the church messenger jan 2015

January 2015 Volume 2: Number 1

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The Church Messenger The Monthly Newsletter of St John the Evangelist Church

Anglican Parish, Dee Why

A Very Different Parish! • in the Catholic Tradition of Anglicanism • that welcomes EVERYONE • that joyfully reaches out to share the life of Christ

Welcome to the January issue of the new monthly newsletter of St John’s, Dee Why. For over two decades from the 1950’s onwards St John’s had a monthly newsletter called “The Church Messenger”. We hope current members of St John’s will appreciate the revival of The Church Messenger, and enjoy seeing it grow and develop as a means of keeping parishioners informed and involved in what is going on in the life of our parish family. Christian Unity

The Pope and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew have issued a joint pledge of support for embattled Christians of the Middle-‐East. Francis also urged an end to the Schism between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Speaking on the last day of his three-‐day visit to Turkey, the Pope said these calls were all the more urgent due to the violence against Christians by Islamic State (IS) extremists. The trip by the Pope to Istanbul -‐ once the capital of the Christian Byzantine world, and formerly known as Constantinople -‐ has been marked by his

overtures to reach out both to Muslims and other Christian confessions. He left aboard the papal plane in the early evening, also finding time to address around 100 refugees displaced by the violence in Iraq and Syria. Early on Sunday, Francis attended a divine liturgy led by Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the “first among equals” of an estimated 300 million Orthodox believers. In a joint declaration, Bartholomew and the leader of the world's Catholics pledged to support Christians in the Middle East, saying they could not let Christianity be driven out of the region. NCR reports that the two leaders also issued resounding and historic calls for the reunification of their global communities. Francis made what appears to be the strongest and most encompassing call yet from a Catholic Pontiff for unity. Seeking to assure Orthodox leaders that restoration of full communion between the churches would respect Eastern traditions, he said reunion would “not signify the submission of one to the other, or assimilation.”


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PARISH NEWS Thank you to all who contributed towards the beauty and joy of our celebrations over Christmas: those who helped prepare the church, servers, choir and musicians, readers, sidespeople and hospitality, and all who came to worship.

St John’s Christmas Day Lunch: Many thanks to those who assisted with our Christmas Community Lunch on Christmas Day. It was a wonderful sign of the love and hospitality of God, and of his generosity in sending his Son to be our Saviour.

Op Shop: After a successful year, the Op Shop will need new helpers for 2015. Volunteers are needed for the first Saturday of each month, and on the preceding Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Volunteers are also needed on Tuesday mornings to assist with sorting stock. If you can set aside a little time each month, for this outreach please speak with Bev Bingham or Ken Eltham. There will be no Op Shop in January. Op Shop resumes on Saturday 7 February.

Help with setting up on Thursday and Friday (5 and 6 February) would be greatly appreciated, as well as packing up on the Saturday.

Reading sheets are now available on the lobby table for January. Please collect your readings.

Rosters: During January Bev Bingham will be preparing the rosters for the next four months. We are looking for new people to fill in spaces in ALL ROSTERS, but especially

• cleaning, • sidespersons, • grounds, and • morning teas.

If you are on any rosters and are going to be away from the parish over February to May 2015, especially over Easter, please let Bev Bingham or the office know.

If you can help, please contact Bev on 99715529 or [email protected] ASAP.

Christmas Newsletter: Please take a copy of the Christmas Parish Newsletter if you have not already done so. Many thanks to Cynthia Watts and Anne Seddon for putting it together this year.

Casseroles: Frozen meals are available to all in need, including parishioners who may be unwell and unable to get out, caring for someone else, or any people you know who would appreciate assistance. Please contact Robyn Couch, Bev Bingham or Lynette Johnson to receive meals.

Wedding Congratulations to Tom Edwards (our Director of Music) and Merrilyn Groom who were married shortly before Christmas. We wish them every blessing as they begin their married life together.

Happy Birthday to Neridah Byrne, Tony Krepler (1st), Ziggy Zmijewski (3rd), Beck Whelan (6th), Bob Morgan, Suzanne Monahan (8th), Barbara Emmett, Freda Becker (11th), Lindsay Walker (13th), Alice Aguib (14th), Michael Roberts (16th), Margaret Winters (21st), Kobi Bate (22nd), Mary McDougall (23rd), Dudley Johnson, Kalani Smith (25th), Phil Turley, Mary Ringrose, Betty Coward (26th), Jill Knox (27th), Allaster McDougall (31st)

Wedding Anniversary Congratulations to Tom and Isabel Ridgway (4th), Bob and Ailsa Morgan (5th), Joan and Howard Butler (9th), Louise and Peter Edgely (22nd), Roz and Rob Peterson (24th) Warwick and Fran Romanis (27th)

Christmas Holidays are here!

