.CWCI safaris offer an op-

portunity for christianwomen to come together inecumenical worship and fel-lowship, while hearing froma guest speaker.The East Gippsland safari

will begin at Mallacoota onMonday, October 15, at StPeter’s church at 10am, fol-lowed by meeting at theCann River community cen-tre at 1.30pm.The following day, Tues-

day, October 16, the OrbostUniting Church in BrowningStreet will host a gathering,beginning 1.30pm.On Wednesday, October

17, the safari will travel toLake Tyers Trust, for agathering at 2pm. In theevening, the safari will beat St John’s church Metung,beginning 6pm. Light re-freshments will be servedprior to the speaker at7pm.On Thursday, October 18,

the safari will conclude atBruthen, at the Elderly Citi-zens rooms, from 10am.Admission at each centre

is free and refreshmentsare provided. A donationcan be made to cover costs.There will also be publica-tions for sale.

NICKY and Sila Lee, thefounders of RelationshipCentral and pastors at HolyTrinity Brompton, London,are touring Australia withAlpha Australia betweenOctober 20 to 31, 2012,with events in Melbourne,Geelong, Brisbane and Syd-ney. Best known as authorsof The Marriage Course andThe Parenting Course, theLee’s will speak at a num-ber of community forums,church services, church

leader gatherings and train-ing events for The Marriageand Parenting Courses andRelationship Central confer-ences while in Australia. Full tour details and a list

of all events are available atwww.alphafriends.org.auNicky and Sila Lee’s tour of

Australia will be focused onencouraging, inspiring andequipping those runningthe marriage and parentingcourses, which are off-shoots from The Alpha

Course and offered in Aus-tralia by Alpha Australia. Alongside this, churches

and individuals will be ableto engage with Nicky andSila Lee on the topics offamily life and relationshipsand learn from their wis-dom and experience in sup-porting family life throughthe local church.Nicky and Sila Lee are the

founders of RelationshipCentral and over the past25 years have developedand produced resourcesand course materials tohelp support family lifethrough the local church.They have been married formore than 30 years andhave four children and fourgrandchildren. They led a large Anglican

church for eight years andare now part of the leader-ship team at HTB, in centralLondon, where Nicky is As-sociate Vicar.

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Women onsafari to findtreasure

Joan sought God’sface for her faith

ULTREYA was held at Christ ChurchDrouin on August 26. A gathering ofmore than 60 people, from across thediocese, witnessed Canon Jeff Richard-son perform the decommissioning ofPeter Down from the position of Lay Di-rector of Gippsland Cursillo, which hehad held for more than four years. Jeffthen commissioned Lindsay MacKay totake over this position into the future. Liz Hall was able to announce there

will most likely be another Ultreya be-fore the end of the year, but the venuehas yet to be arranged. We can expectto have a Men’s Cursillo offered nextyear, so please encourage men in thechurch to book in, so they too may beblessed by this course. We were most fortunate to listen to

Mrs Joan Stanley’s testimony of the ef-fect Cursillo had on her faith journeyand the topic of seeking God’s face. Thiswas followed by Reverend Ray Elliot’sthoughtful reflection on her testimonyand went on to small group discussionof some of the issues raised.

It is on these occasions that we reallyappreciate the flexibility of being able tomove the seating around in the worshipspace at Drouin.Mary Spong and Libby Langford de-

lighted attendees with their musical tal-ents and led some robust singing ofdifferent hymns and choruses. It washeartwarming to see so many Cursillis-tas, clergy and parishioners attend, es-pecially those who have only recentlycompleted their Cursillo journey.Many stayed on to chat with members

from other Gippsland parishes over agenerous afternoon tea, before return-ing to their homes far and wide.Thanks to all who assisted in making

this a very special afternoon. Ultreya!Contributor: Sue Lester

ABOVE: Peter and Margaret Down layhands on Lindsay MacKay while CanonJeff Richardson blesses him, during thecommissioning of Lindsay as Lay Direc-tor of Gippsland Cursillo.

Photo: Rosalie Murphy

Alpha pastors in Australia

October 2012 Our Diocese - Youth Feature 9


Youth building fences:What do they look like?How can you help?

10 Our Diocese - Youth Feature October 2012


Gippsland Grammar aims to foster a love of learning in every one of its students

Contact the Registrar for enrolment enquiries or toarrange your personal tour on 5143 6388

curious . committed . creative . challenged . independent . inspired . passionate

EditorialI WAS recently at a conference

where the question was posed:What does your fence look like? Itwas a question about faith.The speaker, Lloyd Martin, has

been working with youth for morethan 30 years and is consideredone of the most successful youthleaders internationally. During thistime, Lloyd and his wife, Anthea,teachers and youth workers inPorirua, New Zealand, have wel-comed young people into theirhome (and the homes of other peo-ple), provided education optionsand taken these young people onadventures in the outdoors.Lloyd spoke about how young

people construct their faith ... ornot. He likened it to fences.Many of us have secure fences,

built strong, with support from ourfamilies, friends, school, workplace,faith community and environment.Many of us do not have securefences; they have holes, are fallingdown, or seem irretrievably bro-ken. Or we have secure fences,that no one can get through; builtstrong to protect us from help; orfrom the influence of others,whether caring or not.So, what type of fence have you

built around you? Are you willing tohelp a young person build them-selves a strong fence, one that con-nects them with a community thatsupports and cares for them? Or doyou think it better to let them builda fence alone, with influence frompeople who do not really care aboutthem?Lloyd and Anthea Martin care

about young people. Teachers, theyare part of a network of practition-ers and educators in youth work;they do not believe they know it alland they are not resistant tochanging what they do.In fact, in 30 years, they have in-

fluenced others in youth develop-ment work by their willingness tochange, adapt, listen, learn fromand engage with youth, with openminds. Testaments from aroundthe globe include: ‘Show how toforge powerful connections with re-lationship-wary young people’ and‘A wealth of examples both affirmand question the present directionof youth work’.Now they are moving to Australia,

to Melbourne, working with praxispacific. Lloyd gave me his book,Small Stories: Reflections on thePractice of Youth Development. Itdescribes in real stories how wecan connect with youth, becoming

part of their vertical strata, orfences.Lloyd’s and Anthea’s ideology is

based on care, on caring enoughabout someone else to learn aboutthem from themselves; rather thanwish to cure them of what we per-ceive to be their problem.In Australia, we have some won-

derful examples of people workingwith youth, particularly young men. In Melbourne, years ago, there

was a boxer and martial arts cham-pion who provided a space forangry young men to safely and,with care, learn to control theiranger and become better, morecaring, people. They were not allyoung men without a future, theywere young men with egos andthey were young men who did notfeel they had anyone to care forthem; their fences lacked a sup-porting community. They neededhelp and direction to work out howto help themselves.Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The

Streets has been providing servicesto assist homeless and disadvan-taged youth since 1991, believingthat in order to break the cycle ofdisadvantage, abuse and neglect,all young people need to be pro-vided with the opportunity toachieve their full potential. This in-cludes helping them to accesshousing, education and other serv-ices.In Gippsland, there is no secret

that homelessness is a significantproblem. For young people, home-lessness, whether in the family unitor alone, restricts their access tohealthy food, to education, to aplace in the community and to a fu-ture. These are young people with-out strong, supporting and caringfences.But everyone can have times in

their lives when they feel they lackthe support of a caring community.It is not just a state for disadvan-taged youth, or for youth alone.Do you want to care or cure? I

hope you enjoy reading throughthis feature, on youth, about youth,from youth. It is an opportunity tolearn from and listen to what ouryoung people do, how they viewtheir faith and how we can care forthem.

Jeanette Severs, Editor

Martin, L and Martin, A (2012)Small Stories: Reflections of thePractice of Youth Development.USA: Sisson Printing. www.praxis-pacific.org

Leongatha hasjewels andbrotherhood

OUR girls group Jewels, that werun through St Peter’s in Leon-gatha, is on every Monday at 4pmuntil 5.30pm.Jewels aims to provide a place for

young teenage girls (high schoolattending), to come and learnabout becoming a woman of God.This year we focused on innerbeauty and fitting in with God, notsociety. We talk about the obstacles of the

world, faced by young girls livingwith a christian faith and discover-ing who they are in Christ.This year we held a sleepover for

the girls. It was a ‘pamperingnight’. We all received manicuresand pedicures and love letters fromGod asking us to stand out for him. ‘Why are you trying to fit in, when

you were created by me (God) tostand out’, is an example.The photograph attached was

taken on the night, when we hadface masks on; we are not usuallyso pale!

Contributors: Sarah Brown and Jackie Bowman

A bunch of guysBROTHERHOOD is a bunch of guys

that get together and hang out. Welike to play crazy games, light bon-fires, play music ,go on adventures,plan and go on wilderness campsand stuff like that. We’re into being friends. Based at St Peter’s Leongatha, we

are an open group and anyone cancome along. We believe that (in this case) guys

have huge value because they aremade in God’s image. We encourage one another to be

disciples of Jesus together and toaccept what He has done for us andwhat He has given us: the right tocount ourselves as being sons ofGod Most High. Because of this, we are more than

friends, we are brothers.We help each other stand strong

in our God-given identity in a worldwhose values and promises are asshifting sands; to stand like treeswith deep roots and broadbranches, offering shelter to oth-ers.So this is brotherhood. This is who

we are, what we do and what westand for. Come and join us.

Contributor: Paul Bracken

Jewels helps uslearn about being awoman of God

ABOVE: Young people worship at the CMS Summer under the Son.



MY NAME is Jordan Breed.I am a 24 year old medicalstudent, an officer in theRoyal Australian Air Force, akeen snowboarder, a ratheramateur guitarist and I ama Christian. The order ofthis list doesn’t reflect theimportance of each of thesein my life. Guess whichcomes first?As for why I am a Chris-

tian, I have no amazingstory of being born againand converting to Christian-ity, rather for me it hasbeen a slow and steady life-long journey. I have lived in Traralgon

for most of my life and havebeen a member of StJames’ church for all of thistime (although my activeinvolvement has varied, es-pecially during my teenageyears). I love being a partof this family as I have hadlifelong support in myChristian journey. Many ofthe parishioners haveknown me my entire life. In recent years, the parish

has allowed me to take onvarious leadership roles asI have been ready for; andI have found these to beenriching and rewarding. Inthe past 12 months, I havehelped to start our monthlyyouth service ‘Café J’ andthis is slowly gathering mo-mentum.St James doesn’t have a

strong youth congregationat this point and we areworking hard to changethat. This has meant, inorder to connect with otheryoung Christians, I havehad to leave the walls of

our own church, my com-fort zone. During my first degree in

Clayton, I had some limitedinvolvement with the Chris-tian Union, ‘coincidentally’right when I needed itmost; but my timetablewas not exactly flexible soit was never more than lim-ited. I also lived with seven

other Christians in Murrum-beena, which was an im-portant experience to getback on track in my jour-ney. Since coming back toGippsland to study medi-cine, I have learned you donot have to search too hardto find other Christians andonce we have found eachother, we have had somerewarding experiences to-gether out of the blue.As with all of us, I try my

best to live a Christian lifeand part of this has beensharing my experienceswith other people who donot identify with Christian-ity … yet. I have been surprised on

many occasions when peo-ple want to know a littlemore about what it meansto be a Christian. This isjust one of the many waysmy faith is part of my dailylife. I have also discoveredmy study will always be re-warded for taking timeaway from it for either pub-lic or private worship andthis has become an impor-tant part of my study rou-tine.Looking into the future, in

the next few years I will(hopefully) graduate as a

medical officer in the RAAFand I can foresee the im-portance of my faith, bothin my day to day interac-tions with patients and indeployments overseas, bethey humanitarian or inwartime. A little closer than that,

my fiancée Sarah and I aregetting married in Decem-ber this year. Christian mar-riage preparation withCanon Jeff Richardson hasbeen rewarding and amus-ing for us both and we bothknow the importance ourfaith holds in our future to-gether. As I move along my Chris-

tian Journey into the future,I hope I will have more andmore opportunities to learnand share in worship withother people from acrossthe world.

