www.saintjohnstoorak.org

Welcome to The Anglican parish of St John the Evangelist

86 Clendon Rd Toorak VIC 3142

PH 98261765

Vicar Archdeacon Dr

Bradly S Billings

our mission statement

What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join us in the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his son Jesus

Christ. 1 John 1.3

St John’s Anglican Church

Toorak

23 December 2012

Fourth Sunday of Advent

8am Holy Communion A Prayer Book for Australia 1995

10am Sung Eucharist A Prayer Book for Australia 1995

NOTICES

Sunday evening service 5pm Evening Service & Bible Study is now in recess until February 2013.

Akubra hat needed Are you able to assist the vicar by lending an akubra hat, needed for the children's Christmas service (6pm Christmas Eve), at which the story of the birth of Jesus will be read from 'The Aussie Bible'.

Parish Office The Parish Office will be closed from Tuesday 25 December, reopening Wednesday 2 January.

Ways you can assist those in need this Christmas Dixon House Anglicare: food collection. The food collection basket will be out each Sunday of Advent. A notice from Dixon House is included in the pew slip advising of what can be donated. Please remember to add something for Dixon House to your shopping basket each time you visit the supermarket in December.

Anglicare Christmas toy appeal A suggested list of toys from Anglicare is included in the pew slip. These may be left at the parish office or in the Church. Toys are to be new and unwrapped.

The Christmas Bowl appeal Envelopes are now available for the Christmas Bowl appeal, which is the major fundraising initiative of the National Council of Churches. See the notice in the pew slip

About our Assistant Curate and Children's Minister - Kirsty Ross Most will know that St John's is preparing to welcome an additional member of the Ministry Team in 2013. Having completed the necessary nomination forms, we are now able to give that person a name and to tell you a bit about her. Our new Assistant Curate and Children's and Families minister will be Kirsty Ross. Kirsty originally comes from Salisbury in England but moved to Melbourne in 2007 to complete a GAP Year. She fell in love with Australia and stayed to study her Bachelor of Theology at the Melbourne College of Divinity and Trinity College Theological School where she lived as a residential student. In September 2011 Kirsty married Alex, also a candidate for ordination in the Diocese of Melbourne, and they moved to England to continue their formation at Ripon College Cuddesdon

for two years. In addition to this ministerial formation Kirsty is also completing her teaching qualification in Religious Education at the University of Oxford. Kirsty and Alex will both be ordained as deacons by the Bishop of Oxford at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford on June 29th 2013. They will then fly back to Australia where Kirsty will join us as Assistant Curate from July. Kirsty is looking forward to joining the parish community at St John’s and is particularly excited about the opportunities to connect with young families and nurture the growing ministry among children and young people. Please keep Kirsty in your prayers as she prepares for ordination and to join us in July.

This Sunday: 23 Dec Fourth Sunday of Advent

(violet) 8.00am - Holy Communion

A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119

Hymns: 161; 302; 323 Micah 5.2-5a (T Mouritz) Song of Mary p 425 Hebrews 10.5-10 (J Foxcroft) Luke 1.39-45 Celebrant: Bradly Billings Preacher: Bradly Billings Intercessor: Brenda Mouritz

Next Sunday: 30 Dec Christmas 1

(white) 8.00am - Holy Communion

A Prayer Book for Australia, p.119

Hymns: 309; 311; 268 1 Samuel 2.18-20; 26 (C Papageorge) Psalm 148 Colossians 3.12-17 (T Craddock) Luke 2.41-52 Celebrant: Bradly Billings Preacher: Bradly Billings Intercessor: Carmen Papageorge

10.00am – Sung Eucharist & Baptism A Prayer Book for Australia, p.51 Hymns: 161; 42; 283;v1-3; 302; 323

Micah 5.2-5a (M Lincoln) Song of Mary p 425 Hebrews 10.5-10 (G Gould) Luke 1.39-45

Anthem: Ave Maria (Bruckner) Motet: Love came down at Christmas (Rutter)

Celebrant: Bradly Billings Preacher: Bradly Billings Intercessor: Keith Beecher

10.00am – Sung Eucharist & Baptism A Prayer Book for Australia, p.51 Hymns: 309; 311; 268 1 Samuel 2.18-20; 26 (L Weeks) Psalm 148 Colossians 3.12-17 (H Nye) Luke 2.41-52

Anthem: tbc Motet: tbc

Celebrant: Bradly Billings Preacher: Bradly Billings Intercessor: Claire Beecher

5pm Evening Service & Bible Study is now in recess until February 2013.