! Children’s weekday (Playtime), young people’s (Youth Group) ministries, Caritas, Mothers’ Union and Wednesday Bible Study have all broken up for the year.

! Office and Café – closed from Christmas, and running on a skeleton basis in January.

! Evening Prayer (Vespers) will be said in the chapel in lieu of Evensong on Sundays in January.

! Sunday morning Eucharists, Godly Play, and Crèche (unsupervised), and the Daily Weekday Eucharists continue through the holidays.

! No Choir at Sunday services (nor Tuesday Choir practices) for January or the first two Sundays of February.

! Street Mission Wednesday Café continues as usual. ! No January Op Shop.

Please see the “Week Ahead” in the Weekly Pewsheet in coming weeks for details of when ministries resume next year


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FINANCIAL SUMMARY Income from Offertings for November: $14,439.65 Expenses for November: $16,815.44 Deficit for November: -‐$2,375.79 On current trends we will have a large deficit for 2014. We ask you to prayerfully consider the contribution you are making in support of the ministry of St John’s and if possible increase your giving and/or make your giving more regular and also seriously consider using direct deposits from your bank. Without the interest from investments, Op shop and Fête fundraising our deficit would be much greater.

Please contact Wardens with any questions.

COMING EVENTS

Sun 4 Jan Epiphany of the Lord

Sun 11 Jan Baptism of the Lord

Fri Jan 30 St Charles the Martyr

Mon 2 Feb Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas)

Sat 7 Feb First Op Shop for 2015

Wed 18 Feb Ash Wednesday

Sun 5 Apr EASTER SUNDAY

Sat 23–Sun 24 May

Festival of Sacred and Classical Music

WE REMEMBER IN PRAYER

Those who are ill: Ana, Sophie, Gloria, Louise, Yvette, Vikki, Helen Bennett, Annette Bird, Alastair Brown, Kay Burton, Stephen Butler, Nora Davidson, Gary Fenton, Sharlee Gaddes, Marie Hansen, Leah Hermanns, Peter Hill, Lynette Johnson, Jean Knight, Kerrie McAlpin, Grace MacKay, Ross Morgans, Jean Morriss, Ken O’Donell, Kevin Ross, Tony Tasker, Brian Taylor, Stephen Ward, Noel Warr, Mary, Marjorie Wilson

Others in need of prayer: Belinda, Larka, Anita, Donna, Russell, Thomas, Jasmine and Ryan, David, Deborah, Greg, Leah, Lisa, Mark, Tom, Pam Andersen, Fay Baker, Margaret Baker, Virginia Baker, Elizabeth Balharry, Joy Beness, June Bennett, Cameron Browne, Craig Butler, Shirley Butler, John and Norma Byles, John Byrne, Rosemary Calder, Susan Caldis, Dorothy Cole, Beryl Cornish, Betty Coward, John Cranfield, Fr Jim Cranswick, Robyn Dunn, Anne Evans, Jean Field, Kevin Flicker, Clarrie and Stella Greaves, Norma Halford, Lee Hansen, Eric Hastings Snr, Michelle Hayden, Fr Stan & Norma Hessey, Peter Huckleby, Sue Kinging, Alec, Midge Lee, Joanne Lucock, Bob and Vivienne McMullin, Lois Maze, Lilian Miles, Byron Moore, Grayden Moore, Joan Morgans, Stephen Palmer, Bill and Karin Peters, Fiona Peterson, John

Posener, Joan Preuss, Elaine Rich, Tom and Isabel Ridgway, Debby Roberts, Patricia Sara, Bob Satchell, Pam Seddon, Lena Simpkins, Jan Smith, Don Stephens, Jill and Kareena Sutcliffe, Jennifer and Michael Taylor, Joan Taylor, Phil and Margaret Turley, Audette Vaughan, Florence Watts, Val West, John Wickes, Kath Yabsley

