Chapter 8: On Footwashing

Last night's Maundy Thursday Service with the Mandatum ( Footwashing Ceremony) at St James Church King Street was very pastoral and inclusive. The footwashing (a Christian symbol of mutual support and purification) was done as a mutual act by the whole congregation, with the Choir singing quietly in the background. After the Procession to the (beautifully palm-and-candle adorned) Altar of Repose, the Choir sang the last Psalm lined up in the two outer aisles, facing each other across the congregation. Rev. Steven Ogden's sermon was also appropriately inclusive.

Chapter 7: Responsibility in Church Ministry

Having just submitted a mountain of forms, and wrestled with various angels in the area of coordinating my supervised ministry placement schedule, I know how Jacob felt!

Scheduling sufficient study and travel time in a sprawling urban environment is made possible by having a notebook computer, but coordinating multiple supervised ministry rosters with busy lay coordinators is another kettle of fish. So far my student ministry placement involves juggling six rosters by keeping in contact with six patient and forbearing lay coordinators - hospital / nursing home visitor, hospitality assistant, parish networker, chorister, reader, and intercessor, and after Easter, server will be added. Adequate how-to procedure manuals are seldom supplied, so it is often necessary to source one from the net, or research and purchase an authoritative text, or write one's own on the job. Needless to say, every parish should have an easily accessible, up to date set of these.

The area of ministry coordination and scheduling is a nuts and bolts area of Church ministry seldom aired in the media, but it is fundamental to efficient and effective Church ministry. As a workplace, the Anglican Church environment is quite different from any corporate business environment, in that it is committed to provide highly responsible pastoral care of its lay and clerical ministers. For any student minister, treading the line between learning professional ministry practice, and receiving ongoing ministry counselling while training, is a difficult act, reliably supported by committed supervisors. In Anglican parishes, destructive competition for dominance between ministers, although it may raise its ugly head, is generally tactfully ameliorated by clear communication and responsible pastoral oversight. However, few Anglican writings express or discuss the differences between secular corporate practice and Christian business practice, and the unavoidable conflicts these produce.

Our new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Portal Welby has no hesitation in articulating the major differences between pastorally oriented Christian business practice, and profit oriented secular corporate business practice, as a means of upholding the Christian faith. The Anglican Church's pastoral care of its ministers and people is aligned not with any secular gospel, but with specifically Christian values, ethics and standards. Good pastoral care of assistant ministers by those charged with authority in a parish, together with responsible self-care by the ministers and their families, enables supervised ministers to extend excellent pastoral care and effective ministry to parishioners, and engage in outreach ministries without risk of burnout. Thank God for good ministry supervisors!

For student ministers, getting to know and keeping in touch with the local Church teams you are assigned to is a priority. This means keeping accurate, up to date, secure electronic and written records of contact details, and contacting / meeting with your ministry supervisor and roster coordinators regularly. Sometimes this contact is formal, as in a supervision meeting, but usually it's an informal phone call, or a brief SMS or email message. Various electronic calendars and email / contact list systems / liturgical planning systems can be used to keep track of this process. Theological colleges help student ministers by providing these resources as part of online ministry courses, and by teaching them how to link faith to supervised ministry practice through PTR (pastoral theological reflection).

Readers, please pray for all student ministers and their supervisors - they are doing great work in the Church.

Chapter 6: Mothering Sunday, Lent IV, Sunday 10th March 2013

It always strikes me as slightly ironic that Mothering Sunday and Simnel Cake consumption occur near the end of the penitential season of Lent. Just as we remember how Mary's Son and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, prepared to enter Jerusalem so we could be saved, here we are taking a break, saying "thanks, Mum", and feasting on a fruity cake adorned with symbolic apostolic eggs. Meanwhile, the supermarkets are already doing a roaring trade in hot cross buns. Chronological concatenation! No wonder non-Christians get confused about the Church. I guess one of the tasks of ministry today is to explain and, if possible, disentangle, this apparent confusion.

My Anglican ministry course via St Marks National Theological Centre (Canberra) came online this week, with a swag of assignments and readings. Thanks to helpful Church friends and colleagues, I'm well on the way with organizing my ministry Field Placement at St James King Street (that's in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, for overseas readers).

Meanwhile, at St James Hall, Sydney, the Rev. Dean Andrew Sempell's Thursday Lenten Group has been busily exploring a variety of personal and communal life journeys, all with our ultimate end (i.e. God) in mind, and the adventurous and provocative 2013 St James Institute series of lectures and seminars is under way. Last Sunday (3rd March 2013) Rev. Martin Davies led a lively poetry reading seminar called "Anticipating World Poetry Day". Poetry-lovers, clergy, musicians and poets read and discussed original and favorite poems on themes that included the Australian landscape, love, religion, medical history, childhood, and more. Innovation abounded. Alistair Nelson recited Donne beautifully from memory, Sue Mackenzie gave a multimedia presentation of her landscape poetry, Rev. Sempell read a soliloquy on ordination candidature, and John Bunyan presented his completed poetry book "75 Sonnets", and read selections. The St James Institute series is an excellent opportunity to explore current Church issues, study scripture in depth, have your say, and develop creative projects.