THE Gippsland GrammarRowing Club has namedone of its quad sculls inhonor of Executive Princi-pal, Mr Mike Clapper, whowill be leaving the school atthe end of the year. The of-ficial boat naming cere-mony took place at SaleRowing Sheds on Saturday,September 8, at a barbecueto celebrate the new rowingseason.Director of Rowing, Frank

Stone said: “Mike has beena loyal supporter of therowing club in his time atthe school. With a back-ground in rowing, he appre-ciated the challenges theclub and its members facein just getting on the waterto train. “Therefore, in recognition

of his continued support,we decided to name oneof our boats after him.”In response, Mr Clapper

said: “This is a great honorand one I am not sure I de-serve, as my role has beenvery much in the back-

ground. However, it is true Iam a great believer in theimportance of a sport suchas rowing, which I know,from personal experience,can be life-shaping or life-changing activity.“Many of our students

have benefited from thisopportunity and I trustmany more will in the fu-ture, some of them, per-haps, in the Mike Clapper.” Rowing remains an inte-

gral part of the school’ssporting program, withmore than 90 students par-ticipating in the past term.In the competitive season,students will attend regat-tas in Canberra, Geelong,Nagambie, New SouthWales and will attend theschool’s annual rowingcamp in the January holi-days.

ABOVE: Mike Clapper (cen-tre) looks over his newlynamed boat, with wife, JoCockwill and Director ofRowing, Frank Stone.

SUBSCRIPTIONto The Gippsland Anglican

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Name ......................................................................

Address ..................................................................

.................................................................................

Telephone ...............................................................

Yes, I would like a one year postal subscription to The Gipps-land Anglican, costing $27.50. I enclose a cheque/postalorder, made out to the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. Send to TGA subscriptions, Anglican Diocese of Gippsland,PO Box 928, Sale, 3850. Enquiries, telephone 03 5144 2044.

Student, musician,officer, a Christian?

ABOVE: Jordan Breed.

Boat honorsprincipal



DIETRICH Cheung is 23years old and a Youth andYoung Adults ministry as-sistant at CMS (Church Mis-sionary Society) Victoria.He is also studying for aGraduate Diploma in Divin-ity at Melbourne School ofTheology.Dietrich talks about him-

self:My name is Dietrich Che-

ung and I am an ‘ABC’; thatstands for Australian BornChinese. Prior to begin mystudies at MST, I was in-volved in youth ministry asa leader. One of the great-est reasons for serving theLord in this area is, Istrongly believe youth min-istry built upon God’s Word,is enduring and critical. Young people are very

precious to God and theycan go either way at thiscrucial developing stage. At the moment, I also

work part-time with CMSVictoria, an organisationthat is very old. For themost part of the last 200-plus years, CMS has beenrecruiting, training andsending people who knowand love Jesus all aroundthe world; to share thisknowledge and love. Webelieve this mission is on-going, despite the manychanges in our society. The organisation is old,

but we try to use fresh ap-proaches!One of my main roles

then, as a youth assistant isto come up with ways tohelp engage and exciteyouth of today to becomeGodly leaders of tomorrow.

What do you do?WE run events for young

people to equip them toserve God better. These in-clude events such asAgainst the Grain (school-based events) and Summerunder the Son (teachingand training conferences)that are energetic, full offellowship (young peopleenjoy this) and gear themto know and serve God bet-ter; whether that is over-seas or locally. There are a lot of fun and

creative activities we do,but at the core, we want toshow them God’s love andfeeding them spirituallyfrom the Word.

What do you enjoyabout your parish?THE parish I am currently

attending, Holy Trinity Don-caster, is relatively large,with five congregations. Itis an exciting place becauseof such a range of diversity;even though it can be hardto get to know everyone, itis a good opportunity to mixwith people who are beyondmy own demographic.

There is a strong sensethat God’s Word is to behandled correctly andtaught fervently. We learnlots every week and growspiritually. I am a youth leader there

too and my main role in-volves preparing and lead-ing a bible study.This is a great blessing

and joy.

How do youconnect with otheryoung Christianpeople?CMS has been working ex-

tensively with churches andtheir youth programs forthe past decade or so.Through this network, wehave run programs that fa-cilitate fellowship betweenchurches. A recent exampleis, we ran Against theGrain, a day workshop foryouth from churches allacross Melbourne. Theyplayed games, listened toteaching and generallybonded over food.We plan to run more of

these ‘networking’ events inthe future, with the aim ofconnecting and proving asupportive network forChristian youth across Vic-toria.

Why are you aChristian?PERSONALLY, I believe in

coming to the knowledge ofwho Jesus is, what he hasdone and what he promisesto do in the future and de-ciding to follow him as Lord,continuing to walk with himdaily. I am Christian because

God saved me, He chose toreveal Himself and to bearme (and the world’s sin);he made things right. Otherthan that, being Christianmakes very much sense inmany ways to me. Seeing the world as it is, a

sense of justice and astrong love for brothers andsisters; even enemies. Recently I have been try-

ing to ‘structure’ my wholelife around Jesus. Althoughthis is not an easy decision,it was the right one. Thismeans practically, thinkingabout him and planning mylife around him and givingup things that are a hin-drance to this.I study the Word of God,

often trying to think of cre-ative ways to bring and leadpeople into His Kingdom. Working with youth is my

passion; serving them bysetting a good example andteaching them how Jesuswants us to live. This is be-cause I myself had a longand windy road to where Iam today. The youth ministry that I

was part of played a hugepart of my formation as aChristian. It is such a cru-cial period and it can be agreat opportunity to groundpeople in the faith. Being a Christian will

make all the difference.This means I am not doingit for myself and that God isin control. Sometimes min-istry, especially withteenagers, can be toughand discouraging. Knowingit is really God doing thework through me and withthe support of such ablessed organisation likeCMS gives me great hopeand assurance.

CMS & youthANDREW Astley, of CMS,

writes more about the or-ganisation’s focus on youth:Young people can make a

unique contribution to en-riching global mission in ourchurches. They are oftenfearless in the face ofchange and have a passionand perspective that maybe unlearned in adulthood. However, they struggle

with identity, commitmentand with decision-makingand need guidance andpeer support. More impor-tantly, they need supportfrom those in the churchcommitted to the youthamong them. The question some people

ask is: “Why would youthwant to be a part of thechurch?”

What motivatesyoung people asChristians? YOUNG people come to

church or youth groups fora range of reasons, somefor the food and the fun andsome for their friends.Some youth may go tothese events just becausetheir ‘parents tell them to’or they had grown up in a‘Christian home’. Some maynot be Christian and arebought along by theirfriends.However, from my own

experience as a youthleader, what young peoplereally want and need is tohear the truth about Jesus.In fact, this is what reallyattracts and keeps youngpeople coming back in thelongterm. In one word it is ‘depth’;

deeper friendships with oneanother, trusting relation-ships with the leaders and acontinual building of theirrelationship with Jesus.The aim for youth groups

is to provide a safe, sup-portive and loving commu-nity of brothers and sisters.This is where youth canbest learn how to mix withpeople, have heaps of fun

and also serve one another. Perhaps now more so than

ever there are so many dis-tractions available foryouth. From online videogames, to social media, tosports and other extra cur-ricular activity. Of course,these things aren’t bad inthemselves; but it can beharder and harder to getyouth to commit. A lot of youth are involved

in activities outside ofchurch; it makes it hard tobuild genuine communityand trust as this takes timeand commitment. ‘Struggle with identity’ is

one of the greatest chal-lenges for most Christianyouth. Pressures withfriendship, relationshipsand sometimes lonelinessare all part of the ‘youth’years where they are ex-ploring their identities. Many youth may not

speak up as they gothrough this but if their re-lationships with their youthleader are good they willoften ask for help, guidanceand prayer for help duringtough situations.In actual fact, youth group

provides a strong friendshipnetwork for the rest of theirlives for young people.

Youth group anddiscipleshipIF discipleship is about

learning to follow Jesus,youth group is where youngpeople can best do this. Inyouth group you know you

are not alone. Support frompeers and from leadershelps create a safe and en-couraging environment fortheir Christian walks. It is aplace of learning, wherethey can study the bible ina group and be encouragedto ask questions. This forms habits for

young people to learn aboutthe bible and how it canapply to their lives. It canbe a place for them to clar-ify ideas with other mem-bers of the group and withthe leaders.

Why SUTS helps

SUTS is Summer underthe Son, a summer confer-ence geared toward gettingyouth on board with whatGod is doing throughout theworld. The conference is ledby mature, experiencedand Godly leaders andteachers. All who are pas-sionate about nurturing thespiritual lives of young peo-ple. At SUTS, we are allowing

youth to have the space toform natural relationships;there are a lot of social ac-tivities and we aim to cre-ate an environment whereeveryone can feel included. People who attend SUTS

enjoy the teaching and aredrawn closer to God; andare encouraged for anotheryear to be closer to JesusChrist.We recommend all young

people to come to SummerUnder The Son.

CMS connecting with youth

ABOVE: Young people at the CMS Summer under the Sonconference on Phillip Island, Victoria in January 2012.

At first you are, like: ‘Uh oh...don’t reallyknow anyone, this will be interesting!’ Butthe people here are very accepting and it’seasy to make new friends. It’s full of amaz-ing devotions, worship and small groups.You really grow more and mature your rela-tionship with God. So by the end it was: ‘Idon’t want to leave!’ So come along toSUTS,you won’t regret it.”- Response from SUTS 2012 attendees.



I AM Lydia Jacka and I amcurrently studying at uni-versity. In my parish, Ienjoy the friendly atmos-phere encouraging interac-tion between many diversepeople of many ages. Ihave friends who are Chris-tian and we hang out.I am a Christian for many

reasons. Two of the great-est (and the reasons I offerto other people) are these:First, the liberal arts (po-etry, history and painting;pretty much everythingarts-y), have no function ifwe had just evolved withoutany input from God. All theliberal arts do is cause aspending of money to helpencourage thinking and aid-ing others in need. Acording to evolution, it is

simply survival of thefittest; whereas liberal artsare about self expressionrather than just acting onneed. The second reason is be-

cause the world is so deli-cate, how can we live herewithout God watching overus? Simple things like ourlocking knee, the chancesof which occuring onlythrough evolution are slim;and there is a whole worldof creatures that haveequally amazing creatures.

I help run the children’safter school programs inTrafalgar and Yarragon,where we try to pass on ourunderstanding of our amaz-ing God to children. I do thechildren’s talk every sooften at church. Personally, though, to re-

mind me how awesome theworld and God is, I writeone thing every day that Ihave noticed to be particu-larly awesome, which helpschange my view point.I’m not really sure what I

want to do in the future butI imagine that being aChristian can make a differ-ence in anything if you letit.

