Sydney

St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral, Sydney

To-day is the first day of the Greater Sydney lockdown, caused by the spread of the Covid 19 virus.  We are confined to our homes for the next two weeks.  As it is a Sunday and we are not permitted to attend Church, we watched the 10.30 am service of Morning Prayer at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, live streamed on our TV.

There were no parishioners or worshippers in the Cathedral and just a skeleton staff to attend to proceedings.   The Leader was Chris Allan (Acting Dean), organist (Ross Cobb), bible readers, singer, preacher Rev. Garry Dibley from CMS and camera technicians. They all did a great job, but I did miss the choir.  

Because the Choir was absent, all the hymns were sung by a solo singer and he did a magnificent job.  The words to all the hymns were on the TV screen, so it was easy to sing along to these well-known hymns - "God of grace and God of Glory", "I heard the voice of Jesus say" and "Can it be".

This is the outside view of St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.  The Cathedral  faces George Street, next-door to the Town Hall.  It is Gothic Revival architecture designed primarily by Edmund Blacket from 1837-1868.  It is built in Sydney sandstone and is the oldest cathedral in Australia.

This beautiful seven-light and four tiered stained glass East window above the communion table is a complex composition depicting scenes in the life of Christ at which the apostle Andrew was present, such as the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

The organist up high in the organ loft.  The organ is an amalgamation of two organs, one by William Hill & Sons (1866) and another by John Whitely (1929) and restored by the Canadian firm Orgues Letoumeau.  During non-lockdown times there are regular lunchtime organ recitals.

Rev. Christopher Allan, the Acting Dean of Sydney.  He said the Cathedral will be closed to the public during the current lockdown and all services will be on-line only, for the time being.

Rev. Garry Dibley delivered the sermon.  He preached on Acts 9: 1-20 the dramatic conversion story of Saul on the road to Damascus.  

Saul was travelling on the road, looking for followers of Jesus to take as prisoners, when a light from heaven flashed around him and he heard the voice of Jesus speak to him, asking, "Why do you persecute me?"  He was then struck blind and had to be led into Damascus by the men travelling with him.  

After three days a man named Ananias placed his hands on Saul and said that Jesus had sent him to heal him and immediately scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He was then filled with the Holy Spirit and baptised.

Rev. Garry said it was never too late to be saved by Jesus.  God has the power to use even the hostile persecutor to achieve his divine purpose.

We enjoyed being able to watch the service in the comfort of our own home and felt grateful that modern technology enables us to watch and partake in Church services by joining in with the responses and the singing of hymns.

Acknowledgments

1.  Wikipedia

2.  St. Andrew's Cathedral website.

Emu Plains

The Lewers Cafe and Art Gallery

We have had family from interstate visiting us and, on Tuesday, we all had lunch at the Lewers Cafe at 86 River Road, Emu Plains.  This cafe is now part of the Penrith Regional Art Gallery which is set in the former home of Australian Artists Gerald and Margo Lewers.  These leading artists were part of the development of modernism in Australian art.  After Gerald and Margo died, their home was gifted by the Lewers family to the people of Penrith as the Lewers Bequest, with the vision to create a centre of excellence for the presentation and appreciation of art for the community.  The Gallery regularly presents exhibitions, workshops and special events, both inside and outside in the beautiful gardens surrounding the home.  The gardens are maintained by heritage gardeners with seasonal vegetables grown and used in meals served in the cafe.  The Gallery is in a picturesque location along the Great River Walk facing the Nepean River on the Emu Plains side.

We had lunch first, before exploring the Galleries and garden.  We started with drinks and I had a Miss Ginny cocktail, followed by a lunch of Roast lamb with crispy polenta and vegetables which was delicious.

There are three galleries to explore.  One is in the original homestead of the artists and this is called Lewers House.  The second one is Ancher House built as a granny flat for Margo Lewers' mother and the other is a purpose built gallery, with a gallery shop, at the end of the cafe.

This picture was taken looking through the windows at the back of the Gallery at the end of the cafe and looking into the heritage garden.  The garden has many exotic species of plants and succulents.  The original house was built in 1905 and was bought by the Lewers in 1942.  Several of Gerald's sculptures are placed in the garden.

These paintings are hanging on the walls in Ancher House. This house was  designed by architect Sydney Ancher for Margo Lewers' mother, who died as the house was being completed.  Margo won recognition as a leading postwar Abstract expressionist.

This beautiful stained glass window is a fanlight above the front door of the house and a similar window is also above the door at the end of the hallway.  The sidelight windows beside the doors had similar designs and were also stained glass windows.