Networking at St James is full of pleasant surprises. Last month I was thrilled to meet, through a hospitable gathering at Christine Cheetham's, two "Adelaide girls" of my generation - Joan Gibb and Rosemary White, both now parishioners of St James. We shared happy childhood memories of Adelaide's famous John Martin's Christmas Parade, Church worship, and beach frolics. In the 1960s I was at St Ann's University College, studying for my Arts degree in English and History, singing for Morning Prayer at St Peter's Cathedral with Michael Betts, Andrew Mander-Jones, Derek Van Dissel and Margaret Cheesman (among others), and writing mysteriously metaphysical poems at the Creative Writing Group with John Healey, Helen Gregson and Charles Kaiser. That was the era of Max Harris and the Ern O'Malley poetry hoax - when two larrikin Aussie tricksters fooled the literary establishment into lauding "poetry" concocted from randomly selected dictionary words.

It so happens that Adelaide will be well represented at St James this Easter. I'm looking forward to hearing the Rev. Steven Ogden from Adelaide's St Peter's Anglican Cathedral, preach at St James.

Chapter 5: Lenten Musings on “Home”

After three weeks of cogitations on the meaning of "home" in Church communities, Church writings, and secular and indigenous societies, I have discovered that 1. there are as many ideas of home as there are people in the world, 2. leaving home to migrate to another country is an experience common to many, 3. those who believe in God can be at home anywhere, and 4. providing a safe physical home for people has the potential to empower them, but it may also imprison them if they are handicapped by fear.

In an ideal world, a home is a place where we can gather family and friends, welcome them, and share food together. But not everyone has a home today: for many the mission van or Church hall is the closest they come to a physical home. Many urban unit dwellers eat out habitually with friends at restaurants and clubs, as it's much safer that way in a crowded city. Jesus and his disciples were travellers who depended on their friends and innkeepers for meeting places and accomodation. For Christians, sharing communion together, and remembering Jesus, reminds us of all these concepts of home, and unites us in the attempt to help people in need, whatever their situation.

Chapter 4 : Australia’s Anglican Women Bishops

The new Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury elect Justin Welby, who is to be consecrated on March 21 2013 (the Feast of the Martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer), has declared that the UK Church of England will soon have women Bishops. Just as they have a Queen who bears the title of Defender of the Faith and Head of the Church of England. But it hasn't happened yet.

The British press seems to be encased in a bubble of unreality, impermeable to the fact that USA Episcopalians and the Anglican Church in Australia have jumped the gun as far as women Bishops are concerned. It's all very reminiscent of how Australia led the way in the early 1900s, with Votes for Women.

For those still unaware of who and where Australia's three admirable and articulate Anglican women Bishops are, I append the following links:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/women-congregate-to-celebrate-ordination-20121120-29ofq.html

Bishop Kay Goldsworthy (Perth, Western Australia)
Bishop Barbara Darling (Melbourne, Victoria)
Bishop Genieve Blackwell (Wagga Wagga, New South Wales)

Another Australian Anglican woman Bishop is in the pipeline, due to be consecrated at St Johns Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane, on April 6, 2013 (see link)

http://anglicanbrisbane.org.au/focus/taylor-made-brisbanes-first-woman-bishop/

Bishop Alison Taylor (Southern Region, Brisbane, Queensland)

The Anglican Church in South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory of Australia has some episcopal catching up to do.

Chapter 3: Australian Aboriginal Women in Church Ministry

The apartheid system is so prevalent in urban Australian Churches that many non-indigenous Australians think that all Australian Aboriginals are non-Christians. Some Anglo-Australians still believe the myth that Aboriginal Australians are all dying out, or can be "bred white".

Sorry, that isn't the case. Crowds of Australian Aboriginal Christian families inhabit all the mainstream and not-so-mainstream Church denominations. There aren't many Aboriginal Australian Church buildings, because the bush is God's Church in indigenous spirituality. The Australian Aboriginal Churches have a national governing body called NATSIEC (the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Church) where Aboriginal representatives of all the Church gather. Each Church denomination also has a peak Aboriginal organisation - for Anglicans it's NATSIAC, for Catholics, NATSICC, etc. etc.)

Many of Australian Aboriginal Churches are led by Aboriginal women. Elder Elsie Heiss's Reconciliation Church at La Perouse NSW, the Rev. Joan Hendriks in Queensland, Jan Kennedy's Aboriginal Catholic Mission at Emerton NSW, the Rev. Lenore Parker's ministry at MacLean, are just a few examples. Gospel music and healing is a big part of Australian Aboriginal Church women's ministry. If you want to hear great Australian Aboriginal Gospel music, go to the Tamworth Country Music Festival NSW in January.