5pm Evening Service & Bible Study is now in recess until February 2013.

WORSHIP Director of Music - Professor Mel Waters

World & Nation: We pray for Anglican Christians working for peace in so many troubled parts of the world. The Church in Koforidua, Ghana (Bp Frances Quashie); The Diocese of Tasmania (Bp John Harrower Bps Chris Jones, Ross Nicholson, Clergy and People); Tintern School (Jenny Collins, Principal; Stewart Taplin, Chaplain); Parish of Mt Eliza (Shane Hubner, Sue Brooks, Mike Simpson); St John’s Diamond Creek (Bp Barbara Darling).

Those getting married: Bob van Zuiden and Natalie Bishop.

Those getting baptised: Eleanor Gates; Sophie McKenzie.

For schools in the community Geelong Grammar School Toorak Campus (Glamorgan), Head of Campus Garry Pierson; St Catherine's School, Principal Sylvia Walton AO; CRE program and teachers at Toorak Primary School.

The Toorak Ecumenical Movement: Pray for our partner churches: St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Toorak Uniting Church, The Swedish Church.

For those who lead us in the Anglican Church: The Most Revd Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne The Right Revd Paul White, Bishop of the Southern Region.

For our CMS Link Missionaries: Pray for peace in our city and for the constitution being developed to be fair for all citizens.

For the sick and all in need: Sophie; Beverley Smith; Matthew; Phillip Treloar; Hazel Lord; John Saunders; Susan; Duncan Ansell; Jenny Williams; David; Ann Brewer; Pat; Alan; Noriece Bradbury; Joy Pearce; Dorothy Wood; Victoria Warne.

For those in nursing homes and those who are house bound: Nan Milner; Randall Watt; Lorna Mirfield; Dorothy Hughes; Marje Smith.

Give thanks for those whose Anniversary of death is this week:. John Holt; Elizabeth Moore; Margaret Powell; Tony Warden; Emily Boorn; Pamela Hayne; Janet Langdon; Sydney Neate; Lois Neville; Mary Brooksbank; Jean Iverson; Irene Jolly; Frederick Langdon; Sheila Noye; John Ricketson; Graeme Robertson; Stephen Winter; Evelyn Leitch; Briar Webb; Richard Fielder; Kathleen Law; Mandy Lempriere Hogg; Bonnie Meares; Rex Carnegie; Nancy Smith; Diana Sutherland; Hamish Carnegie; Remo Checcucci; June Green; Marcelle Kiddie; Ailsa Newbiggin; Betty Nicolas; Carl Stratmann; Dorothy Walsh; Phyllis Worth.

PRAYER NOTES

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS & WISHES From the Vicar Dear parishioners and friends of St John’s, Another year is drawing to a close, and once again we are about to join together in the annual celebration of the Birth of our Lord. The parish office has been frantically producing many orders of service, well over 1,000, for the various services that will take place in the next few days, and we are also this year producing ‘show bags’ for all children attending the Christmas eve Children’s Service. In addition to our own services, we are producing some booklets and advertising material for our partner parish of All Saints Kooyong as well. All of this is being done with the help of some faithful volunteers, in particular Rona, Shierley, and Nicky Jacob who had the idea for the show bags! Both Hilary and I, your clergy, have been especially in demand this past week, with the usual four wed-dings last weekend, five funerals in a seven day period, and four baptisms again last Sunday, finishing with our marvelous service of Nine Lessons and Carols. We look forward to the church being filled with children again on Christmas Eve at 6pm. This dedicated Children’s service, introduced four years ago, is now the best attended service over the Christmas period. This year, a DVD recording of the service will be made available to any wishing to obtain one, at a cost of $50. Further, festive celebrations of the Eucharist will follow, at 11.30pm Christmas Eve, and then at 8am and 10am on Christmas Day. Our friend, the Revd John Griffiths, will be leading a Midnight Eucharist at All Saints Kooyong on Christmas Eve. Of course, these liturgical celebrations are only a part of the whole that is Christmas, although for people of faith, this is very much the reason for the season. Nonetheless, we will all, I expect, join with others – family, friends, neighbours – over the Christmas period. Some of us will be spending Christmas, for the first time, without someone we have loved. Others are facing difficult and uncertain times ahead. There will be many, most unknown to us and unseen by us, who are suffering through illness, loneliness, financial hardship, or other means.

