25 years ago today - My Induction at All Saints', Wickham Terrace, Brisbane

All Saints' Wickham Terrace, from Ann Street

The older we are, the more anniversaries we must acknowledge. I felt it would not be right to let this 31st May go by without mention, because it was on this day in 1995 (25 years ago) that I became Rector of the historic city church of All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, a parish family I had the privilege to serve for ten years. Of course, we faced all sorts of difficulties, and for those at the heart of parish life it was hard work! The parish and I remain grateful to the then Archbishop Peter Hollingworth for reaching an agreement with us about episcopal ministry within the parish that enabled me in good conscience to accept the appointment. During our ten years together so many people of different faith backgrounds and none found their way to us and were touched by what Pope S. John Paul II called 'the New Evangelization.' They are now scattered across the Christian traditions, and around the world! Many read this blog. I pray for you all, all the time. Please pray for me! 

The following is from the All Saints’ Gazette of July 1995:

All Saints’ was packed for the Induction of Father David Chislett SSC by the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Rev’d Peter Hollingworth, on the evening of Wednesday 31st May, the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The large number of clergy present included visitors from Sydney, Mittagong, Melbourne and Ballarat.

The Institution and Induction, in which the Archbishop gave Father David his Licence, took place at the very beginning of the service. Then Father David and the people of All Saints’ committed themselves to supporting each other, and the Archbishop led Father David to the High Altar, saying, 'My brother, I set you in your place among the people of this Parish.' 

Father David’s first act as Rector of All Saints’ was to sing Evensong. Ancient plainsong chants were used for the Psalms and Canticles, with glorious faux-bourdons. The First Lesson was read by John Cranley, Chairman of the Trustees of All Saints’. The Second Lesson was read by Archdeacon David Farrer, Vicar of S. Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne [later to become Bishop of Wangaratta]. The Anthem was Ave Maria (Arcadelt), and the notices were given by Churchwarden Ms Lorraine Hines.

All Saints’ has had a historic kinship with Christ Church S. Laurence in Sydney and S. Peter’s Eastern Hill in Melbourne, so it was fitting for the Parish Priests of both churches to participate in the service. Father Austin Day, Rector of Christ Church, and one of Father David’s mentors, was the preacher. His sermon included the following:

'... I feel sure that the priorities of All Saints’ will be GOD and his worship in the beauty of holiness, and PEOPLE and their care and support; a parish church where all is reverent and full of love and where no-one is pushed behind a pillar because they are ragged or poor or disturbed, a house of prayer ever open, where the dear Lord’s Supper is always on the altar to be adored as at Benediction here tonight, and waiting to be given to his people, that they may be joined intimately together as brothers and sisters in the one family of the Body of Christ.

'You remember what Jesus himself said at the Last Supper: "How I have longed to eat this Passover with you before my death, for I tell you, never again shall I eat it until the time when it finds its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God."'(Luke 22:16).

'But of course Jesus has brought in that Kingdom of God, proclaimed it, and actualised and established it, by his precious death and burial, by his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and by the sending forth of his Holy Spirit upon the Church at Pentecost.

'So he now eats that Passover new with us in the Lord’s Supper, in the Holy Mass every Sunday in all our parish churches (and every weekday, too, at All Saints’) when we follow the command of Jesus to "do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

'... Now I know that you at All Saints’ surround the public presentation of the Eucharist with the pomp and circumstance of great beauty and dignity, with wonderful music and incense. Long may all that continue in our great Anglican tradition. But as I well know after thirty years as a priest in the city opposite Central Railway in Sydney, there are dozens and dozens of people who pass into the warm inside of our city churches, with all their difficulties, trials and sorrows. As the Psalmist says, they are going up to the temple of the Lord, up to All Saints’ on this hill where there is love and the light of Christ. Are you one of those tired bits of humanity who slide slowly in here for private prayer? If not, you are failing to catch a glimpse of some of the glory of Anglican tradition wherein we just quietly spend time with Christ alone.