Those who died recently: Katrina Dawson, Tori Johnson, Joan Van Leeuwen

Those whose anniversaries of death occur at this time: Michael Allso (1st), Reg Seddon, George Attalla (2nd), Brian Seton (3rd), Norman Cresdee (4th), Peter Waters, Mollie Robson. Rupert (5th), Muriel Loise (6th), Kathleen Selkirk, Marie Robinson (7th), Reginald Stephens (8th), Amy Christie (9th), Dorothy Anderson, Frank Henagan (10th), William South, Laurie Ind (11th), Robert McIntosh (12th), Hilda Walker (13th), Connie Knappstein (15th), Phyllis Morton (16th), Robert Hartley, Elaine Thomas (17th), Karen Fisher (18th), Bernice King (19th), Olive Tacon (20th), Alan Cole (priest) (21st), Mary Thomas (22nd), May Westren, David Slee (23rd), Betty Somers (24th), Hazel Speer, John Crowe, Ruth Hiles, Rae Yock (25th), Marjorie Miller (26th), Lynne Carrol (27th), Thomas Savage (28th), Alfred Bird (priest) (29th), baby Rosie Garman, Billie Brown, Joan Booth (30th), Archibald Auld (31st)


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On 6 January (or the nearest Sunday) we celebrate Epiphany — the visit of the wise men to the baby Jesus. But who were these wise men? No one knows for sure. Matthew calls them ‘Magi’, and that was the name of an ancient priestly caste from Persia. Matthew’s gospel never actually mentions how many magi there were — only that there were three gifts. It wasn’t until the third century that they were called kings — by a church father, Tertullian. Another church father, Origen, assumed there were three — to correspond with the gifts given. Later Christian interpretation came to understand gold as a symbol of wisdom and wealth, incense as a symbol of worship and sacrifice, and myrrh as a symbol of healing — and even embalming or burial. Certainly Jesus challenged and set aright the way in which the world handled all three of these things. Since the eighth century, the magi have had the names Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior ascribed to them. Where did the Wise Men come from? Magi from the East — it isn’t a lot to go on. The Magi had originally been a religious caste among the Persians. Their devotion to astrology, divination and the interpretation of dreams led to an extension in the meaning of the word, and by the first century the Magi in Matthew’s gospel could have been astrologers from outside of Persia. Some scholars believe they might have come from what was then Arabia Felix, or as we would say today, southern Arabia.

Certainly in the first century astrology was practised there, and it was the region where the Queen of Sheba had lived. She of course had visited Solomon and would have heard the prophecies about how one day a Messiah would be born to the Israelites and become their king. Matthew’s gospel (chapter 2) is clear that the Magi asked Herod: ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.’ So it is possible that in southern Arabia the Queen of Sheba’s story of how a Messiah would one day be sent to the Israelites had survived. Certainly there are a number of other early legends that

connect southern Arabia with Solomon’s Israel. To many people this makes sense: that the ancient stories of a Messiah, linked to later astrological study, prompted these alert and god-fearing men to the realisation that something very stupendous was happening in Israel. They

realised that after all these centuries, the King of the Jews, the Messiah, was about to be born. One more interesting thing that gives weight to the theory that the magi came from southern Arabia is this: if you study any map of Palestine as it was during biblical times, you will find that the old Arabian caravan routes all entered Palestine ‘from the East’. What about the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh? The story of the coming of the Magi grew in the telling. By the 6th century they had acquired names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. By medieval times they were considered to be kings.


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Whoever they were, we do know from Matthew that they brought three gifts to Jesus. What about their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh? While we cannot know for sure what was in the minds of first century Magi, one Victorian scholar has offered a possible explanation as to the significance of their gifts. He was the Rev John Henry Hopkins, an American Episcopalian minister, who in 1857 wrote his much-loved Christmas carol: ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’. Gold, said John Henry Hopkins, was a gift that would have been given to a king. Frankincense was traditionally offered by priests as they worshipped God in the Temple. Myrrh was a spice that the ancients used in preparing bodies for burial. If that is true, then you could say that the Wise Men, in choosing their gifts for this infant, honoured Jesus with gold because he was King of the Jews, with frankincense because he was to be

worshipped as divine; and with myrrh, because he would also become a sacrifice and die for his people. The Wise Men were the very first gentiles ever to worship Jesus. What faith they had! They travelled for months over difficult terrain. They never saw any evidence of Jesus’ kingship, his divinity or his sacrificial death: they worshipped him through faith in God’s promises about him. Isaiah foresaw this response to Jesus: ‘Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.’ The Magi’s eyes of faith saw clearly and far into the future. Compare that with the High Priest and religious leaders whom the Wise Men saw in Jerusalem when they first arrived. These head priests knew all about the prophecies of their own coming Messiah, but NOT ONE Jewish religious leader travelled to look for him in Bethlehem. And it is only six miles down the road!