MY name is David Perry-man, from the Parish of Ko-rumburra. I am anordination candidate for thediocese, studying at Mel-bourne College of Divinity,working part-time in Paken-ham as well as a placementin Korumburra. I love boththe parishes I have been in-volved with, Wonthaggi/In-verloch and Korumburra/Poowong. But, the things I enjoy

about the Korumburra/Poowong parish include: itswelcoming atmosphere,due to parishioners; itsgrowing range of diversityin worship (traditional andcontemporary); its growingrange of activities for youngand not so young people,as well as a good involve-ment with the communityoutside the church. My connections with other

Christian youth comes frommany different places: fromthe diocese, at the MCD, atmy work in Pakenham aswell as discussions withvarious others not men-tioned in these othergroups. Why am I a Christian? The

overwhelming power of thegospel and message ofChrist. For me, God isn’t abelief, it’s a fact (if I can putit so bluntly). I am a Chris-tian because I love, feeland know God. For me being a Christian is

a choice yes, but more thanthat, for me it is a necessityfor my own life. I am aChristian because of thepower of Christ’s messageand my need to follow himevery day. In my daily life, it be-

comes a part of each ac-tion: trying to think in eachsituation, ‘God where areyou leading me this time?’Each day trying to love ashe loved, with the samecompassion and embrace. These two are the big

ones that I try to keep inmy daily life, just lettingGod take the lead and seepeople through his eyes. With my future, basically,

I want to follow where Godleads. But what I would liketo do is to help the churchregrow and rebuild itselfwhere needs be. I want tobe a voice which challengesthe church on aspects thatneed changing; and to helpcreate a spirit of revival inthe church for all ages. Thatis where I see my future.

ABOVE: Lydia Jacka.

God is amazing

God leads me

Marinated in ChristBy Jon Taylor

SOME weeks ago, at Gippsland Gram-mar, our year 12 Chapel Captain, TimStokoe, asked if he could speak at a fu-ture capel service. The school holdsthree weekly chapel services, combiningtwo year levels at a time. Each servicehas approximately 200 students in at-tendance.Tim decided on the topic ‘Who was

Jesus?’ In his talk, he outlined the directand indirect historical evidence that ex-ists for Jesus, what Jesus had to say andthe logical conclusions that follow. Was he who claimed to be? That is, the

Lord, or was he deluded, or perhapseven just making it up? Tim’s analyses ofpossible conclusions were clear and wellthought out.Tim then spoke very earnestly about

who Jesus was for him and shared howhis mother had been critically ill beforehe was born and was beyond any knownmedical help. It was at this point the Christian com-

munities known to Tim’s parents prayedfor his mother and her health returned.As Tim put it, “I owe my very existenceto God”.The high point of the morning came

when Tim was looking for a way to ex-press the experience of growing up in theChurch and being surrounded by peopleof Christian influence and conviction.

A moment of inspiration came as hepaused and said: “It was like I was mar-inated in Christ!”It was a fun morning, containing some

good apologetics, inspiration and humor,all from a peer and leader from amongthe student community. Tim received anexcellent response from all the year lev-els with the strongest response comingfrom his own peers, the year 11 and 12students.A great result. Well done, Tim.

ABOVE: Reverend Jon Taylor, chaplain atGippsland Grammar, with Tim Stokoe,year 12 chapel captain at the school.

By Greg Magee

DURING the summer season, with thelarge influx of visitors to Phillip Island for awide variety of reasons, a number of Chris-tian organisations come along as well, tomake the most of youth ministry opportu-nities here.Bass/Phillip Island Parish cooperates with

these groups by making the parish centrein the heart of Cowes available for the ac-tivities and promotional events.‘Schoolies week’ sees the Red Frog group

and Student Life sending teams to makecontact with those letting their hair downat the end of their school lives. Services of-fered are pastoral and social as much asevangelistic. Red Frogs have been comingto the Island for several years, while Stu-dent Life made their first appearance herelast holiday season. Both groups aim at being a supportive

presence, making a practical Christian con-tribution to the post-exam festivities.Last year, Red Frogs was allowed to use

the hall kitchen for meal preparation andthe hall space for team meetings andprayer times. Similarly, Student Life wasgranted use of the facilities, although theiractivities were more outdoor focussed withbarbecues figuring prominently. The church grounds fronting on to the

main street of Cowes suited this approachadmirably. Both groups are expected back here

again this year, where the partnership willcontinue.After Christmas, we always welcome the

Theos Team who work from the parish hallfor their outreach to holidaying youth. Thisis predominantly a Coffee Shop ministryand drop-in centre. There have been several stories of par-

ents thanking team members and parish-

ioners for providing a service that keepstheir children safely entertained and caredfor. Our partnership with Scripture Union and

Theos is a long established one stretchingback to the days when John McIntyre ledthe early Theos programs here.Parishioners and folk from other denomi-

nations are encouraged to make them-selves known and to give whateverpractical support they can (home cookedcontributions to team sustenance,etcetera). Each summer, we feel privilegedto be able to provide a workable locationand personal backing for these ministries. Reverend Greg Magee is priest-in-charge

of Cowes Phillip Island parish.

ABOVE: Young people caring for otheryoung people; the Red Frog team minis-tering to youth during ‘schoolies week’,outside Cowes’ parish centre.

Youth minister to youth



By Jane Macqueen

I WORK as a school chap-lain in a mainstream pri-mary school and a specialdevelopmental school(grade prep to year 12).My ministry is very differ-

ent in the two settings butthe common feature is thatI walk alongside studentsand families through thetough times in life. In themainstream school, I seeindividual students all dayin a one on one situation. I listen to their stories and

provide a safe and confi-dential place for them tobe. Students are referredby their teachers, by par-ents and through self-refer-ral. In the special school, I

spend time with each of thestudents in their classesbuilding up relationships. Iassist families navigatethrough the world of dis-ability services and I amthere as a companion andadvocate when times aretough. I also run parent ‘cuppa’

mornings and family days,all focusssed on building re-lationships and valuingeach individual student,parent and family.The parable of the Good

Samaritan is one thatspeaks into my ministry inchaplaincy.Jesus tells this parable in

response to the question:‘What must I do to inheriteternal life?’The initial answer is love

the Lord your God with allyour heart, soul, strengthand mind and love yourneighbour as yourself.In my role as chaplain I

believe that undergirding allI do, say and bring to theschools is my own deep andpersonal relationship withGod. What does God ask ofme? To love him with all ofmy being. So time spent in silence,

prayer and meditation isthe basis for my day and forall the conversations I havewith children, parents andstaff. I find this vital inkeeping my balance andcentre. My role is not to fix or do.

It is to be. To be with thechildren, families and staff.To be God’s loving presenceand this, for me, can onlyflow from the continualbreathing out of love forGod with all my being andbreathing in his love for me.But then the lawyer asks:

‘Who is my neighbor?’ andthere follows the story ofthe good Samaritan.In my chaplaincy ministry

I find many of the childrenand families I spend time

with are rather like the manwho was attacked by rob-bers. They are vulnerable.They may have made poorchoices. They have beendealt with cruelly by theworld. They feel alone andhelpless.As they attempt to walk

through each day and to fitinto the world, their scarsand woundings are some-times ugly and scary, caus-ing people to give them awide berth. Sometimestheir pain shows in behav-iors that push others away.Sometimes they just layquietly, broken, hoping noone will notice them andyet needing help.As a result of these and

many other complex issues,often the children and fam-ilies feel as if they are out-siders. Other children,other parents, may pass byon the other side of theroad; for many complexreasons. They do not feeladequate to help. They feeluncomfortable or embar-rassed and they do notknow what to say. They aretoo busy with their ownlives. They are fearful ofbecoming involved. Or inmany cases they just donot notice.When I reflect on the good

Samaritan, I see someonewho is an outsider them-selves. For a variety of rea-sons, I find myself nowfeeling a bit of an outsiderin the church. Having beenvery ‘in’ the church all mylife it is a difficult but notbad place to be, living onthe edge of the church. Stillworshipping, but being onthe edge.In my role as chaplain I

feel I am called to ministerto those who are on theoutside of our churches andmy own experiences offeeling an outsider givesme empathy with those Iminister to.So what does the good

Samaritan do for the manbeaten by robbers?He interrupts his day. He

stops what he is doing andnotices someone in need.He is present to the personand deals tenderly withtheir brokenness. Then heproceeds to walk alongsidethe person for the next partof their journey. He takes him to a place of

refreshment where he asksothers to care for him buthe remains in the back-ground to be called on asneeded.In my chaplaincy my days

are flexible. Often I need toreschedule appointments,as a child with immediateneeds comes to me.As I sit with them, I trust

I, too, deal tenderly withtheir brokenness. I givethem my time in a confi-dential space where theyare able to slowly tell me oftheir pain.I then enter into a journey

with them as we meet reg-ularly; not for me to ‘fix’their problems but to walkalongside them. I am notafraid of people’s pain; so Ihope I am able to sit withthem in their pain or confu-sion and perhaps assist inthe clarifying of where theyare. There are many times

when I do walk closelyalongside a student or fam-ily, as the Samaritanwalked alongside the manwhom he had placed on hisdonkey. Other times I needto refer them to profes-sional help, leave them atthe inn. But there is alwaysa touching base again tosee how the journey isgoing.The person left naked and

bleeding had been robbedof their worth and dignity.In many cases, the youngpeople and families whosee me are also doubtingtheir self worth. By valuing them and their

stories I trust they are ableto regain something of theirpersonal dignity and selfworth. One of the reasons I be-

lieve the story of the GoodSamaritan reflects my min-istry in chaplaincy, is thatwe do not hear the Samar-itan saying much. What wesee is him showing God’slove to his neighbor.There are many other in-

stances where Jesus metwith others on the outside,like the Samaritan womanat the well. In this case hebrings her to a greater un-derstanding of God. In theparable of the good Samar-itan, I see the Samaritan‘being’ Christ withoutwords.

In my experience of chap-laincy in the primary schoolsetting, I am not oftenasked to explain the thingsof God. I am asked to loveGod and love my neighbor.Without words.

Jane reflects onbeing a chaplain

ABOVE: Young men at the Church Missionary Society’sSummer under the Sun conference, held on Phillip Islandin January each year.

Lisa an educatorin youth ministryLISA Brown (right) is the

coordinator of the Centrefor Youth and Children’sMinistry at Ridley College,in Melbourne.

The Centre for Youth andChildren’s Ministry (CYCM)at Ridley Melbourne offers arange of training for peopleinvolved in youth and chil-dren’s ministry. CYCM tar-gets those training forordained ministry, thosecurrently working as, ortraining to be, school chap-lains or parish-based youthor children’s ministers andthe many volunteer leaderswho serve in youth andchildren’s ministry. The main focus on the

Centre is offering under-graduate and postgraduatesubjects in the areas ofchaplaincy, youth and chil-dren’s ministry. Ridley Mel-bourne currently offers sixsubjects across these disci-plines and option for a re-search-based project ineach field. Apart from these subjects,

CYCM offers an annualyouth leadership trainingconference (RYTE Confer-ence) at the beginning ofeach year (February 1 to 3

in 2013). It also organisesa bi-annual Theology ofYouth Ministry Conference,an annual Peter CorneyLecture in Youth Ministryand an annual training dayfor those involved in chil-dren’s and families min-istry. Ridley is also preparing or-

dination candidates for in-volvement in theseministries by offering a 12-week course as an intro-duction to youth andchildren’s ministry. This ispart of the Anglican Insti-tute Certificate which is es-sential for every candidateto complete.

ABOVE: Youth in Sale parish enjoyed a recent karaoke anddress up night, with some attending as super heroes.




