This ministry trip I’ve been struggling to find time for blogging and the other projects I thought I’d get caught up on while in Australia for three months. Story of my life! Between ministry activities, and traveling to visit friends, and dropping everything to go and have fun here and there, I’ve come to almost the end of my trip with not much of a blog to show for it. But I do have a great sense of satisfaction about the work I’ve done, the relationships I’ve enjoyed both new and old, and reconnecting again with my “sunburnt country.”
I’ll start with spirituality in Sydney, which includes ministry of course. Palm Sunday and Easter involved many lovely events and traditions. In the Hurstville New Church, in the southern suburbs, I was able to give the regular piano player (my friend Margaret Heldon) a break on Palm Sunday and the week after Easter. Very fun for me to revive memories of playing the piano for Sunday School in the same church, when my father was the minister there decades ago. The tradition in Hurstville is real Hot Cross Buns – not the sad, sticky version that is available in the USA! – after Holy Supper on Good Friday evening. After celebrating “He is Risen” at the Roseville New Church, on the “north shore” of Sydney Harbour, my dear Baringa (church guest house and church hall) roomie Margaret Ward and I made a rainbow of roast veggies for Easter Dinner with the two ministers’ families i.e. Todd/Jenn/Zach Beiswenger from Hurstville and Howard/Debra/Lance Thompson from Roseville. We dined in the house where I grew up, on the property I still consider “the centre of the (my) Universe.” Just wonderful to celebrate with such dear people in a place so dear to my heart.
Two of the photos in the gallery above show examples of some spirituality/ministry activities in Sydney. One shows some volunteers at the Swedenborg Centre in Roseville, putting together a newsletter. I spent two days a week there, working with the director Joe Vandermeer on a couple of projects. The Swedenborg Association of Australia is based in the Centre, and I had the pleasure of being the “international speaker” for the April meeting. The other photo is of an evening dinner and talk in Hursy, where I was rehearsing and getting much appreciated feedback for my Swedenborg Association talk. I ended up giving two evening talks in Hursy and a testimonial during a church service.
To get to the Swedenborg Centre, I took a train over the Sydney Harbour Bridge which offered views of the Bridge I hadn’t often seen before, and fantastic views of the beautiful Sydney Harbour, especially on sunny days. Sadly a video I took of riding across the Bridge on the train was unable to load here. One day I left early to visit my favourite sites on Circular Quay (on Sydney Harbour) and take a nostalgic ferry ride to Manly beach and back, even though it was a cloudy afternoon.
Historic stairs from 1863 
Love the city palm trees 
Ferry ride! 
Out past Opera House 
Back with Bridge sunset
Some of my favourite Sydney sights are the beaches! I was fortunate to get to a few before the weather got too cold. This is Cronulla beach, the closest beach when I was growing up in Sydney.
Near Tumbi Umbi, NSW 
Carss Park, a childhood spot 
The famous Manly Beach 
Paddle surfer at Shelley Beach, near Tumbi Umbi 
Taylors Bay beach on Bradleys Head on Sydney Harbour 
Taylors Beach in 1973, with me standing “tall”
Sydney has a beautiful harbour, and up and down the coast there are other magnificent bodies of water that soothe the soul. In my travels in Sydney and up the coast to Tumbi Umbi in New South Wales, and down south to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, I was able to relish a few, though almost always on cloudy or rain-spattered days.
Clockwise starting from top left: Sydney Harbour, “Miriam’s Manly” as we affectionately call this little beach on Sydney Harbour (ask me or Miriam for details!), Hawkesbury River up the coast, Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, George’s River in southern Sydney, Lake Ginninderra in Canberra, and Tuggerah Lake near Tumbi Umbi.
Aussie wildlife and plants and trees also get my attention as sights that renew my spirit. I was blessed with several opportunities to enjoy them on the many different trails I was able to walk/run on – still healing my foot so not running distances yet. Tuggerah Lake has a large flock of these majestic pelicans. You can see more of them in the gallery above. I wish I had moved quickly enough to video one of them flying down onto the lake and making a spectacular water landing with outstretched skidding legs. Below are more nature sights I was able to photograph along the way.
Gum trees 
Tibouchina 
Birds of Paradise flowers 
Don’t know… 
Termite nest in gum tree 
Sulfur-crested cockatoo 
Autumn colours in ACT 
Dusky moorhen 
Baby blue-tongued lizard 
Grevilia in Norman’s Garden 
“Kookaburra sitting in the evergreen tree”
Visiting with friends in NSW and ACT was a high priority for me. Relationships with families I’ve known since I was a little girl, and with friends from school is precious too me. I have few opportunities for those sorts of long-term relationships when I’m in the USA.
Donna and Jason’s cutie twins Anna and Eric; al fresco dining with Kerry L in Tumbi Umbi; lunch with school friend Helen and hubby Greg; Kerry L made a perfect Devonshire tea for her visitors; dear friends Ken, Babette and Kerry Horner; Kerry L and adorable granddaughters; lunch with “girls” from high school; official annual reunion of St George Girls’ High School for which I offered the blessing before lunch; two senior citizens trying a selfie (Barrie) in Canberra; al fresco dining again with Owen, Margaret, Rachel and the little cousins visiting/being babysat by their grandparents.
To finish off, a few more touristy sights around Sydney and Canberra. To the left is Parliament House in Canberra, where the Parliament of Australia meets. Below are two views of Circular Quay in Sydney: my favourite cafe near the Opera House, and the Central Business District towering above the quay and the ferry wharves. The scary dungeon is Fort Denison on Pinchgut Island near Circular Quay, where intransigent convicts were sent back in the day.
