[Magdalen] My Trip Outback

[Georgia DuBose]

The vastness of the rural spaces in Australia really comes clear in
your description. Your priest was very blessed to have such a
contingent with him. The parish folk sound courageous and determined.
So glad you got to do this trip.

Georgia+

On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:55 PM, Lesley de Voil <lesleymdv at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.