“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given”

The Word

Journal of St George’s Anglican Church, Malvern

____________________ Christmas | 2013

God comes to us as one of us

- A Word from The Vicar: The Rev’d Canon Dr Colleen O'Reilly

Christmas cards are on sale again. So, what sort do you buy? Those with traditional

religious images or perhaps you like northern hemisphere scenes of snow laden tress or distant churches lit up from within on long dark Christmas Eves? Maybe you buy contemporary Australian ones with Christmas bush or eucalypts and our unique native fauna centre stage. So much of the imagery of Christmas still relies on it being celebrated in winter, when the northern days are short, the nights long and the light of candles in windows or on trees is very appealing when the sun has departed for a season. Those of us who grew up “down under” but have experienced Christmas in winter usually find it magical. In 1970, when I was living in London, I had the wonderful experience of coming out of the midnight Christmas Eucharist (at St Mark’s Hamilton Terrace, NW8, for those who know London) to discover the ground covered in snow that had begun falling while we worshipped. The next few days transformed the city, with heavy snow everywhere and cold sunshine bouncing off the white streetscapes brightening the festivities. It was magical but expecting my first baby meant no tobogganing for me on Primrose Hill! One of the key images of Christmas worship is the light that comes into the darkness of this world with the birth of the baby of promise in Bethlehem. We begin that emphasis with the Advent candles lit on each of the four Sundays before Christmas. Advent is a season that speaks of waiting patiently to see signs of God's coming. It is not a mini Lent but a time of expectancy, of looking ahead to the coming of God's kingdom or rule in the fullness that the scriptures promise we will one day experience. Only fools or fundamentalists assert that they know what God intends and its timing. We can be confident that God’s purposes are loving and good, for God intends to establish justice, freedom and peace the world over. In Advent we recall that God’s people waited and watched for God to “visit and redeem” them. At Christmas we proclaim that the Christian faith believes that promise has been kept in the birth of Jesus. His coming brings into our world a light that no other can.

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The Word Christmas 2013 2

God comes to us as one of us (cont’d from front page) Without that light we humans walk in darkness, in the shadow of death and all that is death dealing; we are caught in the thrall of fear and compulsions; we are burdened with losses and sorrows and we can see no alternative. Without that light, the future appears a fearful place, more of the same, and hope eludes us. Light can only shine into darkness if there are cracks it can penetrate, or doors thrown open in welcome. The light of Christ will not find its way into the heart that has built a wall against new possibilities nor into back rooms where evil deeds of greed, warfare, oppression, exploitation and abuse are plotted. Just as the return of spring sunshine shows up winter's neglect in our houses, (which is why we “spring clean”) so the light of Christ can allow us to see where we have yet more growing to do, more confidence in God to claim and show us the path to the transformed life of loving that God sets before us. Here in Australia we celebrate the coming of the light in the Christ child just as the natural light is increasing and will reach its summer height in late December. For us the symbolism of light is not so much that it shines into darkness but that even in the brightest of seasons, the light of Christ shines even more brightly. The bleak midwinter gloom is replaced with hot midsummer’s scorching winds and parched earth, and into this, our reality, God comes just as surely as ever. So, as the sun finally shines on Melbourne this year, let the light of Christ shine even more brightly for you as you wonder that God comes to us as one of us, to shine a transforming light on our world and God's loving purpose which no darkness can overcome, nor completely hide from our sight.

Photos by Don Weston

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Lively Bidding for quality Household Items at St George’s Roof Appeal Auction

Held on Saturday, 26th October, with a very good attendance, many bargains of quality collectables were proudly brought home, and the Church raised over $10,000 towards the Roof Fundraising Appeal Photos by Ian Field

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What We’ve Been Doing . . . – Checking Out St George’s Activity Groups

St George’s Prayer Shawl Ministry continues its charitable work knitting articles for distribution to those in need. On the second Tuesday of the month, ten to twelve ladies meet in the North Meeting Room at 10.30 am. We knit for KOGO (Knit One Give One) which distributes our garments and rugs to the needy in Australia. We have knitted shawls and scarves for the Vestry to give to Parishioners in hospital and otherwise unwell. Wool is

provided by donations, and I thank all our generous donors. We have given over 300 articles to KOGO along with 16 bears as presents for children of families in difficulty. New knitters are very welcome to join us when we resume on Tuesday, 11th February 2014. - Lynette Swan, Convenor

The Book Club, which regularly meets at members’ homes on the first Monday evening of the month, caught up with some good reads recently. The Geneva Trap by Stella Rimington was the choice for the September get-together. In October the Group discussed Jonas Jonasson’s book with the fascinating title of The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared. The following month it was Anne Watts’ story From

Eskimo Point to Alice Springs.