'... So now, what lies ahead for you as priest and people of All Saints in this inner city area as you seek to serve the people of Brisbane? ... perhaps a fruitful growth of personal lay ministry in this part of Brisbane where inner city high-rise apartment-living is on the increase ... ‘APART-ment’, box-type, insulated, half a million dollars living can often mean great loneliness and separation from others.

'... Are we there for others, giving a sense of comfort and support, the wonder of love and the reassurance of touch, perhaps even whispering a prayer, saying a Psalm, humming a hymn tune, murmuring that we love them ...

'So, may Blessed Mary and All Saints pray for you, and the Holy Angels protect you and lead you forth to fresh insights and new adventure in the worship of GOD, in private prayer, in the spiritual life and in the service of love and care for men and women wherever their needs may be.'

Following the sermon there was a procession to honour Our Lady, during which Father David sprinkled the congregation with water taken from the Holy Well at Walsingham, ‘England’s Nazareth’.

The liturgy concluded with Benediction. After making the sign of the cross over the people with the Blessed Sacrament in the customary way, Father David and the servers processed out of the church, and Benediction was given over the City of Brisbane. (At that moment the heavens opened and much needed rain fell, leading a parishioner to suggest afterwards that Father David and the Monstrance do a tour of the drought stricken west!)

Supper followed in the All Saints’ Centre, and the speeches were chaired by Archdeacon Booth. Father Trevor Bulled of Holy Trinity, Fortitude Valley welcomed Father David on behalf of the clergy of the Inner City Deanery, and Miss Bartz Schultz did so on behalf of parishioners.

In response, Father David thanked everyone for their support. He was especially grateful to the Archbishop for demonstrating that there was still a place for Anglicans of our conviction in the Diocese of Brisbane. He went on to commit himself to praying, living and proclaiming the full Catholic Faith with the people of All Saints, for the glory of God and for the sake of the bruised and battered world around us.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(CLICK on the photos to enlarge them)

The Institution and Induction (1)

The Institution and Induction (2)

All Saints' (from Wickham Terrace)

Benediction over the City of Brisbane

With Archdeacon David Farrer (L) and Father Austin Day (R)

My first Sunday was Pentecost. 

Here are the clergy and servers at the end of High Mass

The Sanctuary, seen through the Lady Chapel.

Brisbane - a beautiful city!

.

The Harrowing of Hell : Anastasis

All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, Brisbane 

Blessing of the Font at the 2003 Easter Vigil, 

featuring the Icon of the Lord’s Resurrection.

I was recently looking through some memorabilia and came across a past issue of the All Saints’ Gazette, from my old parish of All Saints’Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. It contains the following sermon preached at the blessing of our great Anastasis icon which forms a striking backdrop to the font underneath the new organ/choir gallery at the west end of the church. 

The Icon is a memorial to Canon Alexander Livingstone Sharwood (1907-1991) and his wife, Margaret Evelyn Sharwood (1910-1995), given by their family. Their association with All Saints' went back many decades. The icon was was written by well-known artist, iconographer and friend of the Sharwood family, Bishop John Bayton AM. OMLJ, GCSJ. He dedicated the icon at Evensong and Benediction on 3rd November 2002. He was also the preacher. This is his sermon:  

“For Christ died for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit through whom he went and preached to the souls that were in prison, who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah . . . (when) a few, that is, eight in all were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you.” (1 Peter 3:18)

In the active ministry of every priest there are “highs” and “lows”, remembrances of celebrations and events that form and transform the soul. Memories of Ordinations, Consecrations and people and places.

Of places I could spend many hours recounting them, particularly Jerusalem. In the heart of the Old City stands the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as it is called in the West. In the East the Orthodox and the Orientals know it as the Church of the Resurrection. It is in fact many Churches within the walls of one ancient and venerable edifice. Custody of the Church is held by Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian and Latin Patriarchies. There are no Roman Catholics in Jerusalem, they are known as Latins because of the incredibly savage way the Crusaders dealt with the local people - Jews, Moslems and Christians alike.

