MARCH 2021 Volume 36 - No 1 WHAT’S INSIDE 1. Thank you from the editor Fostering Community Awareness 2. Somaliland – Is that a Country? & Communication 3. What are your plans for 2021? 4. Andrew and Amelia Mitchells Wedding Day 5. Baptism Welcoming’s 6. Alpha – What do you think is the meaning of life? 7. Fr Frank O’Dea 11. What are your plans for 2021? 12. This is our life – Jean & Ron Smith 13. Vale – Mia Buskes 14 Vale - Gloria Thomas Josh Whitmore 15. What are your plans for 2021? 16. Midlife Crisis 17. What are your plans for 2021? 18. More Respectful coverage – 19. Richard Rohr – Our Cosmic Mother 20. Sudoku 21. Children’s Page 22. Out of Touch – 24. Fr Pedro Opeka 25. Finding Time 26. What are your plans for 2021? 27. Something that might interest you 27. Meet the 107 year old 28. Divine Mercy 30 Life in Isolation Around the parish 31. Affirming Human Dignity for all 32. Halki Summit – Creation and Pandemic This Lent Remember Project Compassion 33. Homily for 5th Sunday - CHANGE STARTS WITH YOU 35. Winter Shelter Rogers Birthday 36. What are your plans for 2021? WHO IS MY BROTHER? 37. See, Hear, Act – Project Compassion Lord, help me to see those around me as my 40. Open to Conversion – brothers and sisters and to have the courage to 41. What’s it like growing up work through our differences. Amen disabled in Australia? 42. Gloria Thomas Tribute - Zak Wilmore Thank you to Ian Stuart for providing another of his beautiful photos. 43. Fr Peter Robinson 44. TRY ALPHA ONLINE 2 Holy Spirit Magazine MARCH 2021 Thank You from the Editor My usual thanks to all of you who have so generously responded to the I found the very moving eulogies, given so lovingly by both Mia’s call and submitted copy and photos for this edition of The Spirit. granddaughters and two of Gloria’s grandsons a very sobering reminder of just what an important role we as grandparents can play in the lives How wonderful it is to have Baptism Welcomings happening again. of our grandchildren. I for one will be endeavoring to be “more” to my Weddings and funerals, without extremely limited numbers adding to grandchildren after hearing these wonderful young people speak. the stress of losing loved ones. Obviously we are not out of the woods Thank you to all four of you for sharing the love and joy of your Oma yet with Covid, but we are adapting to a more “Covid normal” life, and and Grandmother with us. hopefully a lot more appreciative of the life we have. We offer our communities condolences to all who are bereaved, you The past quarter has seen the deaths of several well-known and loved may not be aware, but you are held in out thoughts and prayers. people associated with our parish. Fr Frank O’Dea, who contributed on a regular basis to The Spirit and who provided masses for us for many To all of you who are battling ill health, you too should know you are years. A truly remarkable man as his life story will show. not forgotten and that thoughts and prayers are directed your way every day. Robert O’Sullivan, the quiet husband of Philomena who was a stalwart of the parish in her time. Losing Phil would have been a huge loss but My apologies for this edition being late “on the streets”, I had an Robert continued on with his quiet good grace and humour for all unexpected chance to spend some time with my siblings and thought I those years since her death. would have had it proofed and to the printers before I left, but “the best laid plans of mice and men” etc. Mia Buskes, another of our inspirational parishioners, making a life for herself after the loss of her beloved husband, and one of her sons – I do hope you enjoy reading it throughout this Lenten season, and that The sort of courage that can and should inspire us all. Never giving up, Easter is a season of renewal for you all. never giving in to the poor me’s. Take care, and stay safe and well. Losing Gloria Thomas came as such a shock to all, her family, friends and fellow parishioners alike – Some of us still cannot believe she has gone from us. Helen Konynenburg THE SPIRIT MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED FOUR TIMES A YEAR Editor: Helen Konynenburg Email: [email protected] Publisher: Minuteman Press Mitcham Email: [email protected] Cover photo courtesy of Ian Stuart for which we thank him. The contents of this magazine are printed in an effort to support community awareness and communication and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors, our Parish Priest, or the people of the Holy Spirit Parish. Average