St George’s Cabrini Chaplaincy continues to extend a significant ministry of the Parish. The Chaplaincy Programme involves weekly visits to each Anglican patient in Cabrini Hospital, administering bedside Holy Communion when requested, as well as Midday Prayer services. The St George’s team visited well over three thousand patients during the year, more than three hundred

of which received Holy Communion at their hospital bedside. The Assistant Curate, the Rev’d Dr Nick White welcomes parishioners to attend the Eucharist in the hospital chapel.

Poetry Reading Group: “Few hints of man save scattered flotsam blown, despoil this sun-stroked wilderness sublime,” was how Clive Tadgell related part of his Carpentaria experience in his evocative poem Sundown and Moonrise on the Gulf, with which he delighted the Group at its August meeting. Another original and forthright piece from her own experiences, Israeli Soldiers in the West Bank, was earnestly presented by Mary Baxter at her first participation in the

Poetry Group, in which she observed soldiers’ faces “so young, they are almost children: innocence lost, responding to questions like parrots.” In contrasting vein, Sandra Legg read Judith Rodriguez’ cheerful poem of her herself and her children, Eskimo Occasion, in which “The water spoke, the ice shouted, the sea opened, the sun made young shadows they breathed my shadows.” Kaye Gooch responded to The Glory of the Garden in reading from Kipling’s poem of that name: “For, except where seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds, the Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.” John Perry delivered a tongue-in-cheek item by James Tate titled The Wheelchair Butterfly, which had everybody guessing over lines like “O confident city...where bifocals bulge in an orange garage of daydreams.” Joseph Lim recounted I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelous, when “through his bars of rage . . . on the grave of dreams, his shadow shouts”. Janet Field invoked “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”, out of Leisure, an inviting poem by William Henry Davies observing the world’s freshness. In a contrasting frame of mind, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” were Hamlet’s thoughts in his soliloquy delivered (ably from memory) by Peter Shepherd out of Shakespeare. Two rollicking Australian poems with distinctly bush flavours were given hearty readings by George Wuchatsch and Val Edwards respectively at the August and November meetings: The Gundaroo Bullock by A. B. Paterson (“And along by Grabben Gullen where the rushing river flows, in the block of broken country where there’s no one ever goes”); and Lawrence Vaincourt’s Just a Common Soldier, which lamented “And the world won’t note his passing, `tho a Soldier died today.” John Sylva produced an intriguing piece from The Gulistan by the 13th Century Persian poet Sa’di, in a translation noting “A tyrant does not stay long in this world, but the curse on his name remains forever!” Ian Field read The Gate of the Year from Minnie Louise Haskins’ famous poem God Knows, wherein “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown . . .”

The Friday Luncheon Group meets in the North Room on the third Friday of the even-numbered months. Celebrating its twentieth year, the Group provides an informal gathering for Parishioners to get to know one another better and to share interests. After a light luncheon, a guest speaker usually talks about his or her life, an always-interesting part of which is how the speaker became involved in the life of St George’s.

- John Perry OAM, Convenor

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“What Makes You Believe in God?”

In the last Edition, The Word posed to St George’s Parishioners this forthright question. The Rev’d Nick White obliged with the first response. How would you answer it?

This is how Geraldine Powell considered the question: When I was asked the question "What makes me believe in God", I instantly knew the answer. My belief

in God was not entirely due to my Divinity lessons or Korowa's school Chaplain, but also from “happenings” in my life.

I remembered as a five year old, my Grandmother saying to me “all good things will come to you if you believe in God”. At that age I thought it would mean lots of presents and more pocket money! She also taught me a prayer which I cited each night without emotion or feeling, except for the part in asking God to bless my parents, my siblings and to make me a good girl!

Realization of God and His works began when I was fourteen years old during a Morning Assembly, when our school chaplain spoke of how God had performed miracles on the blind, sick and lame. His sermon caused my mind to wander to “happenings” that had already occurred in my life - some of which could have “gone the other way” - and I wondered if God had been performing his miracles on me too!

I thought about the time when I was seven years old - I had jumped from the top step of a life-saver’s tower onto what I thought was the sand but instead it was a concrete slab. As I was not meant to be on the tower and had been told to climb down, I could not tell anyone that I had hurt myself, so I endured my pain alone.

