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