© www.parishpump.co.uk


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Interventions by Prince Charles in support of persecuted Christians are, according to a senior Anglican adviser who knows his interfaith work well, examples of a commitment to religious freedom born out of his role as heir to the throne

From The Tablet, 27 November 2014 by Alistair MacDonald-Radcliff Nearly two decades ago the Prince of Wales observed that the level of misunderstanding between the Islamic and Western worlds was “dangerously high”. The subsequent advance of militant Islam and the increasing persecution of Christians in the Middle East have given his words a painfully prophetic ring. He has recently and conspicuously stepped up his public interventions to reflect his deepening concern. In part, his is a straightforward humanitarian response to an urgent crisis, to suffering and need, combined with a frustration at the lack of effective international engagement to end it. But there are further dimensions deriving from his wider constitutional position and likely future role as monarch, as well as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. These root his interventions in the historic dynamics of monarchy and the life and work of the present Queen. Prince Charles’ sensibilities are

clearly similar to those of his mother who, as heir to the throne, set out

the enduring themes for her life in 1947. As Princess Elizabeth she was on a tour of South Africa with her family when, on her twenty-first birthday, she made a speech broadcast by radio dedicating her life to the service of the Commonwealth. The future Queen stated, in the confidence of “an unwavering faith, a high courage and a quiet heart”, that “my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service”. This mandate was solemnly sealed at her later coronation, during which, at its most sacred moment, Elizabeth became quite literally set apart and anointed by God (so sacred was this rite that it was not shown by television cameras or recorded on film). This firmly Christian commitment has provided the bedrock for the Queen’s entire reign with, at its heart, what one senior prelate commended as an “uncomplicated faith”.

Her eldest son’s own faith is perhaps less clear-cut and more embellished, yet it too has been a driving force throughout his life. At the age of 20, he entered into solemn commitments “in faith and truth” at his investiture as Prince of Wales. Ever since, he has pursued a spiritual quest of great breadth and depth causing some proponents to speculate, naively, that he was on the point of conversion, all at once, to Russian and Greek Orthodoxy as well as Islam. The truth is rather that, as he once explained to Jonathan Dimbleby, “I am one of those people who searches. All the great prophets, all the great thinkers, those who achieved a far greater awareness of the aspects of life which lie beneath the surface, all share the same understanding of the universe, of the nature of God, of the purpose of our existence,

and that’s why I feel it’s so important to understand the common threads which link us all in one great important tapestry.” The practical reality is, however, that he is a personally sincere Anglican Christian. He has his own chapel at Highgrove — his house and estate in Gloucestershire — and close friendships with a number of bishops including the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, and the retired Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, as well as the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who has spoken warmly of the Prince as “a man of great stature and vision” and “a committed Anglican who takes faith seriously”. Nevertheless, in the quest to reach out to everyone in the realm, Prince Charles has been tempted to interpret the historic title of English monarchs since Henry VIII, of Fidei Defensor, to mean defender of faith in a wider sense, rather than merely Christian. This prompted the recently retired Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to issue an unusually blunt clarification stating that as Defender of the Faith, the monarch “has a relationship with the Christian Church of a kind which he [or she] does not have with other faith communities”. Against this background it is striking and telling how publicly Prince Charles has taken up the plight of Christians in the Middle East. At a reception for them last December at Clarence House, he said the decline of Christians in the region represented a major blow to peace as Christians are part of the fabric of society. “For 20 years, I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity and to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding … [but] we have now reached a crisis where the bridges are rapidly being deliberately destroyed … through intimidation, false accusation and organised persecution,” said the prince. On Wednesday last week, Prince Charles spoke out on behalf of Armenian Christians facing persecution in Syria and Iraq. They are descendants of survivors of the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Government. They

Faith’s Defender

He is a personally sincere Anglican Christian


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fled to Syria a century ago. Addressing the Primate of the Armenian Church in the United Kingdom, Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian, at the church of St Yeghichè in London, he said: “I greatly admire the courage and faith of your flock who are an example to us all of faith, quite literally, under such grotesque and barbarous assault.”

