Saturday, December 19, 2015

News at Christmas 2015


Our very dear friends,

What we would really like to do is sit down with each of you, and do what we all enjoy so much, recalling things that have mattered to us this year or longer ago, sharing the different ways in which we have experienced God and life, or questions about the same...delighting in sharing about those we love, very much still with us, or having gone on; there are SO MANY things to share with friends!
However, this year we will just have to make do with a summary of a year in a one side at a time communication!
The excitement at the beginning of the year was in having all our family together here at Battery Point. Anthony and Allan came from Adelaide, Catherine came from Los Angeles, USA, (minus Adrian, who was with us "in spirit") and of course Ruth, Moz, Jess and Caleb. The original purpose of our togetherness changed from shared holiday to "compassionate leave", when just a couple of hours before Catherine's arrival, John had a very serious fall from the deck of our home at Penna where he was working, and we all spent lots of time with him in the Royal Hobart Hospital and Hobart Private in subsequent weeks.
John was continuing recovery, from 10 broken ribs, damaged vertebrae, punctured lung, necessitating multiple drains and an op., when I experienced agonizing pain, which resulted in back surgery, and of course, several weeks in hospital including rehab., all of which brought us to about the beginning of April. Our summary of that time would be that we were overwhelmed with the love and practical support given by everyone in the Church, from Anglican leadership and our St George's and Midlands church families, to so many other friends in Christ, and amongst music loving friends in the choirs with which we are involved (3 of them) and almost every acquaintance in Tasmania, and around the world. Amazing!
As with everyone else we know, time has raced on for us, and our work has had both rewards and challenges; we are lovingly supported and trust that is how we care for others too. There are many aspects to the call to be in ministry leadership, and faithfulness in that calling certainly only happens through the Holy Spirit's enabling, and we have seen that as John has lived out that calling this year, in its many facets. He has also appreciated sharing times with others in the same boat, and found the transparency and accountability a great support. This year I have been part of Cursillo, and enjoyed the fellowship and leading worship with a beautiful group of women.
John has worked consistently on our house, with some dear friends' help, and it is great to see it look more and more like THE PLAN. It is no small undertaking to dismantle a house and then rebuild it. Building the house has occupied most of John's days off and holidays, but this year we took a week and went to Sydney to see, for the first time ever, an opera in the Sydney opera house, a wonderful enrichment! We also visited dear friends in Victoria on the way home, a great treat.
I have worked with our St George's Choir and the Midlands choir, "Bagdad Community Singers" as conductor and accompanist, and sung in the wonderful Festival of Voices choir (Haydn's "Creation "this year with a wonderful conductor from UK) and regularly with the Tasmanian Chorale, a lovely group with whom to sing, LOTS of fun. Working with choirs as conductor is my passion! It's so wonderful to hear things come together for those involved, and then to share the results with various audiences ... John is fantastic in his support of me in all these endeavours, especially as Parkinson's company gives us both a reasonable amount of challenge, re medication management and other implications re energy and strength. John also continues to deal with health issues so we have a lot of mutual caring going on!
In prayerful discussion with our diocesan and St George's leadership, our parish council and our family, we and our congregation have decided that John will swap places with our current associate priest, Victor, (a wonderful and gifted younger man of God) in January, that is, Victor will be priest in charge of St George's parish, John will be  part time associate priest, in Battery Point and the Southern Midlands, and we will move to Penna at the end of March (trusting the house will be liveable in by then!)
Just before Bishop John Harrower retired he appointed John as a Canon of the Cathedral, which is quite an honour and acknowledgement of his ministry. In June John will officially conclude his ministry at St George's. (As yet we are not sure about our ongoing role in the Midlands, and our new bishop will not be here until just before Easter). We will have been here over 9 years.
So that's us!
Love to hear from all of you.
We are, as you have doubtless noticed, not good correspondents; we are quite good with brief but loving Facebook messages, and fair with email, we LOVE Skype, and are so grateful to be able to talk to Anthony and Catherine that way! And anyone else who would like to talk that way!
God bless you this Christmas, our Lord Jesus IS the centre of Christmas and everything else!
Yours in His great love,
Roslyn and John