circulation 700 copies - Not for profit NOW AVAILABLE IN FULL COLOUR ONLINE: http://www.holyspiritparish.org.au/TheSpiritMagazine.aspx Printed by Minuteman Press Mitcham - 152 Rooks Road, Nunawading, Vic, 3131. Phone: 9873 2888 www.mitcham.minutemanpress.com.au Closing date for next edition: 18TH MAY 2021 Holy Spirit Magazine MARCH 2021 3 Somaliland? IS THAT A COUNTRY? Somaliland. I certainly had not heard of it, most people know about diaspora coming back from locked down UK will bring the virus with Somalia and the troubles with Al Shabaab and pirates and is certainly them. We will see what happens but there is not much optimism of not a tourist destination despite the coastal location. Somaliland is stopping things if major outbreaks begin and vaccines being a while a self-proclaimed nation, with its own passport etc. Unfortunately, away only once other countries are finished and then dealing with the rest of the world does not recognise this and as such there are issues of not being a recognised nation. issues with UN aid programs and international investment, which is Other curiosities include seeing camels on the street on the walk to supposed to be distributed through Somalia’s government. work and liver (goat or camel) for breakfast. Despite having terrible, dusty roads, the most popular car is the 2003 Toyota Yaris (costs about $5k) and oddly, they drive (mostly) on the right-hand side, despite the driver also being on the right-hand side (Australian/ British cars), which no doubt leads to the high risk of road accidents. Otherwise, 5 months to go in this strange place, in what has been a good experience so far living out a dream I have had to do this type of work. Looking forward to seeing the Holy Spirit community again soon and if anyone has any questions about Somaliland or MSF or anything else, do not hesitate to get in contact. Go Eagles! By Luke Brouwer (13th February 2021) I have been living in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, for about a month and will be here for six months, working as a Construction Manager for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), an international non-government organisation. The country has high rates of Tuberculosis and the building project is part of a mission to support the local Ministry of Health workers in the hospitals. Hargeisa is a quirky place, quite peaceful compared to many places in the region but still with issues like poor roads, suspect housing conditions and general corruption at every level. For an expat, quality of life is quite good, with our luxurious guesthouse in the ‘Beverley Hills’ of Hargeisa, with a nice night-time view of the city and not a cloud to be seen, with days 28°C and nights being about 10°C. It is a fully Islamic nation and as such it means I get woken up at 5am by the nearby Mosque’s Call to Prayer, head scarfs are compulsory for woman and pants are required in public (no shorts for my runs which is of slight inconvenience comparatively). There are no bars or alcohol, so the local choice is ‘Khat’, which is popular in the region and are ketamine leaves, which you see mostly men chewing for hours and is imported every morning from Ethiopia. Otherwise, there are many restaurants with local Somali being most common, with Ethiopian, Yemeni and Djibouti cuisines common with a meal at the top restaurants being $12USD. In terms of COVID, we wear masks in cars, at the Tuberculosis hospital and in the office but the general population is ignoring the issue. Driving past or at the market, locals yell out, ‘there is no COVID-19’ and laugh, which is very different to Melbourne. Cases are low (maybe 10 per week), but testing is pretty non-existent, with only people wanting to travel coming for tests. The main concern is that variants present in African nations are getting closer and the 4 Holy Spirit Magazine MARCH 2021 What are your plans for 2021? TINA TOOMEY Fun: I will grab every opportunity available to me. See more live If you had the power what would you change? I would make see shows, visit different places. Try different restaurants and get away through facemasks, so I can see people’s smiles! as much as we can. Visit friends and family. Where do you see yourself in five years? Hopefully able to travel Family: I will to continue to keep the flow of communication up, overseas, but if not - happy to cover most of this Great Southern checking up on everyone to see how they are faring. Family dinners Land (if we can!). and gatherings will be on top of my list.