As heir to the throne, which is by convention above politics, there are certain restraints upon what Prince Charles can say and how forcefully he can say it. Yet he has dared to speak out directly when others — most notably Western political leaders — have shown a reticence and hesitation that is hard to explain. On 4 November, in his video message for the parliamentary launch of the “Religious Freedom in the World Report—2014”, compiled for the charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), he told religious leaders that they have a responsibility to ensure that people within their own faith tradition respect those outside it, saying: “We have yet to see the full potential of faith communities working together.” He also called for an acknowledgement that the future of a free society depends on recognising the crucial role played by people of faith. To speak in this way is to take on two major issues at once. First, it is a challenge for the Middle East to preserve the place of Christians and other minorities within it. Here, once again, it is important to note another royal thread. For in making this point, Prince Charles enjoys the support of several royal families in the region and most particularly that of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He has worked extensively with both Prince Hassan and Prince Ghazi of Jordan and is close to King

Abdullah, who has led the nation in offering a refuge to displaced Christians from Iraq and Syria despite having far too few resources for the task. One of the most striking features is the royal solidarity across the region — from Saudi Arabia to Morocco — with the British royal family by virtue of history and standing. Also notable is the fact that amid the upheavals of the “Arab Spring” the region’s monarchies have so far proved significantly more stable than many of the republics.

But Prince Charles has also challenged the West, where the public doctrine of the state is seemingly ever more secular. In the face of this, to link a free society to the role of faith is an act of courage indeed. Inevitably, there are those who have been keen to allege that Prince Charles is somehow improperly meddling by expressing any views in public at all, and even worse in expressing his views to members of the Government privately. This has led to long-running attempts, led by The Guardian newspaper, to force public disclosure of his letters to Ministers. In his defence, the Prince’s Private Secretary, Sir Michael Peat, has distinguished between “political issues” and “matters of public policy” and indicated that “if an issue becomes party political or politically contentious after His Royal Highness has raised it … he will not do so in public again”. Within this framework, the matter of Christians in the Middle East engages Charles on the religious and humanitarian level, which is a cross-party matter. And he is also well covered by the public interest dimension, while the more he engages, the more he creates precedent for expanding the

liberties and role granted to him through emergent convention and “accepted practice”.

The definition offered by the former Lord Chief Justice of England, the late Baron Widgery, that “a true convention is one founded in conscience” would seem most fitted to the prince’s case. For that, in the end, is the ultimate grounding of his concerns, informed as his conscience is by the fullness of his royal vocation. In 1947, as the Queen came to the end of her dedication speech, she referred to a motto — which belongs to successive Princes of Wales — “Ich dien” (“I serve”). Perhaps this German phrase can itself be illumined by a Latin one, highly appropriate to Prince Charles: “Servire regnare” (“To serve is [truly] to rule”). The Revd Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff served as senior adviser to the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 and was Quondam Dean of All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral in Cairo.

The Tablet

St John’s Recycling Program: Parishioners are invited to use the collection boxes at the back of the Church for recycling small batteries, candles, corks, printer ink and toner cartridges, sunglasses, spectacles (and cases), and also, to help the work of ABM, used postage stamps and phonecards.

Children are always welcome in all our church services at St John's. In addition, at the 10:00am service there is Godly Play for children from three to twelve years, and our crèche (unsupervised) where parents can take little ones if upset or restless while still following the service on the large TV screen.

He has dared to speak out directly when others have shown a reticence and hesitation that is hard to explain.

Inevitably, there are those who have been keen to allege that Prince Charles is somehow improperly meddling

“A true convention is one founded in conscience”


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The Prince of Wales' speech at London Armenian church: the appalling nightmare faced by Middle Eastern Christians is heart-breaking 21 November 2014 The Prince of Wales visited St Yeghichè’s Armenian church in South Kensington, London, where he told an audience of 1,000: “It is, literally, heartbreaking to learn of the attacks on Christians and on the churches where they gather, such as the mindless, brutal destruction of the Armenian church in Deir el Zour in late September.” His visit comes two weeks after he made an impassioned plea for religious freedom at the 4 November launch of an Aid to the Church in the Need report on persecution. Read his speech below: Your Eminence, Bishop, and Ladies and Gentlemen. Before I leave this wonderful Church I particularly wanted to thank Bishop Vahan for this really exquisite icon, I will treasure it for the rest of my life and I am hugely grateful. It will be a very special memento to my visit to you all here today. I particularly wanted, more than anything else, to express my warmest thanks for such a marvellous welcome here to St. Yeghichè. I also wanted on this occasion to pay a special tribute to Vatche Manoukian for the wonderful generosity which has enabled this church to flourish the way it does. It is yet another example of his and Tamar's incredible and continuous generosity to so many remarkable causes all over the world. I am also so deeply grateful to the Ambassador Dr. Armen Sarkissian who showed me so carefully around Armenia two years ago. It was a visit I had been looking forward to for many years and finally I achieved it and his hospitality was indeed hugely appreciated. I am also very grateful to you, Bishop Vahan as I know that the Armenian Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland is blessed to have such a Primate whose wonderful work for the Armenian community is rooted in his profound faith and apparently boundless energy. And Ladies and Gentlemen I am so pleased and delighted to be with you today and to join my prayers to those of the world's oldest established Church, which I understand