Outside the West door of the Greek Orthodox Katholikon there is a small terra cotta urn about two feet high and about one foot in diameter. It is here, so it is said that God created the Universe. If you put your ear to the opening on top of this little urn you can hear the sounds of creation - if you are pure in heart.

Nearby is a black and white marble pavement with a black and white marble circle marking the spot where Mary Magdalene mistook the Risen Lord for the gardener. Close by to this dynamic place but above it by some five metres is the Altar built over the split rock that once stood in the middle of a great quarry outside the walls of Jerusalem - If you place your hand beneath this Altar you can feel the socket into which the Cross of Jesus was placed. This is the stone once rejected by the builders. Immediately beneath it is a very ancient cave said to be the burial place of our first parents Adam and Eve. It is known as the chapel of Adam.

Ten metres away from this rock called Golgotha, the place of Adam’s skull is a marble slab known as the Stone of the Anointing upon which Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laid the Lord’s body after his deposition. And another ten metres away from this stone is a small highly decorated little building known as The Edicule. This is the Tomb of Christ.

Immediately above Golgotha by about ten metres is another Chapel, the Chapel Of Abraham. In the floor beneath the altar of this Chapel is a hole covered with a twelve inch silver plate. Through the hole one can see the Altar built over the Rock of the Crucifixion - Calvary.

At 7.00am on June 11th, the Feast of Saint Barnabas and the anniversary of my consecration as a bishop in the Church of God, with the gracious permission of His Beatitude the Greek Patriarch, fully vested in my Episcopal vestments I kissed the Altar and began a solemn celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Above all other places I have been, beyond all other solemn occasions I have celebrated, this day will remain with me for the rest of my life. “And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.” It was an awesome occasion, a time of great anamnesis.

And yet every Altar stands above the place of the crucifixion-resurrection of Christ. Every place of sacrifice is as solemn a place as that. Yet there is something beyond the veil of sensibility that permits me to speak of that time and to be so moved by it. All things that belong to this Icon we are about to Dedicate constellate there. Here, as I have written down on this board covered with linen which represents the linen in which His body was wrapped. Here in the pigments of mother earth, and the gold of the kingdom of heaven we find Christ trampling down the Gates of Hades and hauling our first parents out of their sepulchers, about which Saint Peter speaks in the words of our text tonight. Preaching to the souls in prison, those ancient ones who lay in their tomb awaiting the coming of the Second Adam to the fight and to the rescue of fallen humanity.

Behind them stands John the Baptist, King David and King Solomon, the Prophets Elijah and Elisha and Daniel. And the two mountains - on the right Mount Sinai, Horeb, that most awesome of places, where God gave to Moses the Torah and every interpretation of the Law. And on the left Mount Tabor where, in company with the two great desert prophets Moses and Elijah the Lord is transfigured in order that he might set his face towards Jerusalem. This is the place where Peter said, “It is good Lord to be here, let us make three cubby houses, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Cubby House comes from the Aramaic Qu ‘bah - the place where the children meet to tell stories, to sing songs and to dance - that is, the Church - where the Great Story of Redemption is told in the Mass, where the great Liturgy is sung and where the whole Laos of God , bishops, priests, deacons and laity perform the sacred dance that recalls into present time the events of the past that have their fulfillment in the future.

Below the trampled down gates of the underworld we find Satan, the evil one, Lucifer bound in chains until the end of time, surrounded by the instruments of Christ’s Passion.

What is the purpose of the Icon? This Icon is the Memorial to two people who lived out lives of great faith and who I was privileged to know. The Reverend Dr Sharwood was my lecturer in Greek at St. Francis College. Mrs Sharwood was always a gracious host to theological students at St. Columb's Clayfield.