BRODIE Panlock was a 19year old waitress who trag-ically ended her life afterbeing subjected to ‘persis-tent and vicious’ workplacebullying at Café Vamp inHawthorn, Victoria. A coro-nial inquest and chargesagainst the four perpetra-tors under the OccupationalHealth and Safety Act 2004(Vic) followed. Outside thecourt, Brodie’s family de-manded the law bechanged to include a custo-dial sentence.The Victorian government

moved to introduce thenecessary Crimes Amend-ment (Bullying) Bill 2011(Vic). The Bill has beennicknamed ‘Brodie’s Law’,and according to Attorney-General Robert Clark it pro-poses to: “send the strongsignal to would-be offend-ers that the governmentwill not tolerate bullying be-havior”.The new laws will add seri-

ous workplace and cyberbullying to Crimes Act pro-visions already governingstalking. Children who useFacebook to threaten or ha-rass could be caught up inthe change, although under10-year-olds cannot bebrought to a criminal court.Bullying behavior that is

part of a course of conductand could reasonably beexpected to cause physicalor mental harm to the vic-tim, including self-harm,will be treated as stalking.Cyber bullying will be cov-

ered by the new law if it is

part of a pattern of conductlikely to cause physical ormental harm, or fear of it.Instead of introducing a

new crime against work-place bullying, Brodie’s Lawexpands the existing of-fence of stalking unders21A of the Crimes Act1958 (Vic), carrying a max-imum jail term of 10 years.The amendment tos21(2)(g) states stalkingincludes ‘acting in any otherway that could reasonablybe expected to cause phys-ical, mental or self harm’. In May 2011, politicians

passed the Crimes Amend-ment (Bullying) Bill 2011,with Brodie’s parents,Damian and Rae, present.Readers seeking support

and information about sui-cide prevention can contactwww.beyondblue.org.au orwww.youthbeyondblue.comor call 1300 22 4636, Sui-

cide Helpline Victoria on1300 651251, Lifeline on131114 or SANE Helplineon 1800 187263.Headspace provides infor-

mation, services and sup-ports for young people aged12 to 25 years; visitwww.headspace.org.au/headspace-centres for yournearest headspace centre. Kids helpline: If you need

to speak to a counsellor, call1800 55 1800, 24 hours aday, 7 days a week or visitour website www.kid-shelp.com.auFor workplace bullying,

contact worksafe at work-safe.vic.gov.au/bullying oron 1800 136 089 (9am-5pm Monday to Friday).Sources: http://blacklet-

ter.com.au/2011/04/27/brodies-law/ Sydney MorningHerald, www.smh.com.auHerald Sun, www.herald-sun.com.au

ABOVE: Teenagers in the Sale parish youth groupmeet an activity challenge.


ABOVE: Young adults in the Sale parish youth group during an activity.Photo: Christine Morris

Brodie’s legacy willprotect from bullies

By Andrew Buerger

AS most youth group lead-ers would know, trying tothink of new, interestinggames each week can be achallenge. However, a newiPhone application (app)has done a lot of the hardwork for you.Group Games was de-

signed and created by Cal-lum Henderson, from StStephen’s Normanhurst(NSW), to assist youthgroup leaders and schoolteachers alike.“While I was leading

games at a youth group,someone once asked mewhere I got all my gamesfrom, so I started thinkingabout ways to share them,”Callum said.“I started a blog, updating

it regularly with games.Then I thought of puttingthem into a book, but Ithought an app would bemuch more user-friendly.”The app currently includes

111 games users can eitherbrowse through or quicklyfind using the search func-tion. By selecting the groupsize, as well as the desired

duration, the app will filterthe games, only listing onesthat fit the criteria.Information for each game

includes the rules and a listof required resources, aswell as an expected dura-tion and the amount ofprior preparation involved.Group Games provides

youth leaders with a greatresource to complementtheir Bible teaching.“Games can often be used

to illustrate a point, to helpyouth people better under-stand the message and linkinto the main teachingpoint,” Callum said.“I wanted to help youth

group leaders and teachers.When you have those 20minutes to fill and you haveno idea what to do, this appcan help.“A lot of the games are

classic youth group gamesbut there are quite a few inthere that I made up my-self. I also had help frommy wife and some friendsto edit all the text of theapp.”Article first published in

Southern cross, September2012.

Games app alocal product

ABOVE: Damian and Rae Panlock with a photograph oftheir daughter, Brodie. Source: Herald Sun



By Mary Nicholls

IN A nutshell, Kidsplus+aims to encourage or sup-port parishes in their min-istry to girls, boys, youthand their families, whateverthe program style or modelsuch parishes deem best tomeet the needs of theirlocal communities. Individ-uals, parishes or districtshave the opportunity tosupport, care, co-operate,share and vision together,as we all seek to bringyoung people and theirfamilies into the life of thechurch and learn aboutChrist.In Gippsland, open Net-

work meetings are heldthree to four times a year,where we have the oppor-tunity to share ideas,recognise needs where wemight assist each otherand, most particularly, af-firm and support one an-other in an ever-changingministry. The strength ofthe network as a body re-lies on good communicationand representation of aswide a diocesan forum as ispossible. In Gippsland, a number of

parishes have affiliated withGFS Kidsplus+ to benefitfrom and contribute to thenetwork and Kidsplus+supports ministry in mainlymusic, playgroup, after-school programs, JAFFASgroups, youth drop-in cen-tres, Sunday schools andyoung adult groups. The network hosts annual

diocesan camps for pri-mary, secondary and com-bined aged groups; mostrecent at Phillip Island inMarch this year, with the2013 Camp booked for May3 to 5 at Coonawarra FarmResort, Stratford. The net-work organises special ac-tivity days, targettingvarying age groups and lo-cations across the diocese;including the Traffic SchoolPre-Schooler’s Days thisyear, the annual family pic-nics at Cowwaar Weir, LakeNarracan and DelhuntiePark; Themed Activity Daysheld in a variety of parishesincluding music, craft,games, worship; and The-atre Sports , Cafe or Pizzanights for Youth. The network also organ-

ises Leadership TrainingWorkshops on diocesan andparish levels, with develop-mental leadership trainingfor junior leaders andhelpers. These have provento be an asset in sustainingleadership teams and en-couraging the nurture ofupcoming leaders. The Na-tional Leadership TrainingGuidelines through GFSAustralia have proven theirrelevance and certainly

stress the requirements,expectations and responsi-bilities associated with min-istry to children and youngpeople.Kidsplus+ has resources

we are only too happy toshare. As a Gippslanddiocesan organisation ,wehave been pleased to re-ceive substantial fundingover the years throughwhich our resources aremaintained and updated .Currently, affiliated ormember parishes have freeaccess to these resources;other individuals, groupsand parishes assist with theupkeep through a small hirefee.The Kidsplus+ network ac-

tivity trailer includes a bar-becue; giant gamesincluding an earth ball,parachutes, mega 4, giantsnakes and ladders gameand giant twister game;general games equipmentincluding stilts and landskiis; a jumping castle; setsof safety jackets and watershoes; a DVD and data pro-jector and screen; portablemicrophone equipment;program materials andstarter programs for newgroups; resource books,craft, devotions, games,DVDs and videos; and a se-lection of GFS Christmasmusic scores (scripts andCD).Kidsplus+ established its

ministry in Gippsland, asthe former The GirlsFriendly Society, at Maffrain 1886; four years after itsestablishment in Mel-bourne, Ballarat and

Bendigo and only 10 yearssince it was brought toSouth Australia by LadyJervois, the wife of the thenSA Governor. Lady Jervoisexperienced the ministry inEngland, where founder,Mary Elizabeth Townsend,sought to minister to theisolated London workinggirls who were dislocatedfrom their country familyroots in a bid for employ-ment in the Industrial Rev-olution. While the program’s then

needs, culture and expecta-tions was different, theministry of care, Christianfellowship, friendship andnurture was the same. Thiswas before establishmentof the scouting and guidingmovement; the church wasat the forefront of tackling,face on, the needs andchallenges of the time.In 2016, Gippsland will

celebrate 130 years of GFSMinistry, reminiscing itschanging face within churchcommunities and, in recentdecades, its considerableinfluence through outreachto the un-churched as well.The great Commission still

stands (Matthew 28) andKidsplus+ GFS and otherchildren’s and youth min-istries maintain their re-sponsibility to supportingbelievers, young and old, inusing their gifts to “go intothe world making disciples”.

ABOVE: Teenagers use theearth ball and parachute ata Kidsplus+ diocesan youthcamp.

Photo: Mary Nicholls

VICTORIA’s Attorney General, Robert Clark, hascalled on Victorians to take a stand against bully-ing. He launched a campaign Take a stand againstbullying and distributed information about bullyingand Brodie’s Law to more than 8000 schools, work-places and police stations across Victoria.The campaign is being undertaken by the Depart-

ment of Justice in conjunction with the VictorianEmployers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry(VECCI), Victoria Police and Lifeline.Speaking at Lifeline headquarters in Melbourne, Mr

Clark said the campaign was about reminding peo-ple of the devastating consequences bullying canhave and that help and support were available toassist anyone experiencing serious bullying.“Everyone is entitled to be safe in our community

and no one should be forced to suffer from bully-ing,” he said.“Authorities rely on information from the commu-

nity to stamp out bullying, so if you or someone youknow is being bullied, report it.“All bullying is unacceptable and serious bullying

is a serious crime.”Brodie’s Law made serious bullying a criminal of-

fence punishable by up to 10 years in jail and be-came law in Victoria in June last year.“Having Brodie’s Law in place is about sending a

strong message that threatening, bullying behavior,in the workplace or elsewhere, will not be toler-ated,” Mr Clark said.Bullying can be committed by people of different

ages, in a variety of ways and in a variety of situa-tions including workplaces, schools, sports clubs,shopping centres and increasingly, via the internet.Brodie Panlock was systematically bullied at her

workplace in Melbourne before taking her own life.Her co-workers were found accountable and finedunder Occupational Health and Safety regulations.Since then, Victorian law has changed.Brodie Panlock’s parents, Damien and Rae, said

they were proud to support this campaign and allefforts to combat the scourge of bullying.“Having experienced the devastation that results

from merciless bullying, we are passionate aboutstamping out bullying,” Mr and Mrs Panlock said.“We don’t want any family to endure what we have

been through which is why we are committed to allefforts to raise awareness about the very seriousnature of bullying and its consequences.“It is our hope that the thousands of posters and

pamphlets to be distributed through this campaignwill inspire anyone who is a victim of bullying or haswitnessed bullying behavior, to report it.”Evelyn Field, a psychologist with extensive experi-

ence in dealing with school and workplace bullying,said the campaign was the beginning in developingcommunity awareness about creating bully freeschools and workplaces.“I look forward to seeing more progress being

made in this area,” Ms Field said.VECCI chief executive, Mark Stone, said bullying

should not be condoned in any workplace.“We encourage employers to embrace the Take a

stand against bullying campaign to ensure a posi-tive environment is maintained in workplaces at alltimes.”See also, article on Brodie Panlock and the new law

on page 15 of this issue of The Gippsland Anglican.

Victoriansasked tostand firmagainstbullying

Youth ministry beyond130 years in Gippsland

October 2012 Our Diocese - Missions and Ministries 17


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Diocesan Calendar2012

International Year of People of African Descent, Na-tional Year of the Farmer, National Year of Reading

October6 Open garden for Morwell parish mission to St

Margaret’s Hospital, New Guinea; 60 Cooloongatta Drive, Tyers; 1pm to 5pm; Cost $10 per person, children free.