I wonder if this Christmas, that in the midst of all the busyness of the season, all of us who are people of faith might consider leading a simple prayer of grace around the Christmas lunch or dinner table. Perhaps this is already your custom. If not, consider introducing it. Perhaps you will be a guest in another’s home. If so, why not ask permission to say grace before the meal commences. I am often asked to do this in what might be called ‘secular’ environments, and in contexts where it is clearly not the usual custom for grace to be said before a meal – when visiting, when attending formal dinners, and sometimes among my own family. The prayer, if kept short, and focused on others, is always appreciated. If we do not take the initiative, as people of faith, to remind our friends and families of the real reason for the season in this simple and usually well accepted way, they are unlikely to hear it or be reminded of it elsewhere. A simple Christmas grace should do three things – (i) give thanks to God for sending his Son Jesus into the world to live among us, (ii) give thanks for the abundance of food we are about to enjoy and for one another’s fellowship, and (iii) pray for those who go without or for whom Christmas is not a happy or joyous time of year, for whatever reason. This year, we might think in particular of those families in the United States, suffering the loss of innocent children through the mindless act of violence perpetrated at that elementary school in Connecticut. If you agree with my sentiments – you might further pray that the leaders and citizens of that great nation finally come to their senses and introduce sane laws around gun ownership and control, like those introduced in Australia under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Howard following the appalling events at Port Arthur in 1996. These shocking events, and others like them, remind us again and again of the inherent truth of the biblical worldview, that ‘Christ came into the world to save us, whilst we were still sinners’ (Romans 5.8). How the world in which we live needs this Saviour, how it longs for this Prince of Peace. Both Karen and I, and our family, wish you and your families, every blessing as we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Venerable Dr Bradly S Billings Vicar

FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN 2013 FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO LOOK AHEAD!

A number of special services have been arranged for next year, and will include the following:

Patronal Festival, St John’s Day, on Sunday 5th May. Bishop White will be our celebrant and preacher.

The annual St Catherine’s school service at 10am on Pentecost Sunday (May 19th). Archbishop Philip will be celebrant and preacher, and the ser-vice will include Confirmations.

The annual “Keble Mass” will be at St John’s at 6pm on Sunday 14th July, with the Rt Revd Gary Weatherell, the bishop of Ballarat, the guest preacher. A parish visit by Bishop White on Sunday 21st July to formally commission our new Assistant Curate and Children’s Minister.

In addition to this, I am arranging for there to be three “theme” Sundays, on which the service and sermon will be dedicated toward the work of Anglican agencies. Those planned for 2013 are:

A Benetas (Anglican Aged Care) Sunday on Sunday April 21st. Sandra Hills, CEO, and a team from Benetas, will speak about their work in the community on this Sunday. An Anglicare Sunday. I have had some contact with CEO Paul Macdonald about this and the date is to be confirmed. An Anglican Overseas Aid (Anglicord) Sunday. CEO Bob Mitchell will bring the message on behalf of AOA on Sunday 4 August 2013.

This week at St John’s Sunday 23 December Baptism of Eleanor Gates during the 10.00am service. 2.00pm - Baptism of Sophie McKenzie. Monday 24 December - Christmas Eve 6.00pm - A Christmas service for all ages. 11.30pm - The Midnight Eucharist (Holy Communion) with carols Tuesday 25 December - Christmas Day 8.00am - Service of Holy Communion with carols. 10.00am - Service of Holy Communion with carols. Thursday 27 December 11.00am - Holy Communion. Saturday 29 December 2.30pm - Wedding of Bob Van Zuiden and Natalie Bishop.

Saint John’s Anglican Church, Toorak 86 Clendon Road Toorak 3142 Telephone : 9826 1765 Fax: 9826 4395 Email: enquiries@saintjohnstoorak.org Vicar Archdeacon Dr Bradly S Billings PH (mobile) 0421 638950 Email: vicar@saintjohnstoorak.org

Associate Priest Revd Hilary Roath associate@saintjohnstoorak.org

Director of Music & Organist Professor Mel Waters music@saintjohnstoorak.org

Marriage Ministry Co-ordinator Ms Gay Djumas marriagemin@saintjohnstoorak.org

Administration Mrs Sally Robertson

Prayer Chain Co-ordinator Mrs Annette Wilson 9822 8968 St John’s on-line Website: www.saintjohnstoorak.org