The Leaflet No. 1059 August 2016 THE SCOTS’ CHURCH, MELBOURNE The First Presbyterian Church in Victoria – Founded 1838 LOCATIONS The Scots’ Church, Melbourne, 77 Russell St (cnr Collins St), Melbourne Assembly Hall Building, Werner Brodbeck Hall, Grnd Flr, 156 Collins St, Melbourne Assembly Hall Building, Robert White Hall, 1st Flr, 156 Collins St, Melbourne St Stephen’s Church, Flemington and Kensington, 26 Norwood St, Flemington WORSHIP SUN: 9.30 am Service, St Stephen’s Church 10.30 am Indonesian Service (www.icc-melbourne.org), Werner Brodbeck Hall 11.00 am Traditional Service, The Scots’ Church 5.00 pm Engage City Church Contemp. Service, Robert White Hall (Crèche and Sunday school are available during all Sunday services.) TUE: 7.00 pm City Bible Study (CBS), Robert White Hall WED: 1.00 pm Service, The Scots’ Church THU: 1.00 pm Lunchtime Worship and Meeting, Werner Brodbeck Hall (Prayer requests may be given to the church office during office hours, or to any duty manager at any service.) MEETINGS SUN: 9.15 am Choir practice WED: 10.30 am PWMU (second Wednesday) 7.30 pm Kirk Session (first Wednesday) 7.30 pm Board of Management (fourth Wednesday, bi-monthly) DIRECTORY Senior Minister Rev. D. R. Robertson 9650 9903 Minister, Central Business District Rev. R. O’Brien 9650 9903 Minister, St Stephen’s, Flemington Rev. P. Court 9650 9903 Minister, Indonesian Congregation Rev. C. Tirtha 9650 9903 Director of Music Mr D. Lawrence OAM 9650 9903 Assistant Organist Ms R. A. Polo 9650 9903 Organist Emeritus Dr R. Batterham AO - Session Clerk/Chair, Scots’ Church Properties Trust Miss D. R. Anstee AM DSJ 9650 9903 Honorary Treasurer, Board of Management Mr J. Nuske FCPA 9650 9903 Honorary Secretary, Board of Management Dr D. Sherman 9650 9903 Convenor, Pastoral Care Mr D. Gibb 9650 9903 Convenor, Planned Giving/Christian Education Mr G. Harris 9650 9903 Superintendent, Sunday School Mrs D. Sherman 9650 9903 Administrator Mr S. Ruddock 9650 9903 Assistant Administrator Mr J. North 9650 9903 Accountant Mr M. Hirst 9650 9903 Ministers’ Secretary Mrs W. Gregory 9650 9903 Church Officer Mr K. Bowden 9650 9903 Building Officer Mr R. Holt 9650 9903 Editor, The Leaflet Miss R. Strother 9650 9903 Welcome to The Scots’ Church, Melbourne, and this edition of our bi-monthly newsletter, The Leaflet The Scots’ Church Melbourne is a diverse and eclectic body of God’s people who come together each week to worship God in a variety of styles and settings. Beyond our weekly gatherings, we seek to love and serve the Lord by being faithful in our devotion to the Word of God, caring in our fellowship with one another and visitors, and generous in our outreach to the communities in which God has placed us. We would be delighted to meet you at any of our church services or at any of our other public meetings and functions. If you want to know more about the Christian faith, the Presbyterian Church, Scots’ Church or the range of activities and ministries that we’re involved in, please don’t hesitate to contact us: 1st Floor, 156 Collins Street, Melbourne, Vic, 3000 Tel: (03) 9650 9903 / 9650 9904 Fax: (03) 9654 3982 Email: [email protected] Web: www.scotschurch.com Cover image: The Rieger organ of Scots’ Church, courtesy of Mal Austen. T HE L EAF L E T – A UGUS T 2 0 1 6 In This Edition Dear Friends ........................................................................................................................ 1 Recorded History ............................................................................................................... 2 Building the Scots’ Church Community .......................................................................... 3 The Importance of Hospitality.......................................................................................... 4 What Keeps You Going? ..................................................................................................... 5 New Seating for St Stephen’s ............................................................................................. 7 Book of Common Order ................................................................................................... 9 The International Organ Series 2016 ............................................................................. 10 Interview: Ria Angelika Polo ........................................................................................... 11 The Scots’ Church Choir News ....................................................................................... 14 Help for the Homeless ..................................................................................................... 15 Indonesian Congregation Baptism and Membership .................................................. 