7 Feast day of St Francis of Assisi9 Family Forum, with Dr Michael Carr-Gregg,

sponsored by Gippsland Mothers’ Union; The Five Most Pressing Concerns for Parents in 2012; 7.30pm; St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School Traralgon campus; telephone 03 5134 1356 or 03 5156 1949

12-14 Workshops on Earth and Art, led by Dr Pene Brook; Abbey of St Barnabas, A’Beckett Park; telephone 03 5156 6580

13 Anam Cara Community contemplative encounter, Windows into Judaism; Trafalgar South, 10am; telephone 03 5634 7616

14 Farewell service, Reverend Abraham Maluk; Moe parish.

15 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, St Peter’s Mallacoota; 10am

15 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, Cann River Community Centre; 1.30pm

15–18 Annual clergy retreat; Pallotti College16 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, Orbost

Uniting Church, 1.30pm17 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, Lake Tyers

Trust, 2pm17 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, St John’s

Metung, 6pm18 CWCI safari with Ro Verspaandonk, Bruthen

Elderly Citizen’s Centre; 10am20 Battle of Trafalgar festival activities, using

Kidsplus+ trailer.27-29 Women’s and Men’s Lay Retreat; Palotti

College. Leader, Bishop Michael Hough. Contact Gwyneth Jones, Moe; telephone 0421 501024, email [email protected]

28 Annual meeting GFS Kidsplus+ Network; 1.30pm; St James’ Traralgon.

28 30th anniversary, St Stephen’s Traralgon South; 2pm; service and afternoon tea; RSVP by 12/10, Mardi, 03 5195 5223 or [email protected]

29 LifeFM radio 9th birthday and annual general meeting; St Michael’s Hall, Traralgon; 7.30pm; RSVP 03 5143 0355 or email [email protected]

November1 Intentional Pastoral Practice; Bishopscourt,

Sale; 8.45am. Contact Archdeacon Heather Marten or Registry, 03 5144 2044

2-3 Growth in Ministry Intensive; Bishopscourt, Sale; 8am to 5pm. Contact Archdeacon Heather Marten, telephone 03 5144 2044

9-11 Workshops on Water and Dance, led by Archdeacon Susanna Pain; Abbey of St Barnabas, A’Beckett Park; telephone 03 5156 6580

10 Quiet Day with Mothers’ Union and Bishop John McIntyre; at Bishopscourt; 10.30am to 2.30pm, BYO lunch. Contact Karin McKenzie, telephone 03 5662 2148

10 Thanksgiving service, GFS Kidsplus+ Network; 11am; Moe; followed by lunch at Gippsland Heritage Park.

11 Defence Sunday11 Remembrance Day11 Kidsplus+ annual thanksgiving service and

lunch, Gippsland Heritage Park, Moe; 11am; lunch $25.

18 Diocesan Kidsplus+ Network family picnic at Morwell Traffic School; 3.30pm to 5.30pm; with free sausage sizzle.

18-25 Vocational Panel Interviews22-24 Education for Ministry training, St Paul’s

Cathedral Sale. Contact Dean Dr Don Saines, telephone 03 5144 2020

24 Clergy and their families’ end of year lunch, Bishopscourt, Sale; 11.30am to 4pm

27 Mothers’ Union Gippsland executive meeting, Morwell; 9.30am to 12noon; followed by lunch. Karin McKenzie, 03 5662 2148

Ministry importantin emergency reliefREVEREND Geoff Pittaway,

Rector of Mirboo North, isthe new Area Dean forSouth Gippsland and, in hisspare time, he is the re-gional coordinator for theVCCEM (Victorian Council ofChurches Emergencies Min-istry). On Tuesday, August14, Geoff (right) was guestspeaker at the Bass PhillipIsland parish’s regularmen’s fellowship dinner.Started in 1977, there are

now more than 1500 volun-teers trained to respond todisasters in Victoria. Thisministry sits alongside andcomplements other emer-gency services like CFA,Red Cross, Salvation Armyand Victoria Police. In times of emergency,

their brief is to provide per-sonal support and psycho-logical first aid; provideCommunity Chaplains forearly psychiatric first aid;co-ordinate a multi-faith re-sponse to emergencies; co-ordinate the EmergencyChaplains Victoria network;provide outreach activitieswith trained workers; co-ordinate State services ofworship and memorials;and provide an advisoryand training resource forfaith based organisations.Following the most recent

bush fires in Gippsland, inJanuary and February2009, the need for theseservices was recognised bymany other emergencyservices. In particular, thelong term effects of disastersurvival was emphasised.

Such trauma has beenseen months and evenyears after the event.

Contributors: Les Ridgeand J Dawson

Care in Crisis“WHEN there is a disaster

like a bushfire or flood,people are under enormousstress and are often trau-matised,” said Stuart Stu-art, State Manager forVCCEM.“Having people who are

appropriately trained tosupport individuals andcommunities experiencingan emergency or disaster isvital to building communityresilience. The faith com-munity has historically pro-vided support in disasters,however this has oftenbeen uncoordinated, ad hocand lacked integration intothe broader emergencymanagement systems. “The Victorian Council of

Churches through theEmergencies Ministry (VCCEM) program providestraining, authorisation andcoordination of faith com-munity volunteers. The VCCEM is contracted by theHuman Services Depart-ment, to provide psycho-logical first aid, emotionaland spiritual care and out-reach services.“Most recently, in March,

2012, the VCC EM programwas asked to support theMoira Shire in their re-sponse to the flood crisis.

VCC EM volunteers spentmore than five months inrelief and recovery centresand door knocking farmsacross the shire. More than130 individual volunteersassisted the campaign,”said Mr Stuart.“If affected people speak

little or no English, or Aus-tralia is a new country, orthey have come here asrefugees, the stress goesup another level,” said Mar-tin West, Multifaith ProjectOfficer.In 2012, VCC Emergencies

Ministry has been building amulticultural and multifaithcapacity.“Victoria is the most cul-

turally and religiously di-verse state in Australia. Toserve the people of Victoria,our volunteers need to re-flect this diversity,” said MrWest.If you are interested in be-

coming accredited to volun-teer in emergencies, go towww.vccem.org.au/train-ing/ or telephone 96504511.

18 Our Diocese - Perspective October 2012


By Charisse Whitehead

IN the span of a few shortyears, smartphones havebecome a digital extensionof our lives. A recent studyreveals making calls hasdropped to be the fifthmost-used function on ourphones; behind web surf-ing, Facebook, gaming andmusic.In order to reclaim the

idyllic nostalgia of 2009, ananonymous 20-somethingfriend decided she wouldset out to spend 24 hourswithout her smartphone.This is her story:6.30am: I wake to a for-

eign buzzing sound, remi-niscent of a garbage truckreversing. It takes me aminute to realise this is myalarm clock, that redundantelectronic good I dusted offfrom the cupboard lastnight. How quaint. No opti-mum sleep cycle appmeans I clearly feel less re-freshed.7.03am: Make stellar

omelette for breakfast.Want to share my prowessin the kitchen with the en-tire world and automaticallygo to Instagram my culi-nary creation. But, alas, Icannot. My eye twitches,ever so slightly.7.05am: No Facebook. I

have no idea what haschanged in any of myfriends’ lives while I wasasleep. What if someonegot engaged? What ifsomeone shared a ridicu-lously funny dancing catvideo? I could start up mylaptop, but no. I will bestrong. If big news happenssomeone will call me … onmy landline … with thenumber I never give out …It’s okay, I’m listed. Aren’tI? Does anyone even havethe White Pages books any-more? I sip my juice and ig-nore the second eye twitch.7.18am: I will distract my-

self with thoughts of work.Trying to remember whatmeetings I have scheduledfor today, but I cannotcheck my calendar. It’s al-right, I tell myself, some-where I have a diary;leather bound and all, tomake my life look full andsatisfying. Actually whatam I saying? I haven’t

bought a paper diary since2009. I must start my dayhaving absolutely no ideawhat’s ahead. Or who gotengaged.7.41am: About to leave

for work, the clouds arelooking a bit on the omi-nous side. I’ll just checkGoogle Weather … No, no, Iwill wait for the radio to tellme the forecast. Just likethe old days.7.53am: I resign myself to

the fact the radio show willnot tell me the weatheruntil the 8am news bulletin.But at least I now knowwho the blond one fromOne Direction is dating. Ihedge my bets and grab anumbrella and sunscreen onmy way out.8.02am: I had forgotten

how entertaining publictransport can be. Watchingeveryone else play FruitNinja … My eye is twitchingin rhythm to the amazingthrash metal the guy nextto me is listening to.8.28am: I am quite enjoy-

ing queuing for my coffee atthe café. No, really, youdon’t get to hang aroundreading last winter’s Voguewhen you use the pre-orderapp. Oh good, I’m at thefront. Hang on, no I don’thave any coins and theywon’t take eftpos for lessthan $10. Okay, well I reallydid want to buy that crois-sant as well; and the ba-nana bread.10.18am: It hits me. This

is day three since I met thatguy. Day three is when youget the follow-up hello text.Everyone knows that, it’sthe rules, isn’t it? What ifhe texts then thinks I’m ig-noring him? You can’t replyon day four, that just con-fuses the whole thing.OMG, what if he was THEONE? Deep breaths …10.19am: I can’t group

text the girls to tell themmy dilemma to crowdsource advice. Eye is reallyitchy now. Never mind, Ihave banana bread. Actu-ally, no, I ate it already.12.10pm: While eating

lunch, to cheer myself upfrom having now lost allchances with The One, Ifeel the overwhelming needto buy a frivolous purplesnakeskin belt on eBay. No

access to mobile shoppingmeans I instead must talkverbally to people or pre-tend to read the newspa-per; which news is alreadyold. But I have successfullyreached the halfway mark.2.17pm: I don’t know

which Big Brother house-mate is trending the moston Twitter. The suspense isgnawing away at me. Plus Istill don’t know if anyonegot engaged in the last dayor went from being single to‘it’s complicated’. Eye dou-ble twitches.3.20pm: While figuring

out how to use our coffeemachine at work (I don’twant to fall into the trap ofbuying more banana bread)I hear everyone talking an-imatedly about the newYouTube video of a monkeydoing handstands whileplaying the piano. How willI make it through the daywithout seeing this?5.07pm: I’d like to see

that new Gosling movielater tonight. Opening weekthough, it will likely sell out;if only I could book aheadon my cinema app. Orcheck session times … Idash back to that newspa-per. Do they still printmovie schedules? Yes. Iscrounge in my handbag forpaper to note them down,but come up empty. Whocarries paper these days, Iask you? I find a markerpen and in desperation Iwrite the times on my fore-arm.6.20pm: I am meeting my

cousin for dinner, butthanks to the movie time fi-asco I’m running late. Ican’t text and her numberis stored in my contacts list.How did we ever solve thisdilemma before mobiles?Or were people just peren-nially on time? Ha, crazyconcept. I decide to justrun; a bit of cardio beforecarbs.6.21pm: My sense of di-

rection is non-existent,that’s why I always use themap function. I resort tofinding the restaurant by in-stinct. Plus, I am clearlygoing to have to get thiseye seen to.7.09pm: Service at dinner

is appalling. If only I had ameans of telling the wholecity this with a hashtag and120 characters.7.55pm: I discovered we

have to pay full price forour meals, when we couldhave used the daily dealcoupon. I cannot rememberthe last time I paid full price

for anything. Gutted.8.03pm: Time for a quick

drink at the swanky newbar downtown. Although if Idon’t check in on Facebook,how will anyone ever knowI was here having an amaz-ing time? You know thesaying, if a tree falls in aforest and no one statusupdates about it, did it everreally happen?8.15pm: Wait, isn’t that

one of the River Boys overthere? Photo opp, wait till Ishow the girls at work. Ididn’t pack a camera … be-cause I don’t own one.River Boy sees me walkpast and looks at me oddly;could it be because I havemovie times on my arm?9.00pm: Movie is sold out

because we could not bookahead. No idea where myfriends are tonight due tomy social media blackout. Itake solace with jumbopopcorn.9.07pm: Cousin tries to

entertain me by drawing astoryboard version of themonkey doing handstandswhile playing piano video.Somehow, it is not quite thesame as seeing it.10.32pm: At home watch-

ing reality television, realis-ing just how bad it really iswhen you can’t interactwith other viewers to com-ment on how bad it reallyis. Have resorted to tapingeyelid down to stop it per-manently twitching.12.00am: AT LAST! I free

my smartphone from itscaptivity and gleefullyswitch it on. I have fivemissed texts (none fromThe One; it’s okay though,I’ve moved on), 12 Face-book alerts and three newfollowers on Twitter. Re-markably, eye is also muchbetter now.1.23am: Time to sleep,

having fully caught up withmy digital life; and watchedthe monkey video no lessthan four times.After her electronic exile

was over, I asked myfriend: “What top threethings did you learn fromthis experience?”

