Thanksgiving commitment
Dedication festival: 1st August, 2010
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
On the first Sunday in August 1848 this completed church was dedicated by Bishop Charles Perry. He had arrived earlier that year in the height of summer. The plaque by our front door reminds us that the proclamation regarding the city status of this settlement of Melbourne had been read from our steps on February 13th. So 13 years after the beginning of European settlement here, this simple reminder of the church back home was built, complete with a prominent tower and on the highest point. Our tower was a landmark for ships coming up the Bay. St James' was already on the western hill at the other end of Bourke Street, also with a tower. The first St Paul's was yet to come in 1852 and St Francis Lonsdale Street was the centre of Roman Catholic life. St Pat's domination of this hill was to be a generation later.
My favourite engraving in our collection of early representations of St Peter's is to be found to the left as you go into the Parish Hall. It shows the whole property as it first was, including the first vicarage and the first school, sometime shortly after 1855. The whole scene is full of life. There is a wedding party just moving to the entrance of the church with a small crowd waiting for them. Their carriages with festively dressed horses are waiting for their return (facing in the wrong direction as it happens). There are a couple of dozen improbably small children playing in our schoolyard. There is a troop of red-coated soldiers coming up from Collins Street towards the church about to pass a bullock dray. The central stump of the first part of the newly built Parliament is just behind and the whole of the city right down to the port provides the total context.
The two thirds of our total original property grant that was to be taken back in the 1880s is very clear when we look at this engraving. It was in 1886 that the brick second vicarage and the school building (now Keble House) were to be built for us as a piece by the colonial government by way of compensation. The design has been described to me as 'Church Commissioners' gothic' — implying that this was something that could well have been built anywhere from basic plans on offer from London at that time. Students of Victorian architecture are fascinated by the integrity of the precinct. The building of a further school complex — now our Parish Hall building — came in 1913 and it has been crammed onto the site in a way that would be unthinkable today, obscuring completely as it does the street view of the simple cruciform lines of the 1840s church.
We are told that the bishop preached that Dedication Sunday 1848 on the building fund. That would have been a pressing issue in a church being dedicated and not consecrated. It was not yet fully paid for. The very fact of the building of this church so early is the clearest of indications that the provision of a place of worship, a school, and the qualified clergy and teachers was seen to be a top level priority. There is no doubt, too, that the giving required would have been sacrificial, not just spare change. Pre gold rush Melbourne was not a rich place and this was not the fancy end of town. Then, as indeed now, such a financial commitment was considered to be worth it from a sufficient number of people to make it happen. We are the inheritors of this vision and this confident hope in what was to come.
I am today not preaching on the building fund — not at least for buildings. But I would take this opportunity to underline just how important it is not to take the continuing health of the ministry and service offered from this city church for granted. We have many people, including those hundreds who visited us last weekend, who respond to the beauty and the evident care and prayer which is part of the very fabric of this church. But they do not keep the team ministry, or the music, or the worship going day-by-day and week-by-week. They do not see that the roof literally needed replacing only last year.
The thanksgiving commitment from all those for whom this is not a place for an occasional visit but rather their spiritual home — that is what makes what happens here happen. Regular committed, considered, intentional financial support, according to our means. That is essential to the continued healthy functioning of this parish, or indeed any voluntary association of people gathered in a common cause and for a common purpose. The call then is to prayerfully consider what you are able to contribute yourself or, alternatively, to hear this gentle reminder if this might be a good time to catch up what you have intended to do in any case. This will be very much appreciated.
In the next few weeks, everyone on our parish mailing list will receive the information relating to Christian giving and stewardship that we circulate at this time each year, as we come once again to the start of the Church financial year at the beginning of October. There is, for instance, a new set of planned giving envelopes available at this time each year. We also encourage direct debit contributions through the Anglican Development Fund facilities.
But right at this time, your vestry, and especially the churchwardens and treasurer, are working on the shape of our finances for the year to come. In particular the projected indicated level of pledged support from our regular parishioners is vital as we come to consider the shape of our parish budget for the provision of ministry. Generous live giving — that is the giving of the people through the offering, whether electronically or in the plate — that is always one of the most significant indicators to look for.
We always include within our numbers people who, for whatever reason, are no longer able to support in the ways that they formerly have — that is of course true and understood. But we also rejoice that others continually join with us who are happy to take on some of this financial commitment themselves. Today I encourage those who are new to the parish to do so generously and thankfully. The red forms at the end of each pew are one way of responding immediately and making sure you are on our mailing list.
As I said, this is a call to all who do not take St Peter's Eastern Hill for granted, and who understand that it takes a committed core of financial support, to ensure that what is valued and cherished here is passed on to further generations with a generous heart and in good spirit. This beautiful place of worship is worth it; the people who make up this community of faith are worth it. The people whose needs we seek to serve from here are worth it. We make a difference to Church and community.
In doing so we show forth the love of the God we worship in Jesus Christ.
In that spirit we give thanks on this Dedication Sunday, remembering all those who offered so much in that founding generation.
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