17 Project to Conserve the Site of Christ’s Tomb ............................................................... 18 Farewell to the Rev. David and Gwen Currie ................................................................. 19 Interview: Jillian Galbraith .............................................................................................. 22 A Celebration .................................................................................................................... 25 For Kids ............................................................................................................................. 27 Victorian Presbyterian Churches Past and Present ...................................................... 28 From the Victorian Goldfields ......................................................................................... 32 Weekday visitors to Scots’ Church .................................................................................. 33 St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church...................................................................................... 35 Simultaneum – Shared Church ...................................................................................... 37 Plants of the Bible ............................................................................................................ 40 In Memoriam .................................................................................................................... 41 Biblical Crossword ........................................................................................................... 42 T HE L EAF L E T – A UGUS T 2 0 1 6 Senior Minister The Rev. Douglas Robertson Dear Friends, For a number of years I have served on the human ethics committee of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. It has given me wonderful insight into the advances that are regularly being made in medical care and treatment. We really can make the blind see and the deaf hear. In other medical fields we can make the lame walk, either with a medical or surgical cure or with prosthetics, and we’ve made great advances in psychotherapy too, to bind up the broken hearted and heal the mind. Miracles do happen! Our abilities might not be supernatural, and they don’t hap- pen instantaneously, having developed very slowly across 6,000 years of recorded human history, but we should never downplay their significance nor stop looking for new advances in human knowledge and skill. I was thinking something similar when we travelled back from Kazakhstan recently, flying through two stops in China. The entire trip took less than 20 hours—a miracle that my grandparents’ generation were only just beginning to dream about as long- haul passenger flights started to become possible after the Second World War. Human nature itself is the real miracle I’m taking about: our God-given creativity, our desire to explore and to learn, our tenacity to pursue a solution, our willingness to use our talents and discoveries in the service of others. These things are not unique to people who claim the Christian faith. This is part of what theologians call Common Grace, the good gifts that God has given to all peo- ple, for our common benefit and enjoyment. These gifts include the sun that shines or the rain that falls on all alike (Matt. 5:45), the beauty and majesty of the works of creation (Rom. 1:20) that reflect the grace of God himself, the bountiful provision of our many needs (Gen. 9:3), as well as the attributes of our human nature that I’ve already mentioned as the driving forces behind the miracles that we can produce daily in technology and medicine. P AGE 1 T HE L EAF L E T – A UGUS T 2 0 1 6 The brokenness of human sin and all the suffering it causes is something that we must, of course, deal with—and God deals with it in Jesus Christ—but the great- est tragedy of all is perhaps when we allow that brokenness to overshadow and obscure the true wonder, beauty and miracle of our common humanity. Douglas Recorded history The recorded history of the human race coincides with the invention of writ- ing. It can be contrasted with mythological, oral or archaeological traditions that each provide another narrative of the past. The two earliest civilizations to develop writing were the Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the Egyptians of the Early Dynastic Period. They originated independently of each other, and communication by writing was well developed in both by 3,500 BC. These more complete writing systems were preceded by earlier pro-writing. The Sumerians used cuneiform, or wedge-shaped sym- bols, and the Egyptians developed hieroglyphs. The ancient Greek writing system, based on the Greek alphabet, which appeared from about the 8th century BC, was adapted from the earlier Phoenician system.