Her reply was: “Techni-cally, it is possible to livewithout a smartphone. Butit’s also technically possibleto live without chocolateand, frankly, why would youwant to? Secondly, nobodyI know actually got en-gaged in the last 24 hours.Third, I learned marker penink is really hard to wash offyour arm.”

Source: www.iinet.net.au

Can you live without a smartphone?By Graeme Winterton, Heathmont

I WAS breaking ground fora new garden on the west-ern slope of a valley on theoutskirts of Drouin in Gipp-sland. The town’s recre-ation ground is set oppositeupon a tightly wooded hill.It was near the end of Au-gust and I was up afterdaybreak to take advan-tage of a promised fine day.Sound carries in the still

clear morning air and Iheard them distinctly froma distance; the faint, un-mistakable call of cacatugalerita, the Australian Sul-phur Crested Cockatoo. I turned toward their

sound, and yes, there theywere, a fine cockatoo pairjust clearing the eastern hillbehind me; an inspiringsight, set against the deli-cate pink and grey of awashed blue sky and theirbrilliant white wings tingedwith the gold of the morn-ing sun. They beat rhythmi-cally and slowly southwesttoward town, issuing a lowpitched long call, quite dif-ferent from the raucousscreech commonly associ-ated with them. I stopped to watch, not

only because of the inspir-ing beauty of the momentbut because something wasgoing on and I could notmake sense of the behav-ior. A second pair was behav-

ing in exactly the samemanner and issuing thesame call but tracking aslightly divergent course,heading south-southwest. As the first pair passed

over the creek and rose to-ward town, I heard a seriesof very loud raucous highpitched screeches to myright and turning towardthe opposite hill, wheretree tops were stirringwildly, I saw one singlecocky rise hurriedly in avertical take-off, reminis-cent of an aircraft carriercatapault launch and hurtletoward the town to join mymajestic pair.It was not the end of it, for

the rapid calls of greetingbetween the reunited threealerted the second search-ing pair which flew swiftlyto join the party. I watchedthe five cockatoos turn eastto re-join the flock. Thecalls changed too, theywere more rapid, excited,as if the group was shout-ing: “It’s all right, he’shere, and we found him”. Reflecting on the wonder

and privilege of the obser-vation, my mind turns tothree very familiar stories;a lost lamb, a lost coin anda lost son. I have no doubtthe master storytellerwould add a fourth, thestory of the lost cockatoo.It speaks so eloquently oflove, community, commit-ted action and celebration.

Alone

October 2012 Our Diocese - Perspective 19


By Kevin Giles

NEEDY, controlling men inchurch can wrongly believetheir behavior has clear bib-lical support if preachersare not careful.One night, the doorbell

rang at about 10pm. At thefront door I found a veryagitated regular church at-tender who I knew well,‘Pam’. She said: “I know it’s late

but can I come in? I havebeen sitting in my car for anhour trying to get thecourage to come to yourdoor and ring the bell.” I asked her in and after we

got her a cup of tea sheblurted out to Lynley andme: “I don’t know what todo. ‘John’ treats me like achild. He always has tohave his own way. In hiseyes. I can do nothingright, I am too fat, I am apoor mother, I waste themoney he earns and I con-stantly provoke him toanger. “He says if I were truly a

Christian I would obey himand give him the respect hedeserves. The tension inthe home is just too muchto bear.”I was stunned. Was she

talking about the John Iknew? Who came to churchalmost every Sunday, waspolite and friendly, alwayswanted to please and waswell known as a business-man. I had never suspectedJohn and Pam were any-thing but a happy couple. She went on: “I am really

frightened of what he willdo one day. Tonight he re-ally lost it. He was pokingme with his finger with hisface close up against minein a threatening pose and ina loud voice he kept on andon at me. The children werecrying and I was crying. Itwas awful.”We listened as she talked

on and this unburdeninghelped her calm down. Iasked her had she everthought of leaving John. She said: “Yes, but I will

never do that. I have tomake it work for me andthe children. I do not be-lieve in divorce. John’s nota bad man. In fact, whenhe is not angry he can bevery loving and attentive.He just always wants hisown way and he gets this atany cost.”Lynley asked her: “Have

you considered going to aprofessional counsellor tohelp you understand yoursituation better?” She said: “No.”Lynley did not suggest

marriage counselling be-cause when violence ispresent in a relationship theworst thing to suggest iscouple counselling; becausethis all too often makes thesituation worse. The manwill seek to charm thecounsellor and get him or

her on his side and turneverything around his wifesays to make her seem theone at fault. Lynley then asked: “Would

John go on his own if youencouraged him?” She said: “No way.”I wish I could tell you of a

happy ending. John andPam are still together in apainful and convoluted rela-tionship. The children haveall left home, each dam-aged in some way. They stillgo to church each Sunday.Regrettably, this story

could be repeated a thou-sand times. The abuse ofwomen in the home is notdecreasing but increasing.One in three women be-tween the age of 15 and 45years will experience someform of violence in theirhome, with females be-tween 18 and 24 years atthe most risk.Yes, you read it right; in

one third of marriagesabuse has or will occur.Nicole Brady, writing in TheAge (2012) says family vio-lence in Victoria is at arecord high. In the pastyear, police have attended40,892 family violence inci-dents. Chief Commissioner, Ken

Lay, said: “It is the mostsignificant communitysafety issue. We see familyviolence from across thevery rich to the poor, fromthe northern suburbs to thesouthern suburbs.”Family violence takes

many forms: physicalabuse, including slapping,pushing, kicking, pinching,choking, throwing things,punching; emotional andverbal abuse, with sharppersonal criticism, abusivelanguage, threats, sulking,the silent treatment; sexualabuse, including demandingwhat one wants; socialabuse, such as preventingthe seeing of family andfriends and constantlychecking on whereabouts;financial abuse, like thecontrol of how money isspent and what on, limitingor forbidding personal ex-penses and the taking ofmoney earned; and spiri-tual abuse, where the per-petrator uses biblical textsto justify control and tocompel the abused personto ask for forgiveness, for-bidding church attendanceor prescribing what churchor faith community will befrequented. Verbal abuse is always in-

volved and this can be themost destructive and de-meaning aspect. In everycase where abuse is pres-ent, the woman feels dis-empowered, vulnerable anddisorientated. Sometimes women say:

“No, he never hits me.” But if the question is

asked, does he raise hisvoice or push you or throwthings at you, invariably the

answer is: “yes”. The best study I know on

family violence is LundyBancroft’s Why Does He DoThat? Inside the Minds ofAngry and Controlling Men(2002: NY: Berkley). Everyparish minister, everyparish worker and everywoman caught up in a vio-lent relationship would dowell to read this book.Lundy’s argument is abu-sive men are inadequatecontrolling men. They havediscovered abusive behav-iour enables them to gettheir own way.They are not so much

angry men but men whohave found anger is veryeffective in getting one’sown way. It is an issue ofpower and control. Ofcourse they do not see thisthemselves. They alwayshave reasons why they actlike they do, fully justifyingtheir behavior. In their ownmind they are a good per-son putting up with a lotfrom their partner. Women can act violently

toward men but this is rareand, in most cases, it is adesperate reaction to theviolence the man has in-flicted on them. The recentVicHealth report Commu-nity Attitudes to ViolenceAgainst Women estimated“98 per cent of perpetra-tors” are male.

Family violence inthe churchAS sad as it is to say, it

seems family violence isjust as common in thechurch as in society. In-deed, many argue inchurches where male head-ship is taught, meaningmen should lead the familyand make all the importantdecisions, the incidence issomewhat higher.Preaching regularly the

Bible teaches men shouldlead the home and thechurch does not make menabusive. Indeed, the vastmajority of Christian menwho see themselves as thehead of the home in a tradi-tional way follow St Paulclosely and give themselvesin costly service for theirwife and family (Ephesians5:25). The problem is, repeatedly

speaking of male ‘headship’and the subordination ofwomen ministers can leadneedy, controlling menpresent in the church to be-lieve their behavior hasclear biblical support andtheir wife is obeying Godwhen they obey them in allthings. Such teaching feedsthe “works of the flesh,” not“the fruits of the Spirit,love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, gentleness andself-control” (Galatians5:16-25).Recently, a friend told me

his granddaughter spent a

year in a Christian Biblestudy group at one of theMelbourne universities be-fore she came to realisewhat was most importantto the group was acceptingmen should be in charge inthe home and the church.For this reason she was toldwomen could not lead Biblestudy groups if males werepresent because this wouldundermine their God-given‘headship’. This is very ‘heady’ teach-

ing for young men whothink the world should re-volve around them and foryoung women who all toooften lack self-confidence.I imbibed this teaching as

a young man and took it onboard with delight. Ithought men should rulethe world and now I washearing this was God’s ideaas well. Breaking free from this

androcentric view of theworld, which was doingnothing for my marriage,was a very hard struggletaking years. I suspect formany Christian men, aban-doning this hierarchical un-derstanding of themale-female relationship,once embraced, is as diffi-cult as breaking with drugaddiction.What our Christian young

people need to hear andbelieve, as well as theirseniors who are preoccu-pied with ‘male headship,’ isnot that men should rulethe world but God hasmade man and womanalike in his image and alikegiven them dominion overthis world (Genesis 1:27-28). This understanding ofthe sexes the Bible putsfirst and makes primaryand it is what Jesus taughtand exemplified.All of us need to be in-

formed on this virulent epi-demic in our midst and beready to stand up andname it for what it is; theabuse of women. If we area man inclined to be con-trolling, we need to seekprofessional help. If we area pastor and teacher, it isimportant we are well in-formed on this topic im-pacting on so many womenand we should regularly saysomething on this matter inpew bulletins and sermons. Our parishioners need to

know we understand whatdomestic violence is allabout and we will be sup-portive of any womencaught in this web. We do

not condone it. And we donot think a women shouldstay in such a relationship ifthey feel their life andsafety are at risk.If we ministers want to

speak about male ‘head-ship’ then we should do sosparingly and, when it israised, point out emphati-cally that Paul, in writing tothe Ephesians, is seeking tosubvert and transform pa-triarchy as it was knownand taken for granted in hisown social context (Eph-esians 5:21-33). He says, in effect: “Yes,

you men can think of your-selves as the head of thewife but remember thisheadship for the Christian isto be interpreted and un-derstood in terms of lovingself-sacrifice. It has nothingto do with who makes deci-sions or who is in control. Itis all about costly servicefor one’s wife.” Better still would be a few

sermons on Jesus andwomen. In every way imag-inable, Jesus affirmedwomen and their dignity,saying not one word abouttheir subordination andmuch in word and deed tosuggest he believed contra-wise in the substantiveequality of the two differen-tiated sexes; the equalityprescribed as the ideal inthe opening chapter of theBible (Genesis 1:27-28).Because of the increasing

incidence of family vio-lence, books on this topicabound. I recommendedLundy Bancroft’s Why DoesHe Do That?. A valuableand trustworthy website isthat of the domestic vio-lence resource centre,www.dvrc.org.au There arealso now many books onfamily violence from aspecifically Christian stand-point. I like, best of all, Cather-

ine Kroeger and NancyNason-Clark’s No Place forAbuse: Biblical and PracticalResources to CounteractDomestic Violence (2001,InterVarsity). A topic searchwill give you other Christianbooks while typing “Chris-tians and abuse in thehome” will bring up manyarticles, to be critically readas not all can be trusted tohave the facts right. Kevin Giles is a retired

Melbourne vicar, still activein ministry. Article originallypublished in The MelbourneAnglican; reprinted withpermission.

