Tag: Swedenborgian women

It’s always an emotional moment for me when the Australian coastline comes into view. The emotion of homecoming, the excitement of starting a new chapter in my journey, the inevitable questions and anxieties about what lies ahead.

Literally within an hour of getting settled for my overnight stay in Sydney at Baringa, the Hurstville New Church’s office and guest house, these two lovely friends whisked me away. Thanks Jenn and Lori for a lovely lunch at the Rising Sun Cafe and shopping and touring in Sydney for the afternoon!

After resting my foot which had survived the long flights and Sydney excursion remarkably well, and enjoying the company and environment of the church property where I had grown up many moons ago, I was off the next afternoon (Saturday) to Adelaide, 1375 km/850 miles west on the southern coast of Australia. Stepping out to start my month of ministry in the Adelaide Christian New Church. My grandfather Rev. C. Douglas Brock had pastored the church for decades, and my parents were married in it before it moved out to the suburbs into its current building, designed by my architect cousin Jeffrey Brock. Last year the congregation had created a small flat within the church, where I have been staying again this time.

By now it’s a small congregation that meets fortnightly, but somehow the memo hadn’t quite made it to everyone that there was no worship service on the day after I had arrived. After a leisurely morning I was just getting out of the shower when two members arrived early for church! Definitely a first for me, possible a first for all clergy for all time! But within 20 minutes we were in the sanctuary starting an impromptu worship service, based on a Home Church in Bryn Athyn service that was saved on my computer and a worship programme from a previous service in the church. We even managed morning tea after the service! Since then we’ve had two more worship services in which I’m both worship leader and organist, ongoing jewelry making classes as a community outreach, my class on Pastoral Care in response to members’ experiences supporting a congregant who had recently passed, and several morning teas and shared lunches. At an open Committee (Board) meeting, the congregation affirmed their interest in my coming back next year for three months, so I will be submitting a formal proposal.

A major focus of the congregation at the moment is preparing for the 175th anniversary of the founding of the church by a group of the earliest settlers in South Australia, lead by Rev. Jacob Pitman, whose brother Sir Isaac famously invented shorthand. The anniversary celebration coincides with “South Australia’s History Festival,” which runs for a whole month starting 27 April. Museums, libraries, churches and other organisations hold open houses, displays, tours and other special events. The photos show a work in progress! Of historical note, the Adelaide congregation was the first in Australia to have a female lay leader, since 2015.