Newsletter

Saturday 1st January, 2012
The Epiphany
And New Year Greetings to all
WELCOME to Holy Innocents—we hope you enjoy this time of prayer as we reflect on Scripture together and celebrate the Eucharist. Thanks to Fr. Brenton for leading worship in the absence of the Rector
Collect for the Epiphany
Lord God of the nations, we have seen the star of Your glory rising in splendour: may the brightness of Your incarnate Word pierce the night that covers the earth, signal the dawn of justice and peace, and beckon all nations to walk as one in Your light. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Your Word made flesh, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, in the splendour of eternal light, God for ever and ever. Amen.
TODAY’S READINGS
Readings Isaiah 68: 1—8 and Ephesians 3: 1—12 read by Trevor T
GOSPEL Matthew 2: 1—12
Fr Ron’s Notes available at http://www.anglican-belair.blogspot.com/

PRAYERS FOR THE PEOPLE led by Don B
We pray for those in need: Ron Teague, Peter Little, Jenny Jeffrey, Dorothy Furnival, the Swaby family , Olive Marston, Kate Jennings, Blake Vause. Ivanka Cosic, Jim (fighting can-cer;) Eddie Barber and Bryan Baker. Michelle, Jake and Gail also

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sascha Williams, Jennifer Jeffreys
HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
YEAR’S MIND—John Furnival

The Passing of the Revd Gordon Hewitson The Revd Gordon Hewitson passed away last Sunday in Perth. He was a former Rector of Blackwood and Belair before it was split into two parishes. There is to be a memorial service and interment of ashes at the Holy Innocents Chapel (the old Holy Innocents) on January 26, in the morning. Refreshments are to follow in the parish hall. More details to follow.

PREPARATION FOR NEXT SUNDAY The Baptism of our Lord
Readings Genesis 1: 1—5 and Acts 19: 1—7
GOSPEL Matthew 4: 12—17 & 23 = 25

SPECIAL NOTE: With Fr. Warren being on leave for the next two Sundays, Fr. Brenton Daulby will celebrate and preach at both services on those days.
REGULAR GROUPS AND BOOKINGS
PRAYER CIRCLE in recess
BIBLE STUDY in recess
THURSDAY no Thursday morning services till February
SINGING GROUP Meets after the 10am service each Sunday. All singers welcome.
MOTHERS’ UNION programme in recess until next year
The Parish Hall is booked for 21st January.

FLINDERS MEDICAL CENTRE SERVICE—Pleas for Helpers
Sunday 8th January will be our next turn to visit the wards and take patients to the service in the chapel. We would welcome more helpers, please; our call is only four times a year.
Please meet at the Chapel at 10 am on the day. Enquiries welcome –call Joan Fordham on 8278 2837

HELPLINE
Part of being a Christian community is the support offered to each other in times of need. We offer short-term delivery of food where needed, local transport, phone calls, and other types of assistance. Call Iris Downes on 8278 3260 and Marlene Dixon on 8278 8568..

POWERPOINT ROSTER –
Next Sunday Jill Hilbig or Joy Campbell
Sunday after Don Caddy or Cynthia Macintosh
READER- AND INTERCESSOR ROSTER
Next Sunday Reader Max A Intercessor Vanessa D
Sunday after Reader Family Araki Intercessor Ben Luks
SANCTUARY ROSTER
Next week Flowers Jan Tregenza Brass Joan Durdin
Cleaning Group 2

RONBLOG .... On Epiphany
I grew up in a world where people of any different Christian persuasion were, more often than not, considered to be totally beyond the pale as far us Anglicans were concerned. It was not just a matter of (Roman) Catholics being beyond redemption, but so were many of the people of other sects and hangers on. When it came to those of other faiths, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Callithumpians, well, forget it. They knew nothing of Jesus, so they were consigned to the then popular eternal hell. (Actually, this burning fiery furnace view stems not so much from Scripture as from Dante and his Inferno. Many people do not seem to know that!)
The atmospherics of those days of yore were terribly snobbish and isolationist. Mind you. Australia was really very isolated geographically anyhow, and the White Australia Policy was hardly ever challenged, until after World War II. So everyone was tucked up snugly and safely in the cocoon of their particular ‘theology,’ and later people wondered what the Church had done to have so few respond to the Gospel.
Denominations were isolated and isolating by their Eucharistic theology, and one was expected to fit the respective ‘sausage skins’ and look down the nose at others’ skins, so to speak. As recently as the 1960s, there was no way the Anglican sisters at Coober Pedy Hospital could share in the Easter Communion at the Lutheran Church there, unless they first became Lutheran. I kid you not! So the very Sacrament of Unity was used as a tool for divi-sion and even revulsion. How stupid could we have got?
From the very call of Abraham, the move in this then-new Faith was designed for the entire world into which it was introduced. Look at the call of Abram and the precise and expansive wording of it. He was to be a blessing to all the world. At Sinai that same sort of breadth of vision was expressed, and of course the Old Testament prophets punched the wide drum again and again and again. The tragedy of Israel’s blindness to that breadth of vision was echoed for another two millennia in the Christian world.
And yet here, at the Incarnation, the Biblical writers ensured that the message was heard even over the voices of people’s bigotry. It is rather interesting and quite something of a profound challenge how the Scriptures, written and revised over thousands of years so often show clear evidence of various writers who have challenged the status quo and popular view of some subjects. Perhaps it is too gentle a way to move for change and yet that seems to be the process Biblical, all along. Didn’t it take 1,800 years for English Christians to move to abolish slavery; 1950 years for Christians to see the Biblical imperative about being green, and a little longer to espy the need to embrace the equality of the sexes. All that may well have been because of the time it took for most of the population to be educated and inquisitive, but even so the story of the Church’s rejection of Galileo and his explanation of the Earth revolving around the sun was a shocking indictment of the power of conservatism against truth. It would seem that people look to the Faith for security instead of finding in it the strength to follow wherever truth leads.
There, it strikes me, is the present challenge for us all that Epiphany brings.
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Holy innocents Calendar
If you would like to know what is coming up at Holy Innocents check out our calendar at the following link: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=innocents.belair%40gmail.com&ctz=Australia/Adelaide