Then when nine years old, my mother was extremely ill, and my sister and I were sent to live with Grandmother. Instead of our normal prayer she said “God will listen to you if you pray to make Mummy well again”. She was right - some eight months later, mother became well enough to come home. When this happened I resumed citing the original prayer because it was shorter, and anyway mother was home now!

Again I thought of about two years prior when I contracted Tetanus. Within an hour of getting lock-jaw and to the doctor’s rooms, I had become paralysed from the neck down. This is when I prayed my Grandmother’s prayer to make me better, as it had worked for mother!

That school morning, I realized as my thoughts drifted to that big jump, landing on the concrete slab, to mother’s and my illnesses, that God must have carried me to ease my pain and had listened to our prayers, because mother was home and I was back at school walking, running, playing sport, etc. etc.

Question was: Were we just lucky or was God there for us? The answer surely must be that God had been with us all the time and we didn’t even acknowledge it.

God was still looking after me when at 23 years a car accident almost claimed my life - was I lucky or was God there for me? I believed I had that answer too, as by then I knew I was being looked after by God; that He was protecting me and keeping me alive. In the decades that followed I have experienced heartache and loss, but I never felt abandoned – God’s protective arm was always around me and helped me through troubled times.

Even when my own little girl lay terribly ill, I knew that God with us as I could feel calmness about us. God had then given me a present - a present of life - the best present one could ever receive.

I do believe that God has been watching me from day one - but why? What was His motive— was He testing me for something? If so, for what purpose, or was He just preparing me for life’s journey? Many times I have said “is this another test” when my world has turned upside down. Maybe He had been preparing me in His own way, and even guided me to meet my future husband, bringing two lost families together. God must have known how difficult it was for me to rear one family let alone two! Yet I managed, and two families have bonded to be caring and loving to each other as if it had always been. Did He really do all this for me and why? From this experience I know that I could not have achieved such happiness without God’s love and support.

I have been truly blessed, and every day I am so grateful for my life and all that it has dealt me. All these “happenings” have realized in me and are “What makes me believe in God”.

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† Hear Our Prayer! Almighty God, whose sovereign rule brings justice and peace, have mercy on our

broken and divided world. We pray for those in conflict. Take away prejudice, cruelty and revenge, replacing them with love, compassion and understanding, so that barriers may crumble, suspicions disappear and hatred cease, through Jesus Christ our guide and mediator. Amen. - Robin Barrett

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Highlights of Parishioners’ Life Experiences - contributed by Pat Hagerty

Being There!

On Good Friday, 1951, with two friends Margery and Muriel, I sailed away to Britain on what was to have been an eighteen-months working holiday. In February 1952, King George VI died, and we all wrote home and said we were staying for the Coronation! Having watched the King’s funeral procession at Marble Arch (our employers were very accommodating!), hitch-hiked around Britain, travelled on the Continent, June 1953 finally arrived. We had seats in the Mall outside Clarence House, and we had to be there by 7.30 am. Our flat had a number of visitors, who, without tickets, had to kerb-sit from the previous day. So as well as baking lunch for everyone, we also took them breakfast. Gradually things started to happen –Guardsmen in their scarlet jackets lined the Mall, and carriages began their great procession of visitors for the royal event. In one carriage was the Queen of Tonga (a large lady), and Emperor Haile Sellassie. (Noël Coward naughtily said he was her lunch!) Opposite us, the Queen’s procession was forming – the King’s Horse Artillery leading – it stretched back to the Palace. Then there were waves of cheering, and there was the Golden Coach with the smiling, waving Queen! The

Coronation service from the Abbey was broadcast along the route, and then came the rain; and finally the return procession with her crowned Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. That night we went back to the Palace, and stood outside among the huge crowd and joined the chanting: “We want the Queen!”, until she finally appeared on that famous balcony. For me to have been in London at that historic time, and to have lived through the sixty years of the Queen’s reign has been a remarkable experience.

