Caravaggio, The Incredulity of St Thomas 1601-2
This weekend’s gospel includes one of my favourite statements in the New Testament – Thomas’ response to Jesus ‘My Lord and my God’.
Ten services last week for Holy Week & Easter, and a further 11 this week: 2 aged care, 5 church services, 2 weddings, 2 baptisms and a funeral. We conducted our first Eucharist at Mayflower Aged Care on Wednesday. Fr Barry Martin assisted in organising and furnishing the room, and Charles Williams read the lesson. Services will continue on the first Wednesday of each month at 2pm in the third-floor lounge.
Evensong
The sad death of Prince Philip will be remembered tonight at Evensong at 6pm in the Lady Chapel, using a prayer appropriate for the language of that Book of Common Prayer service. It was last used when Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria, died. There will be a prayer of thanksgiving for his life and work at the 10am service. There will be no choir at Evensong as the schools are on holidays.
Army funeral
On Friday the funeral of Hamish Goddard was held in the church, attended by a large coterie of mourners. Hamish was the son of Ian Goddard, former chair of the school council at Firbank. The service was taken by the Reverend John Raike, Army Chaplain and vicar of St Philip's Collingwood and the former chaplain to Scotch College, the Reverend Graham Bradbeer.
Cars, cars, cars
We had a lot of visitors to the parish this week with nine services following on from the 10 last week. This bought some interesting cars to our site - a stretch limo for the funeral family and a Falcon GTHO as a bridal car for one of two weddings on Saturday.
Weddings
We had two weddings on Saturday. Congratulations to Giuseppi and Natalie, and to Jo and Damien who held their reception in the Parish hall.
Bayside Youth Group
After investigating the possibility of starting a youth group here (yet again), we have been advised by the Diocese that the only road to success is with a critical mass of young people. So all young people in the parish are invited to join Michelle, and other local ministers from Anglican and Uniting Churches, at our local and growing youth group on Friday evenings 6-8pm for talks, community projects, music, camp, fusball and other games and sports, BBQs, a firepit and a meal ($3). There is a group for under 13s, and one for older teens who explore 'life's' tough issues in a Christian context. Following the school holidays, it will reconvene at St Stephen's Gardenvale, 109 Cochrane Street, Brighton on Friday 16 April at 6pm. Contact Michelle on 0403 642 178.
Organ Restoration Appeal launch
For the last two decades the Parish has been aware that our War Memorial Organ is failing and requires restoration. So with much fanfare we are launching an appeal to raise the $347,000 needed to bring the organ into the digital age before it is rendered unplayable. With such a feast of magnificent music over the Holy Week Easter services, few realise that getting such a result out of this old instrument is achieved with great difficulty. So we need to get our magnificent instrument fully operational.
Our appeal is being launched on Friday 30 April at 6pm in the church, with food generously provided by Pantry. So please join us for the launch, hear from our Director of Music Dr Calvin Bowman and enjoy food and music during this important event.
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