originated from the missions of the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus and was formally recognised as the national faith in, remarkably, 301 AD. So we are very young here in the United Kingdom in terms of Christian experience. So whilst it is a joy for me to be in St Yeghichè this morning it is of course the most soul destroying tragedy that the Armenian Church is facing such indescribable persecution in the Middle East, in countries where Armenian Christians have long lived peacefully with their neighbours. It is, literally, heart-breaking to learn of the attacks on Christians and on the churches where they gather, such as the mindless, brutal destruction of the Armenian Church in Deir el Zour earlier this year — a treasured memorial to the appalling sufferings of the Armenian people. Your Grace, I should like to thank you for standing before us today to tell us about the continued sufferings of the Armenian Church in Iraq. I should also like to say that I greatly admire the courage and faith of your flock who are an example to us all of faith, quite literally, under such grotesque and barbarous assault. Today's Gospel reading reminds us of our Lord's words of comfort and encouragement to those who are undergoing persecution. Perhaps we need also, to remember the instruction issued by the writer to the Hebrews. "Remember then that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what we must all, as Christians, seek to do. As I have said before, along with so many others I have been deeply distressed by the appalling nightmare faced by Christians and other minority communities in various parts of the Middle East. Every week I receive several letters from people who are gravely concerned about the persecuted church in the Middle East. Our prayers for those who have to endure this continuing horror, seem so hopelessly inadequate under such dreadful circumstances, but please, please just know how truly heartfelt they are.

The Prince of Wales delivered the above speech at St Yeghichè Armenian Church in London on 19 November 2014.

The text is reproduced courtesy of Clarence House


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After angry scenes in stores across Britain on Black Friday, here's why we are programmed to love a bargain-hunt By Julia Llewellyn Smith UK Telegraph 30 Nov 2014

The clocks had just struck midnight, the night was dark and cold, and in retail parks across the land scenes reminiscent of the dystopian Hunger Games trilogy were playing out. People were trampling on each other to bag cut-price hairdryers, having tug-of-wars over discounted games consoles and lying on top of cheap televisions to ensure no rival snatched away their electrical good of choice. In a Tesco store in Stretford, Manchester, a woman was hit by a “falling television”, the same supermarket in which a female staff member reportedly received a black eye. “People were fighting with each other, fighting over TVs,” said 21-year-old Shaun Thompson, who had gone to the superstore for a cut-price set of headphones. “I have never seen anything like it in my life. It was quite scary.” In Salford, again in a Tesco, a man was arrested after allegedly telling a staff member that he would “smash their face in”. In Redditch, Worcestershire, two men were filmed throwing punches at each other over a 50-inch Blaupunkt TV on sale for £100. In Cheshunt, Herts, one woman in her late 60s sustained a cut to her leg, and a woman in her 70s suffered hand injuries. Meanwhile, shopping websites were crashing in the face of unprecedented traffic volumes, as across the land pyjama-clad consumers risked RSI from repeatedly jabbing “refresh” in the hope of snaffling a new jumper at 20 per cent off.

Welcome to the joys of Black Friday, Britain’s newest US import – a pre-Christmas pro-motional blitz in which shops slash prices for one day, and the public respond by reverting to barbarism. Spending, that’s what. Retailers were rewarded with their busiest day ever on Friday. Amazon recorded orders for more than 5.5 million goods, while London’s Oxford Street said sales during this three-day weekend are

expected to be up 15 per cent. But in an age where nearly every home already boasts several televisions, a microwave, dishwasher and washing machine, not to mention dozens of other electronic gadgets; and where wardrobes are overflowing (the average British woman spends £1,000-a-year on clothes, 70 per cent of which go unworn); why do we still feel compelled to engage in near gladiatorial combat – or going online in the middle of the night – in pursuit of more stuff? “Most of the time, we’re very busy, so it takes a lot for a retailer to attract our attention,” says Richard Hammond, author of Smart Retail, and boss of the Smart Circle retail consultancy. “But a very few occasions can spark something off, and last Friday was one of them. “We were introduced to the idea of Black Friday a few years ago, but this year social media spread it like a contagion, and it took

hold of people who should have known better, who were overcome by the need to be part of it.” Having been incited to join the slavering herd, emotions only intensify. Research by neuroscientists indicates that shopping releases dopamine, a mood enhanving hormone, into the brain. Being in a crowd of pumped-up shoppers heightens our fight-or-flight instincts, not to mention enhancing our

tendencies to copy others, meaning that a couple of angry people in a store can change a good-natured queue into a mob. “The sad truth is, however much we think we’re individual, at a subconscious level we really like to be doing what everybody else is doing,” says consumer behaviour consult Philip Graves, author of Consumerology.