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St George’s Hidden Talent Provided a “Truly Remarkable Performance”

An Inaugural Parish Variety Concert, the brainchild of Music Director Christopher Cook, was held in St George’s Hall on Friday evening, 8th November, before a substantial audience. From a variety of comic items, the audience was delighted with Peter Shepherd’s humorous monologue Sam’s Christmas Pudding, recited in the inimitable style of Stanley Holloway; Brian Corless drily recounting the tongue-in-cheek misfortunes of those in the Cautionary Verses of Hilaire Belloc, as well as Harry Graham’s Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes; Judy Mallinson in yokel attire fulminating on the Ruminations of an English country yokel; Gavin Watson with David Sheppard hilariously re-enacting a frustrated interview in the manner of The David Frost Report; Colleen O’Reilly heartily hamming some un-ecclesiastical anecdotage; and Clive Tadgell in precise Hoffnung manner, relating the side-splitting calamity of The Bricklayer. For good measure, Nick White told of his amusing misfortunes during his travels in Nepal; and Quiz Questions in Granny Gymn showed us how little we knew after a glass of wine on a Friday evening. Poems both poignant and funny were entertainingly recited by Meg Winter with Snake by D. H. Lawrence; Kaye Gooch with The Late Passenger by C. S. Lewis; Pam Felgate with a short anonymous piece Blackbird In My Garden; and Walter McEntee, in true “Banjo Paterson manner, robustly recounting the adventures of The Man From Snowy River. It was music, however, that maintained the cultural tone of the evening, with some very impressive performances. Sharing the keyboard, John Mallinson and Christopher Cook opened the program with a brilliant duo performance of Schubert’s Marche Militaire; Suzie Hill, accompanied by Christopher Cook, sang a tender song from the musical Ballroom; Claire Sheppard, Judy Mallinson, Suzie Hill and Christopher Cook, in sweet harmony, vocalised a bracket of three well-arranged unaccompanied pieces; the St George’s Choir likewise showed their versatility in singing styles with a sedate classic item by Thomas Tallis, and a swinging Spiritual. The young man with a clarinet, James Field, very ably performed - with Christopher Cook - Darius Milhaud’s difficult Duo Concertant for Clarinet and Piano; and the musical highlight of the concert was Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 39 in G major, played by Claire Sheppard, piano, Hedy Mameghan, violin, and Mark Sheppard, cello. Concluding the evening on just the right nostalgic note, Judy Mallinson, in the manner of Vera Lynn, led the audience in singing The White Cliffs of Dover, and We’ll Meet Again - hopefully at another fine concert next year! Compère for the evening’s presentation was Ian Field.

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Along the Way - Finding stability and love of God Reflections on the path to Priesthood, contributed by the Rev’d Nick White

As a teenager, I professed an increasingly articulate faith, but there were growing strains for my enquiring mind. I tried to pray, but in the absence of any instruction this constituted worrying in the presence of God as I fell asleep. Nonetheless, there was a significant recognition that it was only ever in humility that I encountered God, in moments of peace and calm. It wasn’t until I headed off on an overseas trip that my world changed forever. Most significant were my three months in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. I experienced humanity, poverty and religious diversity on a scale that stretched the bounds of my world. Upon return to Australia I was in culture shock. How could we live in such affluence when so many lived in such poverty? And why was there such spiritual wealth amongst such material poverty and such spiritual poverty amongst those with material wealth? Susan and I married mid-way through our second year of university. I completed a teaching qualification, and while I thoroughly enjoyed teaching I jumped at the opportunity provided by a scholarship to pursue research. This led to study in Germany, where we drifted out of regular attendance at church and I adopted a liberal position in which God was essentially our construction rather than our creator. Upon return to Australia, I spiralled into a time of inner struggle. I recall sitting in the parish church of St. John the Divine in Croydon as the organ thundered the beginning of a sung Mass, and billows of incense rolled down and engulfed me. Every sense was transported, and I connected with God and community with my heart once again. My quest to control my world by understanding it was over. Each day I would stop the car on my way to work to say the daily office and to meditate. Parked at a Lookout in the Dandenongs, I would look out over Silvan Dam and the National Park and open my prayer book and Bible. A stability and love of God and others flourished. This was both liberating and painful. The process of dying to myself, and transformation and challenge by the Holy Spirit was aided greatly by monthly conversations with a spiritual director. After three years of rich and painful inner work, I had discerned a calling to priesthood. I waited at that crossroad, learning much about patience and God’s timing, until other paths fell away and it was clear that now was the time to take this new path. My faith journey has shown me that my primary vocation is to give control of my life to God, and that peace and stability will flow.