In 2008 I attended a Church conference, and gave a presentation called "Aboriginal, Christian, and Woman" to Anglo Australians who were convinced by racist propaganda that there are no Aboriginal Christians in Australia. They took a lot of convincing! Here's a video of my Powerpoint presentation from the conference:

Recently, two Anglican Aboriginal women ministers have been making a splash in the media. Archdeacon Karen Kime of the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese is involved in international advocacy for indigenous people, and works with the reconciliation and social justice systems to improve inter-racial communication and upgrade living conditions of Australian Aboriginal communities. The Rev. Gloria Shipp of the Aboriginal Anglican Church at Dubbo, runs retreats for indigenous women out west, and is building a Church culture that takes account of traditional Aboriginal culture and customs.

Here are some links to information about Archdeacon Karen Kime's ministry:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/kime-appointed-archdeacon-20120225-1tvdf.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-25/anglicans-appoint-first-female-indigenous-archdeacon/3852586

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-25/anglicans-appoint-first-female-indigenous-archdeacon/3852586

http://www.anglicancg.org.au/articles.php?action=vp&aid=2

http://www.facebook.com/ReconciliationAus/posts/390356744313570?comment_id=5432547

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXkYBruFxfM

http://www.nitv.org.au/fx-story.cfm?sid=00373998-C1EC-CAD0-8BD3260B79114F18

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/747514/wagga-woman-makes-church-history/

http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/latest/australia-s-first-female-aboriginal-archdeacon-congratulated

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2012/3/14/ACNS5064

Chapter 2: Women Church Cantors in Australia

In 1967, when I first started singing as an Anglican chorister at St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide, the Church Cantor tradition had pretty well died out in Australia. Australian Church Clergy (who were all men in those days) canted or refused to cant with varying quality, choristers sang, and soloists within the choir were called singers. The Decani and Cantoris seats still adorned Anglican Cathedral Churches, but the origin of the Cantoris seat was forgotten, except by academics. At that time in Australia, the title of Cantor was reserved for male Jewish synagogue Cantors. Then the Jewish women took up the Cantor baton, and, following the role model of Miriam, they revived the art of the Jewish woman Cantor. Their leadership was invaluable.

Throughout my childhood and youth, I sang in church choirs, and accompanied singers on the piano and organ. As a young mother I continued singing in church choirs, taught music, trained as an opera singer, and sang in stage as a soloist, and in large choirs. In 1996 I was suddenly called to solo Cantor ministry when my parish Church burned down, so I looked for contemporary female role models to follow. I found no female role models for Cantor ministry in Australian churches, but male mentors in the Royal School of Church Music and the UK Guild of Church Musicians helped me to shape and develop my female Cathedral Cantor ministry. My role models were gleaned from historical female Church Cantor traditions, the Australian Conservatorium system supplied my musical training, and a six year theological degree provided the liturgical and compositional skills I needed. I waded through a varied Church music repertoire, honed my liturgical liaison craft, and sorted out the musical wheat from the chaff. I discovered that being a woman Cantor involves not only liturgical singing, but also arranging and composing new music on a weekly basis, and constantly defusing male assumptions that men are entitled to take credit for everything a skilled woman creates or does.

Seventeen years later, the art of the woman Church Cantor is well established in Australia, with claases for female Cantors flourishing in Churches. Since the Catholic and Anglican churches have historically defined Cantor ministry as one of the two essential precursors for priestly ordination (the other being Lector ministry) the establishment of women’s Cantor ministry in Australia, has enhanced the status of Australian church women. Although the quality of Cantor and chorister instruction varies, the UK Royal School of Church Music has worked with ecumenical Pastoral Music associations to establish and promote examined Voice Syllabuses for churches, so much progress has been made in helping Australian congregations to worship through music. Clerical recognition of female Church Cantor ministry is nevertheless slow to catch up. In most mainstream Churches there is no reason why female Cantors cannot be clerically commissioned, but this seldom occurs. I was fortunate to be jointly commissioned in 2000 as an accredited ACertCM(UK) Cathedral Cantor by Rev. Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, then the Very Rev. Basil Hume.

Female Church Cantors in Australia (and worldwide) are invariably diligent, collaborative and highly skilled. All the Australian women Church Cantors I have met have a genuine desire to serve and honour God rather than themselves. A few are paid, but many are volunteers, who have paid for their own tuition. A favoured few, such as June Nixon and Kathlleen Boschetti, have achieved remarkable heights of Church music mimistry in Australia. So It grieves me (and I have no doubt, also God) when a few ill advised  Church music critics accuse female Church Cantors of impious self-aggrandizement, rail against women in ministry, and declare us unwanted. Their hostility is ridiculously unChristian and unproductive.