Be aware of danger

20 Our Diocese - Media and Literary Reviews October 2012


More violence in guidelines

A musical momentBy Fay Magee

AMONG the many musicalmoments at the recentMusic in the Wind retreat atthe Abbey of St Barnabas atA’Beckett Park, was theidea to take a song andmake it the structure of ourintercessions. Jesus Christ is waiting is

665 in Together in Song.The text by John Bell is setto the 15th century Frenchcarol Noel Nouvelet whichcontains strength in its sim-plicity. This was expressedwith flute accompanimentfor the melody and sparseguitar chord structure.Each verse focuses on dif-

ferent aspects of taking ac-tion with the poor, ‘whereinjustice spirals’, providingChrist’s healing and con-cluding with a simple com-mitment to follow Christ’sexample. The song wassung with a pause betweeneach verse for silent prayerand reflection.Jesus Christ is waiting, waiting in the streets; no-one is his neighbour, all alone he eats. Listen, Lord Jesus,

I am lonely too. Make me, friend orstranger, fit to wait onyou.

TOP: Dean Dr Don Sainesuses an iPad to recordaudio and video of thesinging at the retreat.ABOVE: Dr ElizabethBlakewell played her flute.

Photos: Jeanette Severs

Book to help withquestions about sexWeerakoon P (2012) Teen Sex Bythe Book. Fervr/Youthworks.

TEEN Sex By the Book is frank and, inparts, explicit. It gives the reader aunique and at times uncomfortable in-sight into the teen world, exploring anumber of ‘taboo’ topics, such as the ef-fects of porn on the brain, sexting, cy-bersex and homosexuality. It also addresses questions like: ‘How

far is too far?’ ‘Is God against sex?’ and‘Is lust an uncontrollable force?’ It con-siders these questions and others from acultural, theological and physiologicalpoint of view. Ultimately, this book calls teens to live

God’s countercultural lifestyle; one lead-ing to healthy, pleasurable sex and inti-mate, satisfying relationships lasting alifetime. Teen Sex By the Book is written with

teens (aged 15 to 19 years), parents andthose ministering to this demographic inmind. It is rated M, aged 15+ years for agood reason and the author, PatriciaWeerakoon, strongly recommends it isnot used to educate younger children.If you are a parent of a teenager, you

have to read this book because it willgive you a glimpse into your teenager’slife you probably would not otherwisesee. It will also enable you to raise thesetopics with your young adult.Society has changed a lot since the

1980s, when AIDS was first on the sceneand the Grim Reaper advertisements ontelevision were meant to stop sex.But our teens desperately need us to be

able to talk to them about sex and ifthose conversations are based in 1980,they are not going to be relevant.Research shows: 93 per cent of males

and 62 per cent of females aged 13 to 16years have seen pornography online; byage 15, 70 per cent of boys and girls willbe sexually experienced and by age 18,88 per cent will be. Note: this does notmean they are having intercourse, but itdoes mean they might be pressured todo so. Almost every Australian school has had

reports of sexting, which is a form ofchild pornography and can result in indi-viduals being listed on the sex offendersregister. Does your child know that could

include their friend or themselves?Is it little wonder that parents feel ill-

equipped to teach teens in an age so dif-ferent from the one of their ownadolescence? With more than 25 years of experience

as a sex educator, researcher and thera-pist in America, Sri Lanka and Australia,Dr Patricia Weerakoon has a unique in-sight into the trends of today’s teens. Inpartnership with Fervr, she has writtenTeen Sex By the Book, to try to be thedefinitive guide to teen sexuality and re-lationships. A renowned media and public speaking

personality, Dr Weerakoon regularlyholds seminars at schools, churches andconferences sharing her passion for sex-ual health. The book comes with an M15+ rating

and is available fromwww.fervr.net/teen-sex-by-the-book oremail [email protected] or telephone 028268 3344. RRP $14.95.

Source: Fervr; Youthworks

“MANY parents will be dis-appointed with the R18+computer game guidelinesreleased this week,” Fami-lyVoice national research of-ficer, Ros Phillips, saidrecently.“We were originally prom-

ised the new R18+ categorywould not allow any more vi-olent or explicit games to beavailable. “Rather, some very violent

games currently ratedMA15+ would be moved upinto the adult category to in-dicate that they are not suit-able for children or youngteens.“But this has not hap-

pened,” Ms Phillips said.

“None of the very violentgames currently classifiedMA15+ will be reclassifiedR18+. Instead, the R18+category will allow evenmore violent games to besold or hired in Australia.”Mrs Phillips said the R18+

games guidelines released inSeptember by federal Jus-tice Minister, Jason Clare,allow unlimited aggressivecoarse language. Nuditydoes not have to be justifiedby context, nor does vio-lence.“This is not true of the

MA15+ guidelines whichwere, until now, the mostrestricted games category,”Ms Phillips said.

“The highest impact al-lowed for MA15+ games is‘strong’ but in the new R18+category, violence, nudityand coarse language canhave a greater, ‘high’ im-pact.“This change is disturbing,

given that interactive gameshave a much greater impacton the player than the pas-sive media of films and TV. “We hope state and federal

censorship ministers willhave a big rethink and keepthe promise made two yearsago.”Source: FamilyVoice Aus-

tralia: a Christian voice forfamily, faith and freedomwebsite: www.fava.org.au

October 2012 Our Diocese - Media and Literary Reviews 21


Edis, A (2012) Retireand Live the Dream:Our Long Journey to LaDolce Vita. Short StopPress.

BRAVERY, risk and adven-ture are not usually thewords used to describe thelife of a couple ready for re-tirement, but Annette Edisplans to change this. Retire and Live the

Dream: Our Long Journeyto la Dolce Vita tells thetrue story of one couple’sjourney to Italy: the desti-nation of their dreams.Doing something that oth-ers can only imagine, An-nette and her husband,Ray, picked up their livesand moved to the countryof food and culture. This book explores how

this dream became a realityand the endless possibilitiesfor others. Australian-bornAnnette does not pretendthe move was easy, yet herwords of advice aim tomake the transition simplefor those wanting to followin her footsteps. With many years of retire-

ment to enjoy, Annette wasenticed by the thought ofdiscovering a new culture,language and lifestyle.Their move to Italy is aboutexperiencing the wonderfulday to day things aroundthem and appreciating theunfamiliarity as they getcloser and closer to callingit home. Annette’s travel tips and

inspiring words encourage

readers to take the plungeand travel. She shows oth-ers that just as it happenedfor her, so, too, can theyfind a new adventure. Retire and Live the Dream

may be about retiring butAnnette and Ray remain ac-tive [Annette is a writer andRay is studying painting]and value the importance oflife goals. These goals areforever changing as theyare inspired by new ideasand challenges. The best part about the

book is that people do nothave to just read it. Theworld is waiting to be dis-covered. Annette and herstory are there to help andto provide proof it really ispossible to start living. Filled with anecdotes,

myths and histories of themany towns, cities andcountries visited by An-nette, this wonderful taleprovides a well-roundedperspective of travellingand those life changing ex-periences that go with it. Annette has three children

and six grandchildren, all ofwhom have given her manystories, anecdotes and lifeexperiences, as have hernumerous travelling adven-tures. Retire and Live theDream: our long journey tola Dolce Vita is crammedwith these stories and an-ecdotes, as well as practicaltips for travellers. Annettehopes this book will inspireothers to live their dreams. Books and e-books are

available throughhttp://shortstoppress.com

Lock, G (2012) ShootMe First. Broad Conti-nent Publishing.

SHOOT Me First is thestory of an Australian cat-tleman and his 24-years’personal experience in theTaliban country of Pakistanand Afghanistan.The author offers intrigu-

ing insights into the cultureof the tribal territories that

straddle the two countries.This is home to the Taliban,an untamed land whichcontinues to absorb somuch of the world’s atten-tion and military endeavor.Lock is shrewd and laconicbut, above all, compassion-ate. His experience of theworld’s two major religionsdeserves careful considera-tion.Supporting micro-hydro-

electric systems, empower-

ing Afghan widows andoverseeing a massive eye-care program, Grant andJanna Lock’s developmentwork in Afghanistan andPakistan followed their no-table success as cattlebreeders in South Australia. Crisp, beautiful and re-

vealing, this book is valu-able for anyone trying tobuild an appreciation of Is-lamic societies; and thatshould be all of us.

Ashby, R (ed.) (2012) A Faith toLive By: Conversations aboutfaith with twenty-five of theworld’s leading Christian authorsand teachers. Melbourne: MosaicPress.

By Rowland Croucher

THIS book, for me, was a ‘page-turner’; a marvellous collection of con-centrated wisdom extracted by aninterviewer who is both editor of theaward-winning The Melbourne Anglican(Diocese of Melbourne) newspaper, butwho has also done post-graduate studyin contemplative spirituality. (I like thatcombination of attributes and voca-tions). The interviewees are mostly academ-

ics, but the young radical evangelical,Shane Claiborne, and his older mentor,Jim Wallis, are there too. Three of theinterviewees are women: Joan Chittis-ter, the outspoken Benedictine nun;Helen Prejean, author of the powerfulbook Dead Man Walking, also madeinto a movie with the same title; andEsther de Waal, renowned United King-dom author of books on spirituality. The influential and prolific prophets

and teachers, Richard Rohr and BrianMcLaren, are included. More than aver-age space is given to three people withsome quite disparate, though strangelycomplementary views on spirituality:Archbishop Dr Rowan Williams, car-toonist, Michael Leunig, and academic,David Tacey, who says he learned a lotof his insights from his students.The best gift I can offer in this brief re-

view is to whet your appetite with someof the book’s best or most challengingquotes:Rowan Williams: “[Each morning] I

take about half an hour to say theJesus Prayer.” The two best bits of ad-vice about prayer, from Dom. JohnChapman: “Pray as you can, not as youcan’t” and “the less you pray the worseit gets”.Contrast Stephen Hawking’s opinion

that “Heaven is a fairy story for peopleafraid of the dark”, with mathematicsprofessor John Lennox’s response,“Atheism is a fairy story for peopleafraid of the light”.Father Laurence Freeman, author of

books about Christian meditation, rec-ommends we meditate for half an hourin the morning and again at night. Thebest mantra? ‘Maranatha’. (Another in-terviewee in this volume, I have for-gotten who, recommends ‘Christ in me,the hope of glory’). Also this: “There isnothing about being guilty, I don’tthink, in the teaching of Jesus”.Esther de Waal quotes Philip Toynbee:

“People often think the basic command

of religion is ‘do this, do that’. It isn’t,‘it’s look and wonder.’ Also this well-worn maxim: “God is only to be foundin the reality of the present moment”.In the ‘did you know?’ category:

“Francis of Assisi is the most writtenabout person in history. There are morebooks about him than Jesus” (RichardRohr).Theoretical physicist, Sir John Polking-

horne: “The fact that science can onlytell you music is vibrations in the airdoesn’t mean music is only vibrationsin the air”.Author Morris West on hell: “I cannot

imagine inflicting infinite pain on eventhe most horrendous of human beings”.Philosopher and theologian, Dr Keith

Ward, likes Gregory of Nyssa: “Souls goon adventuring infinitely into God.”Sister Joan Chittister reminds us

“Even in the midst of [awful] pain, suf-fering and grief, it is possible to say Al-leluia”.Activist Jim Wallis likes Bishop

Desmond Tutu: “As Christians, we areprisoners of hope”. His friend, BrianMcLaren, calls us to a stance of humil-ity when conservatives and liberalswrestle with issues like homosexuality:“Conservatives are trying to be faithfulto God … and the tradition [but mustalso] acknowledge the compassionateand Christ-like attitudes of liberals to-wards gay people.”There is much more: I underlined wise

bits and pieces on every page. Asksomeone you love to buy it for yournext birthday or something.