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A Woman and a Chainsaw - A Warm Anecdote by Simon Dickie On my recent trip to the Anglican school in the Northern Philippines where I teach and provide support, a note was sent to me one evening asking if I would go with the school principal to dinner at Mrs Magamyo’s house. Her son would prepare the food while she kept an eye on her small “shop”, which sold biscuits and drinks along with small sachets of shampoo and toothpaste. Throughout the evening I could not help wondering why she sat on a small stool about a foot off the ground. When it was clear that there would be no more business for the evening (and there had been none during the time I was there), I asked if there was a medical issue preventing her from being able to sit with us at the table. Her hip was the reason, she explained, and her story went like this . . . During the 1980s renovations were being done at the school, and a chainsaw to assist with the project was donated by a Japanese corporation. The chainsaw, unfortunately, broke down, and the nearest place to have it fixed under warranty was Manila - three days travel away. Mrs M being a good citizen and concerned about the students’ education, was part of the building team and was asked to handle the matter. Upon arrival in Manila the chainsaw was quickly fixed, and she jumped back on the bus. However, along the way the bus rolled over, and Mrs M was lying on the side of the bus interior with a chainsaw dangling out of the luggage rack above her head, about to fall! Thankfully she was safely rescued, and was sent to the local hospital with a suspected broken hip. She arranged for someone to get the chainsaw back to the village meanwhile, so works could continue. After three days in hospital she was faced with “please pay for the operation or vacate, as the bus company has paid the $25 for your accommodation for the past three days, but that is the extent of their commitment”. Not having the money she returned with the damaged hip, which to this day she endures with no complaints. Mrs Magamyo is now in her eighties, still able to operate the “shop” and see the school evolve. This remarkable woman didn’t see her story as anything out of the ordinary.

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The Word of Our Lord “When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.

Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Matthew 2. 10-11

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In Passing . . .

The Lonely Virgin

- A Christmas Thought by Ian Field

The world knows that Christmas, Christ’s-Mass, celebrates the birth of a Saviour, Jesus Christ. Christmas also brings with it the abiding mystery of the life of his mother, Mary. Much has been told about the Son of God so that we have real and powerful images of him. Curiously, very little is factually known about his mother, who was to become throughout “all generations” one of the world’s most revered women - an obscure female virgin chosen by God to bring Jesus Christ into the world in a sensational way, to deliver a revolutionary new faith to save and forgive sinners. Yet a biography of Mary is a fantastic story with no middle; only a beginning and an end. Apart from apocryphal suppositions of her childhood and marriage, the times that Mary came into the public spotlight, following the private annunciation in Nazareth, were when shepherds became the first ones to see the Holy Child, when three powerful Magi came to her with precious gifts to pay homage, and when soon after, destitute, she had to flee with her child to safety having become a wanted person. But throughout the gospels the disciples and followers of Christ pay her sparse regard. As if her mission was over, she is virtually absent from the Gospel events of Jesus apart from occasional, almost social references such as at a Passover at Jerusalem, or at a marriage at Cana in Galilee. From Luke’s account of Jesus’ presentation at the Temple, it seemed evident to Mary that her child was already beginning to be parted from her. Even Christ himself, according to the Testament, seems to have had few public words to say about his dutiful mother, apart from “honour your mother” as he grew up and preached; and yet this simple woman was burdened with a responsibility and a life-changing mission directly from God Almighty, which she endured almost entirely on her own, with some measure of help from an aged and bewildered Joseph. Can she have returned to obscurity so completely after fulfilling her divine purpose? It is interesting to try to visualise Mary as a person. How naive was she? How did she bring up her infant, did she have to chastise him, play games? What sort of human bonding was there between mother and Holy child as he emerged though childhood? Although she had devotedly declared the Magnificat at the Annunciation, nothing tells us about the dilemma she endured when her son was duly born to radically confront her own and many others’ established religious beliefs, for which she knew he would eventually suffer hideously. When in later years she languished behind him in his journeys of proclamation, was she able to finally reconcile herself to the extraordinary role she had accomplished for God? One also can’t help wondering what Mary looked like. Was she ordinary or very beautiful? Presumably, as a young Jewish girl (Myriam) she would have had dark hair. How did she speak, and smile? She appeared to be mild and meditative. Many painters and sculptors had no doubt that she was little more than a child herself when she bore her Holy babe.

Details of Virgin and Child masterpieces by 1. El Greco; 2,3. Botticelli; 4. Lippi; 5. Ghirlandaio; 6. Unknown.

