I Kings 1:40:  And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.

Advent comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’, meaning ‘coming’. It is a translation of the Greek word ‘parousia’, which is used to refer to both the coming of the Messiah, and the Second Coming, of Christ. The Western Christian liturgical year begins, on this day. Advent started in the Frankish church during the dark ages as a penitential season, in preparation for the Nativity, but when the Roman expression of it came to the fore a century later, it became a season of joy, and the sense of somberness was lost, in time.

There are ways to get it back, however.  Perhaps seeing it as a different type of penitential season is the key.  There are two main ways of penitence, the via negativa (the way of eschewing dross from one’s life), and the via positiva (the way of taking on new things to enhance one’s spiritual life).  Lent and Advent can be seen as two halves of the same coin.  Lent is a time of giving up, a time of austerity.  It is along the via negativa.  Advent, however, can be penitential in the sense of taking on things in a penitential way.  Doing good deeds for others (preferably in secret), working in a soup kitchen during the season, praying for people you know on a daily basis during the season, singing Christmas carols at a nursing home…these are all things we can do to both be acts of penance and also build our spiritual lives as the holidays approach.

Please come along and join us in liturgy, prayer and song as we welcome in the Advent season with a sense of joy and anticipation, this Sunday.

Service – 6:30pm

The service this Sunday will be the “Johannite Gnostic Divine Liturgy”. The service alternates engagement and stillness, provoking a meditative attitude and the cultivation of deeper perceptions. The service features prayer and chant, and the sharing of the Body and the Blood in the form of bread and wine.

We follow the service with some conversation, hot drinks and snacks. Please stay and and share some time and company.

This Sunday, we will commemorate the destruction of the public form of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ as the Martyrdom of the Knights Templar (Oct 13) and take time to acknowledge the saints of our church, in recognition of All Saint's Day (Nov 1).

At first glance, it might be difficult to see what the notoriety that lives on in witness of the chivalrous and virile Knights Templar has in common with the commemoration that we ascribe to those that lead the way in gnosis, the saints of the Apostolic Johannite Church.

But it may be no accident that the intent for the readings this week, the week in we will recognise both in liturgy, have at their heart 'Perseverance', as a focal point.

On Templar Sunday, we recite the full litany – the name of every grandmaster of the order – as well as the Insititutional Narrative, the grand story of the lineage which we inherit from the Johannite Church of Primitive Christians found in the 19th Century, as a part of the French Gnostic Restoration. We light memorial candles to recall the perseverance with which they followed their witness, to the truth of gnosis.

We recognise the saints of the Apostolic Johannite Church similarly, each less likely to be commemorated for tales of conversion, intercession or posthumous miracle, than in honour of their perseverance, in accounting for their observance of the deeper wisdom, of gnosis.

Please join us for this haunting, solemn service which illustrates a core aspect of our spiritual lineage.

If you are planning to come along on Sunday, and would like to bring any saints relics or icons that you might have to the service, this is the perfect opportunity to have them blessed by Fr Tim+.

Integral Christianity

Part 1 – Stages of Christian Faith

Father Tim is teaching a 3-part workshop which gives participants an experience of the broad embrace of Christianity.
Drawing on the work of Ken Wilber, James Fowler and Chris Dierkes, these workshops explore various dimensions of the Christian tradition using interactive exercises and group discussion.
Participants will have ample opportunity to share their own experience if they wish.
This first workshop will be a collaborative dive into our past as our faith developed and a foreshadowing of our future.
The second (late Nov) will draw out an experience of different meditative states.
The third (late Jan) will investigate Shadow, sin and the dark places on the spiritual path.
The series of three build on each other.

Location: Camperdown, NSW 2050
Time & Date: Sunday, October 31, 2010
Cost: $75 (before Oct 24) $90 (after Oct 24)

Booking is essential – More details here.

We've tried to keep the cost low, the fee covers the venue and food for the day. If you'd like to come along, but cost is an issue, get in touch and we'll work something out.

Please join us!

Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom. This week we celebrate the feast is to mark the eternal moment in which Wisdom, lost in the world, is redeemed, returned and assumed into the heavenly realm.

In this part of the year, we celebrate the Assumption of Sophia, the Descent of Sophia (Sep 8) and also the Restoration of Sophia (Sep 22), all in quick succession. In the southern hemisphere, as we enter into the bountiful season of spring, our feasts and festivals in Her honour are blessed with the heightened sensory awareness of spring's riches, the exterior call to realise Her offering of interior grace and truth.

Wisdom is our primordial mother. Ever-present, yet not always seen, she is the compassionate ground of our awareness steady in the face of our constant flickering, flittering dance among many suitors, she waits – the patient bride for the bridegroom.

In stillness, when we take time to rest and to see, she stands forth and is triumphant. Soon the bridegroom comes and she returns to the house of her Father.

Reunited, Wisdom I think becomes our awareness. We see in the heady sensations of the manifest world the ever-presence of the Great Mother, and notice in ourselves and each other the unspotted mirror of Her power and the image of Her goodness.

Sister Trish Nowland

Readings for the week