Rowland Croucher (jmm.aaa.net.au)

A text to live byLife is nevertoo late tostart l iving

Aussiefarmerand hisinsightsinto thehomeof theTaliban

22 Our Diocese - Clergy Ministry October 2012


CANON Graeme Winter-ton, past rector in Gipps-land, recently received anEmergency Services Foun-dation Scholarship, pre-sented by Chairman of theEmergency Services Foun-dation, Mr Neil Bibby.Graeme received the

scholarship to investigateemergency chaplaincy, psy-chological first aid and per-sonal supportarrangements in the UnitedKingdom, Canada and theUnited States.“The scholarship was

timely,” said Graeme. “The Victorian Council of

Churches (VCC) initiatedcommunity chaplaincy andprofessional personal sup-port of this kind in Australiawith funding from the Victo-rian Department of HumanServices and needed tomeasure current arrange-ments against extant mod-els and practices in otherplaces.”The terms of reference for

the study were fivefold:To examine the volunteer

emergency personal sup-port models of faith com-munities with particularreference to public and in-terfaith connections. To investigate the exis-

tence and extent of com-munity chaplaincyintegration within responsearrangements.To explore the extent of

congregational volunteerinvolvement in emergencyresponse and recovery.To enquire into the meth-

ods of recruitment, deploy-

ment and training em-ployed by other countries To discover ways of build-

ing cooperation with otherfaith communities within anemergency environment.Graeme said it was evi-

dent in every country thatfaith community emer-gency ministry arrange-ments included highlyprofessional and organisedapproaches, as well as

counterproductive, ad hoc,spontaneous and oppor-tunistic activation. He said it was concerning

to discover that, despite ex-cellent government re-sponse and social welfarearrangements, little if anyattention has been given tocoordinating faith commu-nity involvement within for-mal emergencyarrangements. “Findings show Australian

faith communities are fre-quently impacted by emer-gency and disaster. Theyrespond with concern andcompassion, but far toooften act precipitously andwith little regard to govern-ment arrangements or theneed to coordinate their ac-tions with other communi-ties or agencies,” Graemesaid.“However, rostered ‘on

call’ trained clergy and psy-chological first aid workerscan provide good local ca-pacity for deployment byIncident Controllers.“Australia is leading the

way. The VCC emergencyministry program is notreplicated or surpassed inany other country. Victorianpsycho-social and chap-laincy personal supportarrangements can withoutquestion be regarded as atthe leading edge of world’sbest practice.”The full report is on the

Emergency Services Foun-dation websitewww.esf.com.au/scholar-ship_reports.htmFor those interested in

training and being accred-ited to work in communitychaplaincy, particularly inemergency situations andthe aftermath, see articleon page 17 of this issue ofThe Gippsland Anglican forfurther details.

Graeme’s scholarship award

ABOVE: Canon Graeme Winterton (right), past rector inGippsland, recently received an Emergency ServicesFoundation Scholarship, presented by Chairman of theEmergency Services Foundation, Mr Neil Bibby.

Gloria is new chairof Anglican CouncilREVEREND Gloria Shipp, a

woman from the Gamilaroitribe in New South Wales,has been elected Chair ofthe National Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander Angli-can Council, by members attheir annual gathering inBrisbane in late September.Gloria (above) is the first

woman to be elected asChair, having previouslyheld the treasurer’s role.She is the Indigenous Min-istry Coordinator and Chap-lain at Orana JuvenileJustice Centre in Dubboparish, Bathurst diocese.When told of her nomina-tion, Gloria said she wouldleave it to God and her fel-low NATSIAC members todecide. She said she was: “excited

and honoured to be electedChair. The work achievedsince the inception of thecouncil in 1992 is testimonyto the previous Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islandermembers and leaderswithin the Anglican Churchof Australia.”Gloria has been a part of

NATSIAC since its inception21 years ago. “We will continue to pro-

mote the need for theChurch to assist, encourageand resource ministries inthe Torres Strait Islandsand in mainland Australia.Our present aim is to have

another national Aboriginalbishop.” “I believe we can play a

significant role in promotingour Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander culture andspirituality and incorporat-ing them within the life andworship of the AnglicanChurch. I would also like tosee significant occasionsacknowledged and cele-brated in the AnglicanChurch as a whole, for ex-ample National Sorry Day,the Week of Prayer for Rec-onciliation, and NAIDOCWeek, to begin with”, Gloriasaid. “One of the discussions

that took place at the re-cent Gathering was theneed for a Youth Leadershipcamp to encourage Aborig-inal and Torres Strait Is-lander leaders within theAnglican Church and to alsobecome a part of NATSIAC”. NATSIAC members elected

Chris McLeod, priest fromAdelaide diocese, as deputychair, Bruce Boase, priest inBrisbane diocese as secre-tary and Shannon Smith,priest in Riverina diocese,as treasurer.Retiring Chair, Archdeacon

Brian Kirk from Armidalediocese, and laywoman,Rose Elu, from Brisbane,were elected as GeneralSynod Standing Committeemembers.

Abbey wants cooksTHE Abbey of St Barnabas

at A’Beckett Park is lookingfor volunteers to join a ros-tered crew of cooks anddishwashers to help duringthe weekend retreats.David (right) and Deb

Chambers are leading theway, volunteering as cooksand dishwashers for themost recent and future re-treats, including those onOctober 12 to 14, Artgrounded in earth and No-vember 9 to 11, Dancethrough water.“This is a vital and enjoy-

able ministry and we areglad to help,” said David.Contact Sue Gibson at the

Abbey, 03 5156 6580.

October 2012 Our Diocese - The Abbey of St Barnabas at A’Beckett Park 23


By Ann Miller

MUSIC in the Wind provedto be an inspiring theme fora weekend of reflection andmusic-making. Our the-matic input came from DrDon Saines, in terms of ex-ploring the wind or breathin creation and the creativ-ity of God and God’s peoplethrough music and song. “Music and song have a

very real sacramental as-pect to them; praise speaksand expresses the life andenergy of God in our midstand for our world,” Donsaid.Fay McGee, musician and

music educator, brought tothe weekend a creative andgifted leadership of musicand song. Learning newsongs in a circle without in-strumental accompanimentwas a great way to sing to-gether. As one participant said:

“We learnt some new songsthat were simple but beau-tiful. Fay enabled us to singin harmony and two of ourfavorites included MichaelLeunig’s prayer, Let it Goand a Ukrainian OrthodoxKyrie from Together inSong.” Musical explorations took

in a host of songs fromshort chants to classicssuch as Bob Dylan’s Blowin’in the Wind and Spirit ofGod in the clear runningwater from the Medical Mis-sion Sisters. We were ableto work with new songs andthe more familiar; all wereenlightening and engaging.Some music was for listen-ing and reflecting. Assorted

instruments came out ofthe luggage; from banjo,harmonica and recorder toflute, djembe and ukulele,among others. Our community Eucharist

on Sunday morning cametogether with a lot of songsfilling out the basic struc-ture, deepening devotionand filling us with the joy ofthe Spirit.

The peaceful sur-roundings, comfort-able units, gentleleadership by Fay andDon and the gener-ous catering by Davidand Deb Chambersall conspired to makethis a weekend ofnourishment for bodyand soul. Moreplease.

Music retreat whets the soul

Photographs fromthe Music in theWind retreat:

Jeanette Severs

24 Our Diocese - Parishes October 2012


Mud does not deterABOVE: St Augustine’s answer to Robert Schuller’s Crys-tal Cathedral it might not be, but to the faithful in SanRemo it is the culmination of much prayer, planning andpatience. Late last month, renovations began on the MaryTalbot Multifunction Room. Despite the rain and the rainand the rain, parishioners dug sufficient clearance for thebuilding and planted the stumps. The floor is now com-plete and sections of frame are elevated into position.

Contributor: Les Ridge

One woman’s workRIGHT: Earlier this year,Rosemary Kardinaal pre-sented a display of herwork from more than 30years, at Delbridge Hall,Sale. Rosemary’s handi-work ranged from the finestknitting and crochet,through paper tole andpatchwork, to furniturerestoration and toy making.The many appreciative vis-itors donated more than$500 to Access Ministries,for Religious Educationteachers in schools. Rose-mary is pictured with a se-lection of her handiwork.

Contributor: Ann Miller

Symphonia adds to enjoymentRIGHT: On Sunday, Sep-tember 9, the East Gipps-land Symphonia Orchestrajoined the 10am service. Itwas a wonderful experienceto have these talented mu-sicians accompany thehymns and would have cer-tainly improved oursinging. We look forward totheir return.

Contributor: U. PlunkettPhoto: Judi Hogan

LAMP looks into the futureABOVE: The Lakes Entrance and Metung Parish (LAMP) re-cently held a strategic planning meeting at St John’schurch at Metung. Reverend Canon Barbara Logan chairedthe meeting and members from St Nicholas and St John’sattended. The results of the National Church Life Surveyconducted in 2011 were studied in detail and some inter-esting facts emerged. Various topics were discussed, forexample, how to encourage more people to come to wor-ship. Left to right: David Murray, Kevin Kramer, Rev.Canon Barb Logan, Kath Grandy, Ken Grandy, Anne Belle,Jenny Romano, Ruth Cross, Kevin Cross and ShirleyCrutchfield.

Contributor: Sandra McMaster

Orbost swings to the music

ORBOST parish recentlyheld a pleasant afternoonwith Shirl Brown and a bushdance, both activities wellattended.Shirl Brown (above right)

is an ‘old time country en-tertainer’ from Tasmania,who sings and plays key-board. In Orbost, she entertained

about 70 guests for a verypleasant afternoon on Au-gust 23. Patrons includedpeople from the aged carefacilities in Orbost, othersfrom Cann River and manylocals. The St James’ bush dance

was held on Saturday, Sep-tember 8 and was a greatnight. Lots of laughs as at-tendees tried to interpretthe dance steps as in-structed by the callers. The Hospital Creek Bush

Band provided the musicand everyone had a greatnight, even those who justcame to listen to the music.

ABOVE left: Reverend BevilLunson dances the foxtrotwith a willing partner, to themusic of Shirl Brown.LEFT: At the bush dance,the band called ‘strip thewillow’ and ‘do-se-do’, whilesome guests were happy tosit out occasionally (above).

Photos/Contributor: Barbara Lunson

The Gippsland Anglican October 2012

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