Once aroused, people temporarily lose perspective, making their resolve to own something becoming far more important than any benefit they could gain from that ownership, trans-forming normally mild-mannered people into ruthless warriors. Shops enhance this determination by limiting the availability of “bargain” stock. “If deals had been staggered throughout Friday, rather than all rolled out at midnight, a lot of fear and anger could have been avoided,” Hammond says. “As it was, we saw a mentality that says: 'If I don’t knock over that granny with a Zimmer frame, I won’t get that coffee machine.’” In the US, Black Friday mayhem predates the Second World War, in exactly the same way as our traditional Boxing Day sales. The day after Thanksgiving is when big retailers slash prices in the hope of ejecting turkey-bloated consumers off their sofas and into the shops.

Why does sales shopping turn us into barbarians?


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By turning shopping into a ritual, the public is deluded into thinking that promotional pushes such as last week’s Black Friday and tomorrow’s Cyber Monday – the first Monday in December has become the busiest day of the year for internet shopping – as “sensible” days to buy, when deals abound and they will somehow “beat the system”, proving worth as canny hunter-gatherers. “Black Friday tapped into an age-old idea of the '10-per-cent-off deals on garden furniture this weekend only’, which creates some excitement but which, in the cold light of day, isn’t actually compelling at all,” says Hammond. “Do you really want to spend the weekend in a garden centre in pursuit of what’s not actually that big a discount? Probably not – but that only occurs to the shopper in hindsight. “It’s exactly what Apple does when it launches a new phone, whipping the audience into a frenzy and getting them completely carried away.” Interestingly, Apple, the technology giant, was one of the few retailers who refused to participate in Friday’s mayhem, instead building on its good-guy reputation by announcing it would make a charity donation for every gift-card it sold instead. But why do we feel an urge potentially to risk our safety to spend our usually meagre earnings on objects that – almost certainly – we already own, do not need and about which will have buyer’s remorse? It is because, Graves explains, none of us can resist a deal.

“Humans feel the loss of something far more keenly than they feel gain,” he says, “and will do almost anything to avoid feeling bad in the future. So while caution would normally tell us we will feel bad if we spend lots of money, if we see a bargain, we think about how feel we’ll feel if we don’t grab the chance to own a 50-inch television.” This is despite the fact that such bargains are rarely what they seem. On Friday, many com-plained to Which?, the consumer group, that websites had dropped the price of some goods, only to increase the price of others. The television on “half-price” sale at £200 may never have been worth £400 in the first place, but it had previously been on display at that inflated price for a fortnight to gain its Black Friday sale sticker. Many shops stockpile old goods, or items bought in specifically for Black Friday, to create the impression of virtually giving away items, when in fact they’re still turning a healthy profit. Even armed with such knowledge, however, few of us can resist a 70-per-cent-off label. “Evidence shows that even when you make consumers aware of marketing tricks, it only has a short term effect,” Graves says. “Evolution has left us with these fundamental psychological desires that drive our actions and now we’re no longer in the caves, consumerism meets many of them. “The need to survive we can meet through being persuaded to stockpile. The drive for status that cavemen needed in order to have a pack leader is now

satisfied by buying material goods. Shopping is just not a rational process.” You can say that again. At 1am on Friday morning, in a north-east London branch of Sainsbury’s, Louise Haggerty, a 56-year-old waitress and hairdresser, confided: “I got a Dyson, but I don’t even know if I want it. I just picked it up.” At the same store, Andy Blackett, 30, an estate agent, was pushing two trollies. “I got two coffee makers, two tablets, two TVs and a stereo,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you the prices, but I know they’re bargains.” However regretful – and broke – these shoppers may be feeling today (or as soon as their credit card bill arrives), retailers, under huge pressure from the City to produce encouraging Christmas results, are triumphant. John Lewis reported the number of visitors to its website between midnight and 6am during Black Friday was up 30 per cent on last year. Currys announced its web traffic up five times compared to last year, with the only problem being “unprecedented demand”. The result means that – love it, or loathe it – from now on, Black Friday is now as firmly lodged in the cultural calendar as that other recent US import, Hallowe’en. “Very few major retailers will dare resist,” predicts Graves. “They’re motivated by daily and weekly sales and if they see their rivals making a profit when they refused to discount, it will be a significant blow. Black Friday is here to stay.”

