Vicar's newsletter On-line Ministry and Living Water

[Hugh Kempster]

Dear Parishioners and Friends of St Peter’s,

How are you and yours? I imagine we are all hanging out for this Sunday’s “road map” out of lockdown from our Premier. 

While the lock-downs have been somewhat gruelling for us all, I must say that I am very proud of the various ways that the St Peter’s Ministry Team has risen to the challenge and developed our on-line ministry as a Parish since March: from Weekday Mass on Facebook, Mon-Fri, 7:15am live-stream (bit.ly/3lE1YVM <http://bit.ly/3lE1YVM>) to Praying the Rosary, Mon, Wed, Fri at 5:00pm (contact alaetaulealo at gmail.com <mailto:alaetaulealo at gmail.com>) and Christian Meditation, Wed at 12:00pm (contact randrashby at bigpond.com <mailto:randrashby at bigpond.com>) and most recently Friday drinks at 7.30pm (bit.ly/2QQKWWr <http://bit.ly/2QQKWWr>). Sunday Mass continues at 10:30am live-streamed on Facebook (bit.ly/3lE1YVM <http://bit.ly/3lE1YVM>) and YouTube (bit.ly/31R5VhW <http://bit.ly/31R5VhW>) followed by Sunday Morning Tea at the Vicarage at 12.30pm (bit.ly/2Z3sUVj <http://bit.ly/2Z3sUVj>) and we recently relaunched Children’s Church (www.stpeters.org.au/childrens-church <http://www.stpeters.org.au/childrens-church>). I hope that some or all of these on-line ministries have been, and will be, helpful to you in staying connected as a parish, and nurturing your faith during these times of lockdown and restrictions.
All that being said, life is far from easy for many if not all of us, as we do our best to plot a path though the pandemic.

Parishioner, and former Editor of The Melbourne Anglican newspaper, Roland Ashby recently launched a blog “Living Water” (www.thelivingwater.com.au <http://www.thelivingwater.com.au/>) which is well worth a look. His most recent reflection is a hopeful lament, that resonated with me deeply this week; and Roland has kindly agreed to let me share it in full with you in my newsletter this week (see below). I hope that it will be helpful for you too in these challenging times that we are living through.

May God’s grace - the gentle morning dew - be yours, this day, and always.
Warmest regards,
Fr Hugh
___________________
The Rev’d Dr J. Hugh Kempster
Vicar, St Peter’s Eastern Hill
www.stpeters.org.au
vicar at stpeters.org.au
+61 488 960 022


IN THE MIDST OF DESPAIR, WE CAN FIND HOPE AT THE FOUNT OF LOVE
By Roland Ashby
For several months now I have been waking up in the morning feeling slightly depressed. The solitude imposed by COVID-19 has created more opportunities for negative thoughts to arise, and what seemed to be safely buried in the past - mistakes and failures and humiliations, as well as hurts (both given and received) - suddenly reappear as if they happened yesterday, with all the freshness and immediacy, and therefore pain, that that entails.

Anglican hermit Maggie Ross, who has chosen solitude and silence as a way of life, says that such thoughts can keep returning “like clouds of mosquitoes on the Arctic tundra.”

Having reached a point where most of my life is behind me I seem to have entered a period of reviewing my life, and also of urgently seeking to discern how best to live the years ahead of me. Two questions in particular keep pressing in on me: How can my life be purposeful and meaningful, and at the same time, how will I cope with the diminished physical capabilities that inevitably accompany this stage of life?

It’s been slowly dawning on me that “feeling slightly depressed” does not really do it justice. It’s actually more a case of what the biblical tradition would call “lament.”

But it is also a lament for the state of the world.

It’s a lament for the looming environmental catastrophe, the beginnings of which we are already witnessing, and which will not be averted unless there is decisive action over the next few years; it’s a lament for the corruption of our democracies by powerful lobby groups, particularly the fossil fuel industries; it’s a lament for the cynicism of callous, narcissistic and mendacious political leaders intoxicated with power; it’s a lament for violence and oppression wherever it exists; and it’s a lament for the 40-year-long undermining of the post-WWII public commitment to the common good, and for out-of-control capitalism resulting in obscene disparities in wealth.

But, despite all this, I cling to hope. Because I know that within me, and within each one of us, there is a deep spring of love, joy and peace; of compassion and justice; of goodness, beauty and truth. Maggie Ross calls it “Deep Mind.” It’s an encounter with ultimate reality, pure being at the ground of our being, which is an encounter with pure love. Thomas Aquinas believed that this infinite fullness of being, this infinite fount of love, is what we call God. And as the Psalmist says, it’s a love “that endures forever,” even through the hardest of trials.

One way to enter this Deep Mind, this fullness of being, is through one-pointed meditation. In my case this means using a prayer word or mantra. It’s at such times I bathe again in what Jesus called “Living Water,” renew my strength, and find the courage to go on, hoping and working for a world in which all can flourish, justice will prevail, and the vision that Jesus embodied and died for will not perish.

One of the great spiritual writers of the 20th century, Henri Nouwen, once spent seven months in a Trappist monastery, the Abbey of the Genesee in New York. He wrote in a diary that he kept during his time there, that in times of solitude and silence his mind would wander “in all directions, but started to brood on negative feelings.” He learned there the importance of “Nepsis” or “watchfulness in keeping bad thoughts away” and instead directing his attention to God.

In one beautiful and moving diary entry, he writes: “God’s grace ... is like a gentle morning dew and a soft rain that gives new life to barren soil ... My call is indeed to become more and more sensitive to the morning dew and open my soul to the rain so that my innermost self can bring forth the Saviour.”
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