/4 9 4 9 201 ember Dec SUMMER Summer 2019 LITURGY NEWS 1 I would argue that we are not The readings of Scripture take us in the celebrating the ‘day’. We are celebrating same direction. Isaiah promises the Australia. We are celebrating our Spirit who will bring justice and integrity identity as a nation. Whatever date we which, in turn, produce peace and choose for our national day, we cannot security. Paul’s first letter to the wipe away an ignominious colonial Corinthians speaks of the variety of the history of violence, exploitation and Spirit’s gifts which lead us to respect racism. We need to own it. Perhaps 26 differences. Paul’s letter to the Romans CELEBRATING January more than any other day, urges us not to let our love be a pretence. precisely because of its associations, The Gospel of Matthew offers us the Truly This is an AUSTRALIA stands as a call to conversion and Beatitudes and Luke gives the example of reconciliation. It keeps before our mind the birds of the air and the flowers of the here is a lot of controversy about the the sorry history of our nation and urges field to encourage us to trust in God’s date of Australia Day. This is good T us to work for a better and more providence. These choices have and right. It is a debate we need to have. harmonious future. This is the tenor of deliberately avoided texts of the land- The eleven ships of the First Fleet arrived the prayers and readings we use to flowing-with-milk-and-honey kind in Botany Bay between 18 and 20 celebrate Australia in the liturgy. which might give the impression that January 1788 after a voyage of 36 weeks. Australia is flawlessly blessed with Exulted(From the Preface of the Dedication P of a Church)lace In the liturgical feast, we are not The site was unsuitable for a settlement pretending that we are God’s own everything good and beautiful. and it took several days to discover Port by Anthony Mellor country where The date 26 January is certainly Jackson 12 kilometres to the north. So it was on 26 January that the ships moved everything is or has confronting. But it provides a strong been perfect. context in which we pray for Australia to a sheltered anchorage with fresh Nor, worse still, and celebrate a vision for a new creation water which Arthur Phillip named are we boasting in Christ. It would be a great pity if a Sydney Cove. The official policy of the ‘A cathedral is more than a large church. It contains in civic service, they provide a public space of or gloating that different date for our national day British Government was to establish the cathedra or bishop’s chair which is both a seat of connection and identity. we are the friendly relations with the Aboriginal produced just an escapist opportunity for authority and a sign of unity. As far back as the 3rd These elements were demonstrated clearly when people and Phillip ordered that they be greatest. superficial partying. century, Tertullian referred to the cathedra Paris collectively mourned for Notre Dame Cathedral Triumphalist well treated. The idealist may therefore In the end, if 26 January is too painful an apostolorum (chair of the apostles) as a guarantee of after the fire of April 2019. nationalism has been regard 26 January as ‘First Contact’ day, anniversary and if we cannot find faithful teaching. Long before the Church’s sense of carefully eschewed. Instead we humbly Cathedrals are never finished. The oldest and a day luminous with possibility. But in consensus around a different date, the episcopal ministry matured, and certainly prior the stand before God, acknowledging all our grandest cathedrals are the subject of centuries of fact, conflict soon broke out and today liturgy may offer us another solution. flourishing of cathedral architecture, the cathedra peoples old and new, asking for the light extensions, restorations, repairs and additions and many call it ‘Invasion Day’. We have a liturgical tradition of apostolorum symbolised an ecclesial sense of of Christ so that we will see more clearly, thus convey a sense of living history and growth. th celebrating a ‘vigil’ or of anticipating a authoritative witness to the tradition embodied in the Throughout the 19 century, January 26 and seeking the saving grace to This is true even of Brisbane’s 150-year-old Cathedral solemn feast on the evening before the person of the local bishop. was celebrated in Sydney as Foundation transform our lives. We pray for a of St Stephen, built in several stages. On 4 December day. If we were to adopt this custom in Day; other states celebrated their own blessing on our land and peace for all What makes a cathedral distinct from any other 2019 