The Church Messenger: if anyone has any interesting articles or information they feel would be useful to other members of the Parish, feel free to write up a short piece and forward it to the office for inclusion (subject to approval!).


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Playtime Breakup 2014 Child Safe Ministry: an update from Deacon Sandra St John’s places great emphasis on ensuring we do everything we can to make our parish a safe place for children. We have a Safe Ministry Policy on display at the back of the church which everyone is encouraged to read.

Everyone who works with children completes the

Safe Ministry Training every three years and we are up to date with the State Government laws, which require that all those working with children have a Working With Children number which is verified by the parish. Clergy were amongst the first to get this number and now by March 2015 all lay people working with children must have their own number. There are large fines for groups and individuals who do not comply with these laws.

I am pleased to say that all lay people in the parish who regularly work with children have already done this as well as most of our occasional helpers. Over January we are hoping that the remainder of our occasional helpers will also do this. People who do not have a number will no longer be able to help with children’s ministries. If you are not sure how to go about it, please talk with Deacon Sandra.


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St John’s Parish seeks to be environmentally aware and responsible in our use of resources.

Family home become too big? Too lonely? Living in a Serviced Apartment at Willandra Village you can continue to enjoy your independent lifestyle in a friendly and caring environment. With the added benefit of letting someone else look after the meal preparation, cleaning and heavy laundry.

For more information call 1800 026 388.

81 Willandra Road Cromer

HOW TO CONTACT US

Where to find us: Cnr Avon Road and Oaks Avenue, Dee Why 2099 Parish Priest: Fr Steven Salmon SSC 0417 359 792 (mob)

Tel: 9971 8694 (Office and Rectory). Email: [email protected]

Parish Deacon: The Rev’d Sandra Salmon (Hon)

Email: [email protected] Tel: 9971 8694 (Office and Rectory)

Assistant Deacon: The Rev’d Jennifer Barry (Hon) 0457 396 323 (mob)

Email: [email protected] Churchwardens: Bev Bingham 9971 5529 Robyn Couch 0414 645 338 (mob) Tony Johnson 0419 225 011 (mob)

Email: [email protected] Director of Music: Tom Edwards 0481 563 258 (mob)

Email: [email protected]

Children’s Ministry: Lynette Johnson Dn Sandra Salmon

0408 254 125 (mob)

Pastoral Care: Clergy (see contact details above)

Lynette Johnson [email protected]

0408 254 125 (mob)

(Baptism Preparation and Hospital Visitor) Administration: Beck Whelan (part-time)

Office phone: 9971 8694 (Fax 9971 8252) Office hours: 9:30am–2:00pm (Mon–Fri) Office email: [email protected] Maintenance: [email protected] Postal address: PO Box 495

Dee Why NSW 2099

Website: www.stjohnsdeewhy.org.au Parish Council Members:

Heather Andrews Valda Ashover Neridah Byrne Don Fisher Pam Fisher Lynette Johnson Dudley Johnson Roz Peterson Anne Seddon Don Stephens Katherine Ward

“The Church Messenger” January 1955

RECTOR’S LETTER Dear Friends, What am I looking forward to in 1955? First, more and more worshippers. I mean that in both its senses. If we are able to lead people to real worship there would be no lack in the number who regularly attend church. We have far too many good, well meaning, generous people who rarely, if ever, come to church. This is not a grouch, it’s a plea. I am very much looking forward to seeing filled churches in 1955. Then 1 can see that we must increase our missionary interest. At least 10% of our income ought to be going out to missions. A church should be proud of the money it pays out, more than what it brings in. The beginning of Acts 5 is rather relevant sometimes, don’t you think? And now:— the new church. We must quickly settle on a plan, have it approved and with single minded devotion work as we’ve never worked before. The foundation down before Christmas is an objective I have set before me. My hands are tied without your enthusiasm. We want the most beautiful church on the northern beaches as an outward expression of the love and zeal of Anglicans in this parish. Above all, looking back on 1955, I will want to know that I have kept first things first—the things of God, our life in Him; our faith, hope and love centred in Him. That you, too, are looking forward to these things is the coup of — Your friend, NEVILLE CHYNOWETH.

the church messenger jan 2015

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