[Magdalen] My Trip Outback

[Lesley de Voil]

Hi all
I'm now back home with the  cats and the dog after a whirlwind visit
outback with a small group form the parish where I am Director of
Music. We went to give moral support to our assistant priest Rodney
who had been asked to officiate at a wedding. We travelled more than
800 km almost due west (still within our own diocese) through
countryside that has been progressively more affected by drought for
the past few years.
The Anglicans in the town are ministered by a deacon at present, who
cannot officiate at weddings yet, hence Rodney's visit. He also
performed a baptism on Sunday morning, for which the bride was a
godparent. I went so that I could make contact with any locals
interested in church music, which I also did at two other towns en
route, thus laying the first stage of any planned musical tours by
Royal school Of Church Music educators in the future.
After a long day's travel, we were greeted by the deacon, who
disappeared very early the next morning as he was doing his regular
journey to one of the four centres in his parish, about 200km south
south west of where we were,  although technically the parish extends
to the Queensland border both west and south.
So we met locals, went and looked at the tourist venues - "The
Historic House" -formerly the town bank building, the Royal Flying
Doctor Service centre (founded by a Presbyterian minister to provide
emergency medical care to isolated parts of Australia), the Cosmos
Centre - a local astronomical centre which provides educational
viewing activities for tourist groups. as well as sampling the local
foods at our evening BBQs - the major agricultural turnoff is usually
beef, although most people are drastically reducing their stock at the
moment - the organist's husband runs a large cattle property and has
only a couple of hundred left onfarm.
On the way back, I  spoke with parish musicians and interested people.
Their concerns were very like ours in the city, how to keep the
enthusiasm of the younger members of the congregations, with all the
other activities that seem to be important in growing up these days,
how to provide music for worship without spending a lot of money on
ephemeral compositions, how to provide expensive technical equipment
in harsh economic times......
I 'dips me lid' * to these bushies who even when times are tough,
still want to 'have a go' at making the best of what they've got.

Regards
Lesley de Voil

* 'dips me lid' - rather old and now dated Aussie term of respect for
"I doff my cap" make popular by bush poet C.J. Dennis, q.v.