Chapter
57 ... Set Free To Worship
At the November 1994 AGM the Nick and
Shirley's group were voted out. There could be no disputing that.
They had stacked the AGM with their people, They had run their own
“ticket” for vestry and wardens. They had run a vigorous political
campaign for votes. They had the PR advantage of the backing of the
diocese. And they still lost.
For the parish it was wonderful. You
could almost feel the sense of freedom in the air.
The first big change I noticed was
financial. Shirley's husband Peter xxx had continued to be treasurer
of the parish while Nick and Shirley’s followers had the numbers in
vestry. Under his treasurership I had not
been paid for over three months.
The new treasurer had my pay quickly
restored, and everything including the parish assessment paid off in
short order.
Peter xxx had been saying at monthly
vestry meetings that there not enough money to pay me. Examination of
the accounts showed that there had been ruses like drawing a large
cheque just before the date the bank issued its monthly statement and
then re-depositing it just afterwards to make it look as though there
was no money to pay me when there actually was.
The diocese had also assisted in hiding
away nearly $50,000 - mainly in the fear that if Nick and Shirley's
people lost the elections the new vestry might use it to run the
parish. We didn't need the money! There had apparently always been
plenty of money. Once Peter was removed from being treasurer, they
were not only to pay me, but to quickly make up my back pay and also
to make up within a few months the back “taxes” owing to the
diocese – which had been another of Peter's ruses to make the
diocese think the parish was about to collapse financially!.
From
then on we had no more money worries.
The next thing I noticed was the
Archbishops anger. He was angry that the side he had backed had been
voted out by the people. He was angry that as time went by the parish
not only survived the departure of Nick and Shirley's group but
bounded into life: flourishing now that their fifth column activities
were inhibited.
The archbishop
told me very angrily that they had assured him that they represented
the most active and committed
Christians in the parish, and that without them it would “fall
apart within a few months”
The unspoken but obvious problem was
that the archbishop had staked his reputation to some degree on this
outcome. By flourishing when it was meant to fall apart the parish
was making him appear to have misjudged the situation!
So what was happening in the parish?
The sort answer is that many more of
the talented and deeply spiritual people who had been kept out of
ministry by the Nick and Shirley now started developing all sorts of
ministries.
Also, or perhaps primarily, the
blessing and joy of God descended on the parish.
I said earlier that the 10 am service
in particular needed a large team of people - 18 or 20 to fill all
the rostered duties. Much earlier Nick and Shirley's followers had
resigned from most of these over a very short space of time. They
expected - I think they really believed their own propaganda here -
that everything would collapse without them. It didn’t. There were
plenty of people ready and waiting, and I suspect just itching to
jump in and help. So all our services were singing along as they
always had.
Readers who were in Melbourne diocese
at the time may be saying “but didn’t we hear ...” Yes, you
quite likely did hear all sorts of misinformation!! Nick and
Shirley's people were mounting the most energetic propaganda campaign
throughout the diocese. And the vestry under their control did pass a
motion that “church services have been in disarray for over twelve
months” but there was not a shred of truth in it.
The parish was also growing again
healthily, new people were coming, people were being converted,
people were being helped. In any other circumstances we should have
been held up as the model of an effective, growing parish.
Importantly the dramatic decline which
had begun several years before I went to the parish, had run its
course. Interestingly when I charted the church attendances over the
years I found that they peaked at a yearly average of about 250 per
Sunday for the year 1985. Then they had been in decline from about
the time Nick xxx joined the parish staff!
Certainly the decline was continuing
after I came,but there were extenuating circumstances! I had had a
group actively trying to destroy the parish, and for good measure I
had had the diocese throw every obstacle they could in my way. Lastly
when those efforts failed these people actively fomented a schism and
actively recruited among the congregation - all with the public
support of diocesan officials. The parish should have been just
smoldering ruins! Instead I had about 110 people worshiping every
Sunday. I think I did pretty well! (for US readers used to big
churches, at that time in Melbourne I think the average Sunday
attendance for an Anglican parish was about 40!)
We were getting unchurched people
converted and growing into strong Christians. Just one story: One
young man came to our Good Friday service because he got a flyer I
had been putting in letterboxes. The young people all welcomed him
and included him, and after the service - since numbers of them
generally came over to the vicarage he was brought along with them.
He became a regular part of things, he became a committed Christian
and one day he came up to me and said “I need your advice” there
was a pause, then he said “you know what my problem is don’t you”
Well I had assumed he was from a homosexual culture, but that had not
affected how any of us treated him. He was just who he was. I was a
bit apprehensive because I wasn’t going to say either “Thou
shalt not ...” or “its Ok to be ...” .
I feel we are
all “damaged goods” in God’s repair shop. And I’ve found that
the Holy Spirit has his own agenda for which dents he wants to knock
out first. God, in my experience, likes to work it out personally
with the person concerned without us either dumping on them our own
little prejudices or pet ideas on one hand or undermining his laws
with our personal or cultural blind spots on the other!
But I was not expecting what came next.
He was actually in a gender reassignment program and had come to our
area to cut all his ties and change identities. And here he had just
joined a church and formed a whole lot of new relationships which
were important to him.
In addition his experience of
“maleness” to date had been of one stereotype: beer swilling,
football playing, and boorish. He knew he was not that! After
sampling our family life and seeing a different model of “being a
male” he was thinking he could be that sort!
He was tremendous with the young
people. He was a hairdresser. They used to descend on the vicarage
after the evening service. Treat of the night was one of them having
something special done to their hair in front of a rapt audience.
One anecdote I hope he won’t mind me
telling was one time he came up to my then 17 year old son, put his
arm round his shoulder and confided, “Oh Dave, I messed up over the
weekend: I had sex.” then he brightened up and said “But it was
with a girl!”