we celebrated thirty years since its most recent celebrating the liturgy of Australia Day anniversaries of foundation. For the who dwell here. We pray that our holy church in the diocese then is the seat of the bishop restoration and dedication. The tiny original on 25 January, we would be symbolically from which he presides, teaches and pronounces. cathedral, oldest church in Queensland, stands sesquicentenary in 1938, although the communion will give us all the strength celebrating on the day before ‘invasion’, We speak of Christ as priest, prophet and king. beside it. The precinct is a fine example of a living main celebrations were held in Sydney, it to walk together in the ways of justice. was becoming a date of national a day still replete with the possibility of While the bishop shares in Christ’s threefold ministry public and sacred space in which believer and non- significance. After World War II, the day The Preface explicitly acknowledges that harmony and respect, a day for in a special way, this participation is not his privilege believer alike mingle. It is a green space and a public was agreed by all states, though it did for tens of thousands of years, God has dreaming that a different history might alone; every Christian is anointed in their baptism to thoroughfare. As the Church’s rituals unfold inside, not become a public holiday for all states been with the people of Australia, yet unfold for us. share in the threefold vocation of Christ. Therefore, a hundreds of people transit the precinct going to and until 1994! This is recent. sustaining them with the bounty of cathedral is not the sole domain of the local bishop; it from work or having lunch in the shade or winter divine providence. This is a far cry from is the home of all the faithful of the local Church of sun. It is a genuine gift to the city and forms a Other dates have been suggested. In the colonial missionaries who once the diocese. ‘courtyard to the House of God’. 1915, to raise funds for World War I, an sought to suppress Aboriginal practices, Cathedrals are more than ecclesial structures. They The Cathedral of St Stephen functions on at least Australia Day was held on 30 July. The stories and beliefs which they considered serve a multiplicity of functions and are a three levels: firstly it is the cathedral church of the following year, the committee decided on pagan and idolatrous. Instead we offer 28 July. Some have suggested 12 March JUDITH DURHAM HAS WRITTEN concentrated intersection of the human and the Archdiocese; secondly it is an inner-city church our praise of God in union with the divine, the ecclesial and the worldly, the offering liturgical and sacramental service for the because this was the day in 1913 when A NEW VERSION OF ADVANCE whole people of Australia, people from transcendent and the mundane: busy CBD; and thirdly it is the main church of the Canberra was named and Australia’s AUSTRALIA FAIR. HAVE A LOOK! every race and tongue, every place and architecturally, they are the fruits of a striving for broader cathedral parish (which includes St Patrick’s capital city was born. Or perhaps 27 time. The liturgy in the Missal creative excellence and craftsmanship; in Fortitude Valley and Villa Maria Centre at Spring May would be suitable because on this encourages us to transcend the grubby spiritually, they point to the sacred in the midst of Hill). These three functions meld together rather date in 1967 a referendum agreed to reality we see so often when we scratch the secular; than sit in awkward tension. In a liturgical sense, the include Aboriginal people in the census; the surface of Australian society. in service to society, they are a gathering point in primary task is to balance each of these important it symbolises recognition for all collective moments of thanksgiving and lament; elements in the annual cycle of feasts and seasons. Australians. 2 LITURGY NEWS Summer 2019 Summer 2019 LITURGY NEWS 3 I would argue that we are not The readings of Scripture take us in the celebrating the ‘day’. We are celebrating same direction. Isaiah promises the Australia. We are celebrating our Spirit who will bring justice and integrity identity as a nation. Whatever date we which, in turn, produce peace and choose for our national day, we cannot security. Paul’s first letter to the wipe away an ignominious colonial Corinthians speaks of the variety of the history of violence, exploitation and Spirit’s gifts which lead us to respect racism. We need to own it. Perhaps 26 differences. Paul’s letter to the Romans CELEBRATING January more than any other day, urges us not to let our love be a pretence.