A French Window inside the house.  This window is actually a door and is opened by sliding it upwards.  You can then step outside on to the verandah and out into the garden. 

This artwork is in the present exhibition being shown in the Gallery.  It is by Ada Bird Petyarre, an indigenous artist who lived in a community 230km North East of Alice Springs.  Ada worked in both painting and batik.  Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and collected by major galleries around the world.  She was part of an early indigenous art movement.

There was also artwork by another exhibitor, Dr David Middlebrook.  David is a landscape artist who works in pen and ink, sepia and large oil paintings.  His work revolves around the horizon  which he views as a drive to strive for the unobtainable.  He likes to explore the impact of the horizon in different media.

For the last three years of Ada's life, Ada and David Middlebrook were friends and their friendship changed David's concept of landscape.  Ada liked to look at David's drawings  and if she recognised the landscape she would sing it.  For David, this brought his drawings to life.  David collaborated with Ada while he was undertaking research for his PhD degree and his thesis was on exploring the horizon.

The current exhibition is called Bird Petyarre & Middlebrook and opened on 15 May and will conclude on 22 August.  It is well worth a visit.

After our walk around the Galleries we stepped out into the garden, admiring the many different species of plants.  We enjoyed our visit to the Penrith Regional Gallery and the historic Lewers home, very much.  

Acknowledgments

1.  Art Atrium website

2.  Penrith Regional Gallery website

3.  Wikipedia.

4.  "Looking at or being landscape" by Dr. David Middlebrook

Epping

 St. Alban's Anglican Church

Last Sunday I attended the Christening of my great niece Chloe in St. Alban's Anglican Church, at 3 Pembroke Street, Epping.  Epping is a suburb of Sydney, situated in the local Government area of Parramatta and on the Northern line of the Sydney Trains system.  Wallumedegal Aboriginal people were living in the region of Epping when the Europeans arrived.

St. Alban's is a very beautiful Church in a leafy suburban street near the train station.  On entering, I was impressed with the number of magnificent stained glass windows.  There is also a pipe organ half way down the Church, placed aloft in the West Gallery. The Font, where the baptism took place, is situated down the front of the Church and I sat in a pew directly in front of the Font and consequently had a good view of the christening.  The Church follows an Anglo-Catholic tradition, rare for a Church in the Diocese of Sydney.  There were many candles flickering in the Church and also on the altar and Chloe's family later were given a christening candle lit from the Paschal Candle.   

I was interested to find out about the history of this Church, but unfortunately I have not been able to find out very much.  I did ascertain however, that the Church first began with services in the home of Robert Hilliard in 1891.  In 1892 he built a wooden hall on his property where church services then took place.  The first Church on the site was erected in 1896, with the present Church opened in December, 1923.  Many additions and alterations have been made over the years since then.  

I believe there are now plans to demolish the Church Hall, Rectory and all other buildings on the site, except the Church itself and to erect two twin towers of sixteen storeys each.  The Church wants to capitalise on its land value and height limits which allows buildings of sixteen storeys.  The Church is going into partnership with a developer, granting a long term lease to the developer while still retaining ownership of the land. The towers are planned to provide about 150 homes and opportunities for better community services for the growing multi-cultural area.   

Here is a photo of St. Alban's showing the tall Church tower,  However, this will be dwarfed when the new twin towers are built on the land.    

The land is 100 metres from Epping Station and the Church feels that it could better serve the wider community.  The lower floors of the Towers could include office space and retail outlets, such as cafes.

Here is another view of the Church, but I could not get back far enough to include the tower at the side of the Church.  I was standing back as far as the gate through to the Rectory.  It seems a shame that the beautiful Rectory will also be demolished.

There are many beautiful stained glass windows in the Church.  They looked particularly beautiful with the early morning sunlight streaming through them.  Some are memorial windows to parishioners who died in war battles.

Here is the Holy table or altar.  There was a Holy Communion (Eucharist) after the christening where the congregation knelt or stood at the altar rails to partake of the bread and wine.  

Here is Chloe with her family, gathered around the Font being baptised by Father Paul.  This was the first Christening at the Church since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.  

Father Paul sprinkled holy water from the Font on to her head and marked it with the sign of the cross.  He declared that she live as a disciple of Christ, fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith.  The congregation then responded, saying Confess Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, look for his coming in glory.

After the service, we had morning tea in the Church Hall, mingling with members of the Church congregation and then departed for a family luncheon with Chloe's family in their home.

I was so pleased to attend Chloe's Christening and to know her parents intend to raise her with Christian values and beliefs.

Acknowledgments

1.  The Northern District Times

2.  St. Alban's with St. Aidan's website.

3.  Hornsby Shire Council website.