Such works depict the artist’s impression of Mary as a teenage girl, with a wonderful human expression of awe and bewilderment. Lonely . . . ? We cannot avoid a perception that Mary was a lonely female at the brink of events, whose presence after the holy birth was no longer essential, whose inner feelings were barely drawn, whose opinion was not sought. As she stared up at Jesus on the Cross in helpless, swooning sorrow, did she receive some further Divine touch to sustain her as she beheld the unfolding horror? We can believe that Jesus – on his intimate plane with God – would have shown deep caring for Mary throughout his life. And yet we cannot know what last tender words Jesus may have exchanged with his mother during his final ordeal, unless “Woman, this is your son” can be called endearing. It was only when Jesus was brought down from the cross that Mary had the experience of cradling her son once more No record exists of her own, and presumably lonely, death. At the time of the Crucifixion she would have been near fifty, an elderly woman by standards then, and widowed. Apart from representations depicting her traditional scenes - together with Michelangelo’s immortal Pieta, Mantegna’s Death of the Virgin Mary, Van Eyck’s Coronation of the Virgin, and sundry other similar works – has any painter, writer, playwright or screenwriter substantially portrayed Mary’s own epic life. Christmas certainly invites thoughts about the lonely girl staring with her own thoughts at “that Holy thing” on her lap.

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At The End of The Day . . . - A Moment of Reflection and Prayer And as the Year draws to its end, we reflect on those we know and love who have had their problems during this year, and have carried their burden with courage. We pray especially for all who are sick, and for those enduring pain; for all who are grieving, and those who may be feeling lost; for all who are hungry and have no work; and the many who have no place to live. Lord, we place our hand in yours: lead us through the coming year, and be at our side as we face its call, its difficulties, and the opportunities you will give us to serve you.

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Recent Ceremonies from the Parish Registers . . .

Baptisms

Greta Louise Jensz, child of Tim & Georgina Pritchard 20 October 2013 Taylor May, child of Peter & Fiona Traikovski 20 October 2013 Henry Donal Macleod, child of Alexander & Kelly Cooch 3 November 2013 Neve Elizabeth, child of Brad & Melissa Gaunt 17 November 2013

Weddings

Alvin Siew & Karen Chin-Lenn 31 August 2013 Samuel Tamblyn & Miranda Cawse 14 September 2013 Chris Hughes & Kathryn Ulhorn 21 September 2013 Michael Gretton-Watson & Jenny Milne 5 October 2013 Evan Ho & Shelfali Saldanha 2 November 2013 Naveen Nara & Katherine Blaze 16 November 2013

Funerals and Memorials

Max Francis Oldham Died 31 August 2013 Funeral 20 September 2013 John Keith Dunstan Died 11 September 2013 Funeral 20 September 2013 Irene Lowe Died 29 September 2013 Funeral 7 October 2013 Kenneth James Fleming Died 7 October 2013 Funeral 14 October 2013 Edwin Ian Gillon Died 12 October 2013 Funeral 17 October 2013 Valerie Joyce O’Neill Died 10 October 2013 Funeral 18 October 2013 Eleanor Jean Berry Died 23 October 2013 Memorial 29 October 2013

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VICAR: The Revd Canon Dr Colleen O’Reilly 9822 3030

vicar@stgeorgesmalvern.org

ASSISTED BY: The Revd Dr Nick White 9822 3030

curate@stgeorgesmalvern.org

ASSOCIATE PRIEST/THE LIVING WELL CENTRE: The Revd John Stewart 0412 599 456

assocpriest@stgeorgesmalvern.org Honorary Associate Priests: The Revd Dr John Scott AO; The Revd Bill Michie; The Revd Dr Joan Snedden; The Revd Walter McEntee

Director of Music: Mr Christopher Cook music@stgeorgesmalvern.org 0400 255 216

Parish Business Manager: Mrs Maria Green office@stgeorgesmalvern.org 9822 3030

Parish Office: 296 Glenferrie Rd, Malvern 3144. Mondays to Fridays 9.30 am to 12.30 pm

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Services at St George’s Sundays: 8 am Eucharist

10 am Sung Eucharist

5 pm Meditation & Eucharist

Weekdays: 9 am Morning Prayer

Thursdays: 10.15 am Eucharist

Christmas Carols Sunday December 15th: 8 pm: St George’s Choir; Organist Christopher Cook

Christmas Eve Tuesday December 24th: 5 pm Children’s Christmas Service; 11.30 pm Midnight Mass

Christmas Day Wednesday December 25th: 8 am Choral Eucharist; 10 am Family Eucharist

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The Vicar, Vestry and Editor extend their appreciation to everyone who has contributed to

The Word during the year, and wish all members of the St George’s community a Blessed, Safe

and Joyous Christmas, and Good Tidings for the New Year.