We had a flow of people staying at the
vicarage. Many were young men who came from dysfunctional families
before they were converted, and for them it was a chance to see how a
“normal” family worked so that they would have something to model
their family life on. I remember once feeling a bit sad watching my
then 10 year old daughter leading a 38 year old morphine addict
around the house explaining the “house rules”. Years later our
older daughter was on a tram in Melbourne when a strange man came up
to her and said “You are Elizabeth Greentree aren’t you?” with
some trepidation she said “Yes” then he went on “My name is
xxxxxx and I stayed with you years ago, Just tell your parents they
saved my life. I’m even holding down a steady job.” So we also
had unknown successes.
There is another person I really should
mention (well there are many I really should mention, but this one is
an absolute “must”). Brian xxx who took over as vicar’s warden
after Roger and Helen xxx left. Brian was absolutely fabulous. He was
a phenomenally mature Christian, and a man of sound judgment and
absolute integrity. It was not easy for him – he was friends with
many of the Nick and Shirley's group: he used to play golf with Nick;
he was a keen member of the 4WD club. They were not kind to him when
he appeared to back me (in reality Brian
was always, I am proud to say, God’s man, never mine!),
but he did what he believed was right and godly regardless of the
personal cost. He used to drop around one day each week after work
and we would talk over things and pray together. He was a very
diligent prayer partner born in part from his involvement in the
prayer counselling ministry. Brian was never slow to interrupt and
correct me if he thought my prayers were off the point, or I was not
taking proper responsibility – like praying “forgive me if
I have...” instead of “… for what I have ...”They
were really great times being co-workers with such godly people!
Church services.
8 am was a more traditional service.
The old music group had ignored it. Now Midge the music director came
and played so that we had hymns. Right through Ray xxx had been
helping each week as lay reader. He was a tremendous person and
absolutely solid. Between us we ran a pretty good traditional
service, and he was an amazing support to us in the trials that were
about to come.
10 am was the big service. There was a
different “service leader” each week who led the congregation
through the liturgy in a modern informal way. we had a number of very
good service leaders who now all shared this attitude that had come
in first through the re-formed music group that we were there to
serve the congregation and assist them in their worship. Other
members of the congregation did bible readings, led the prayers of
intercession, children’s talk, helped with communion. The prayer
ministry team offered individual prayer after each service. Finally
there was tea and coffee to promote a time of fellowship.
The new music group grew quickly, and
under Midge’s leadership very soon surpassed in every aspect the
old music group. With our new ethos of serving God, each other and
the congregation, there was a real bond and also an inclusiveness -
which had been so lacking in the old group.
Particularly once the Nick and
Shirley’s followers at last gave up trying to continually disrupt
the service it was something that would be the envy of just about any
parish.
5.30 pm was our youth service. The old
one had been nominally “youth” but was continually in danger of
being hijacked by “oldies” who wanted to re-create the 70’s
charismatic music of their own younger days. I remember overhearing
a man ask his then 14 year old daughter what she thought of it.
Screwing up her nose she replied: “It’s dork music!”
So we wanted something better. The
young people themselves formed the welcoming teams. They formed the
singing group, and particularly the older ones in their 20’s the
musicians. They got a great deal more participation in the service
wherever possible such as leading informal prayers and the readings.
We also had a “soup and bread” meal with the service so that it
became a great social event - and as I have said large numbers
trooped over to the vicarage afterwards.
Music was interesting. Midge of course
liked traditional. But in keeping with the “servant-hood” ideal,
she organized, encouraged, and often played keyboard with the young
musicians and singers. They absolutely loved her ... there was a
popular TV ad about this time which led to her being affectionately
known as “Big M”.
As it developed we gained diverse,
talented musicians. Ones like Kylie and Ben (who married and were
missionaries in Russia) and Greg (now with his wife missionaries in
Japan) who were studying at Bible College of Victoria, and really
good classical musicians. Some of the newly converted men had been
performing musicians in the “grunge” music scene.
These all worked harmoniously together
to give fantastic music. Some songs were to paraphrase Star Trek:
“Its Hillsong Jim, but not as we know it”!
“Hillsong” songs, popular in modern
church services all over Australia can be a little too
saccharin-sweet! A rock band approach can tighten them up nicely. My
favorite was one called “Shelter” - I don’t know if I can do
justice to it in writing. Imagine energetic drum roll with electric
guitar descending riff as the intro, then rock band style the lead
guitarist sort of sing-shouting “You give me shelter, you give me
peace, you give me healing and ...” with second guitar, bass
guitar, and the younger singers all joining in their part
Or I can still see Ben, brilliant on
piano playing while Kylie led “His love keeps following me” with
actions. Or Greg, a young successful lawyer who had been converted
in his native Western Australia, convicted by God of a calling to
preach in Japan and was now in training. He was the best and most
passionate evangelistic preacher I have heard. He still had the
lawyer’s precision but with the evangelists fire he was something!
Japan’s gain was definitely Australia’s loss! Greg had a really
good voice and loved the old hymns, and loved them sung at a good
tempo. He could make a congregation feel these old hymns were new and
alive.
What we had was all so amazing that
later when our kids were looking for a church they tried St.
Hillary’s - the Melbourne Anglican charismatic mega church, and
said “not as good as St. Luke’s. They tried St. Jude’s - the
crispy evangelical Anglican mega church and said again: “Not as
good as St. Luke’s.
But but
our success highlighted the archbishop's poor judgment in backing
Nick and Shirley. Could
he say “I was wrong” and change tack? Could
he swallow his pride? What would he do?
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