My ministry path in February and March took me north to Brisbane in Queensland, west to Perth in West Australia, south to Adelaide in South Australia, and a bit east to Canberra again. First stop was Brisbane, where I came across a small grove of trees I’ve never seen before: screwpines at Margate beach, in this subtropical city.
Initially I stayed with my friends Maurice and Betty Coutanceau, then spent the weekend with Rev. Ian Arnold, both of whom I’ve known from the New Church in Australia (NCIA) since I was young. I particularly wanted to spend time with Ian, as he is the “senior pastor” in the NCIA and I have much to learn from his vast international ministry experience. Betty is very active with Bible study in their church, and welcomed me into a women’s Bible study group that she leads in their home. Maurice contributes to the music in their church, and is now a luthier. He makes a variety of stringed instruments, and plays them too. Ian included me in his daily walks on a bush track near his home. We saw a mother python brooding over her eggs, and many bush turkeys.
On Sunday Ian and I attended the worship service at the Brisbane New Church. Pictured are the three ministers present: Ian (left), me, and the pastor Rev. Darren Brunne (right). Darren has different worship styles through the month. It was a Worship and Meditation service that Sunday, though attendance was down due to it being summertime. Afterwards, one of the members used a professional coffee machine in the kitchen to make specialty coffees to order. Best “Coffee Hour” I’ve ever attended! After church I was blessed with a catch-up up with Brian and Gaye Heldon over lunch.
The next ministry trip was to Perth, on the west coast in Western Australia. Check the Australia map in the “Wonderful Woonona” post in February for the exact location! I was invited as a visiting minister by a lovely group of New Church people from two branches of the Swedenborgian community. There is not a minister in Perth, so they rely on lay leaders, visiting ministers and a retired minister, sometimes separately and sometimes integrated. The lay leaders of the two groups, David Walker (NCIA) and Mary Smuts (General Church), each hosted me in their homes. While in Perth, I gave two classes, one of which was the “Why Worry?: We Knew This Would Happen” presentation I’d given at the mini-retreat in Sydney in January (see the “Ministry and Music” post from March). I also led a worship service with Communion/Holy Supper. We also got together socially a few times. So good to catch up with old friends and meet new people as well!
There was time for touristy fun as well! I spent some time at Hillary’s Boat Harbour, by day and at sunset. Sarah Walker, of Logopraxis fame, and I chatted over lunch there, after she had taken me along for her morning swim at Sorrento Beach. A first for me: lunch at a restaurant in swimwear! The following evening I had dinner at sunset there, after a walk on Coogee Beach with Mary and Genevieve from the church group.
It was a well-organised visit in Perth, thanks to Mary Smuts’ skill at planning minister visits. Several elderly members were in need of a pastoral visit, but declined because they were too sick. But I did manage to visit with my friend Ros, whom I hadn’t seen in over 30 years. I also managed to spend a little time circle dancing, which I had been introduced to at Gathering Leaves (the international retreat for Swedenborgian/New Church women), watch a windsurfer near there at Safety Beach, and see some friendly cricket in the park. Aussies spend a lot of time on outdoor activities year-round, especially at the 12,000 beaches around the Aussie coastline.
Unlike many other parts of the country, Perth has been going through a dry spell with not as much rain as usual. I’d been seeing a lot of green grass in my travels to this point, which was definitely not how summer looked as I was growing up in Sydney. Here, the grass was mostly brown from the heat and low rainfall. A bushwalk near Mary’s house was quite dry, despite there being enough water to run a fountain in the lake in her neighbourhood, and for bird-of-paradise flowers to bloom.
