Right before New Years, I took a picturesque train trip to Gosford and Tumbi Umbi, just north of Sydney in NSW to visit friends. Jen is a friend from high school and is a recent reader of Swedenborg, although she has been aware of the Swedenborgian/New Church since we were pre-teens. Mike and Kerry Lockhart are friends from my teen years in the Hurstville New Church, now retired near the beach. Ask me how Jen and Mike previously met if you want to hear an entertaining story!
Jen and I got caught up on about a decade of life, and chatted about my ministry and how Swedenborgian theology has helped me. After spending a relaxing day with Mike and Kerry, including an evening beach walk which Kerry had never done, Kerry and I had breakfast at a beach cafe and surveyed morning activity on Tumbi Umbi beach. From there it was a train trip back to Sydney to meet my friend Cliff for New Year’s Eve fireworks on Sydney Harbour (see the “Joy in NSW” post.)
After connecting with dear friends in the Roseville (Sydney) congregation on New Years Day, my next stop was Adelaide, South Australia. My maternal grandfather Rev. C. D. Brock was the minister for the Adelaide Christian New Church (current name) for 23 years. Seeing his photo and name at the church when I stay there connects me to my faith and ministry roots in Australia. My vision for ministry in the Swedenborgian Church of North America included returning to Australia to serve as needed in the New Church in Australia, grounded in my roots there.
During my grandfather’s ministry in Adelaide, Helen Keller reportedly paid a visit to the congregation in 1948 when she visited Adelaide. She gifted them with this autographed photo, with the inscription “God is Light.” This year, the congregation was not meeting in January, but we did get together for morning tea at the home of the Leader June Johnson. She has asked me to send written and video sermons to use in worship services.
It was so good to see my brother Stephen and sister-in-law Soula in Adelaide, after three years of pandemic! A highlight for me was seeing “The Mousetrap” with them, the longest running show in the world, on its world tour. Also faves for me while in Adelaide this time: watching birds and relishing gum trees in the Oaklands Estate Reserve, catching up with friends and church members over coffee or on the phone, beach time, and finding a monument to a Women’s Suffrage leader in South Australia.
South Australia, like many parts of Australia, has been affected recently by La Nina conditions, which has resulted in near-record rainfall and flooding. During drought times, the Murray River in SA can get down to a trickle. Not now! On my way to visit Brock rellies in Tintinara, SA (AKA Tinty) I stopped at a cafe that I’ve often frequented, on the Murray. This is the highest I’ve ever seen the river. On the way back I saw trees under water in the town of Murray Bridge, with water lapping at homes and sheds on the waterfront.
On the way back from Tinty to Adelaide, I stopped at “Old Tailem Town, ” a recreated pioneer town that I had passed many times and promised myself I would see “some day.” My parents and brother had recommended it years ago. Pictured below are some of the highlights for me: the interior of a small house that I told my kids was a “pioneer granny flat” (since I now live in one!), a farmhouse that is similar to the one my Dad lived in as a child, a one-room school like the one he attended, a hotel that probably is like the ones my paternal grandfather worked with as a leasing agent before he became a farmer during the Great Depression, and a row of shops typical of Australian country towns in earlier days. Not long after that I crossed the “old bridge” in Murray Bridge and again was amazed at seeing a flooded Murray River.