May I depart from my text for a moment to tell you a story about him. It was an afternoon lecture and we all know that afternoon lectures are times for quiet snoozing. He was speaking about the many kinds of theisms found in the Holy Land - Monotheism the worship of one god; polytheism the worship of many gods; henotheism the belief that there are many gods but one worships only One. He said to Douglas Jones, “Mr Jones, what is henotheism?” Douglas who had been in the arms of Morpheus for most of the lecture said, “Beg pardon Father”.“What is henotheism Mr Jones”. Stunned for a moment, Doug replied, “Poultry worship”. Which reply brought the broadest grin to your father’s face.

In general, and in particular this Icon is a most appropriate memorial to Dr and Mr Sharwood. It is an agreed point of encounter. It is the place where we meet with Christ and where Christ meets with us. An Icon is always a revelation, a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional reality. It is a Place not a painting.

An Icon written, translated from an original or prototype and is therefore faithful to the Tradition. It is certainly not a simple representation of a past event however important that past event is in the history of religion. It is the place where Christ continues to “raise the dead”. It is the Image of the eternal self emptying [kenosis] of God Himself who toko upon himself the form of a servant and was found in human form. Who humbled himself even to death on a cross and who, because of his unbelievable holiness, righteousness and obedience the Father was able to rise from the dead to triumph over sin. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

A special Christmas message

"Behold, the Lamb of God "

Concelebrated Mass at Patmos House, Brisbane, Australia

4th Sunday of Advent, 2009

2009 was my last Christmas in Brisbane. For a number of reasons I knew in my heart that the time had come to move on, and so (without at that time announcing my resignation), I wrote to parishioners and friends what has turned out to be my last Christmas message as a priest with a parish of my own. The other day, one of my Brisbane friends emailed Christmas greetings and suggested it was it was time for a re-run of "that" letter. So, here it is: 

THE HIGH COST OF CHRISTMAS

". . . no observation shall be had of the five and twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas Day; nor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon that day in respect thereof." 

Where do you think that comes from? The Soviet Union after the revolution? Some right wing fascist dictatorship? A secular humanist's dream of what should be decreed in Australia?

Those words are an order of the English Parliament, dated 24th December, 1652. (It was three years after the murder of King Charles I; Oliver Cromwell was in control of Parliament and England.)

This is not the place for an essay on the kind of puritanism that sought to eradicate every trace of Catholic faith and culture from England. But in our day, when the Gospel and the Catholic faith are under attack - it seems from all sides at once! - it is good medicine to look again at the courage of those in the so-called "Commonwealth" period of English history (when even services from the Prayer Book were illegal) without whom the Church of England would never have risen from the ashes.

We don't even have to imagine the way things were. We have the eyewitness report of Christmas Day 1657 in the Diary of John Evelyn who had gathered with a tiny congregation in the chapel at Exeter House, in the Strand:

"I went to London with my wife to celebrate Christmas Day, Mr. Gunning preaching in Exeter Chapel, on Micah vii. 2. Sermon ended; as he was giving us the Holy Sacrament the chapel was surrounded with soldiers, and all the communicants and assembly surprised and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others carried away.

"It fell to my share to be confined to a room in the house, where yet I was permitted to dine with the master of it, the Countess of Dorset, Lady Hatton, and some others.

"In the afternoon came Colonel Whalley, Goffe, and others from Whitehall to examine us one by one; some they committed to the Marshal, some to prison.

"When I came before them they took my name and abode, examined me why, contrary to the ordinance made that none should any longer observe the superstitious time of the Nativity (as esteemed by them), I durst offend, and particularly be at Common Prayers, which they told me was but the mass in English, and particularly pray for Charles Stuart, for which we had no Scripture.

"I told them we did not pray for Charles Stuart, but for all Christian kings, princes, and governors. They replied, in so doing we prayed for the King of Spain too, who was their enemy and a Papist; with other frivolous and ensnaring questions and much threatening, and, finding no colour to detain me, they dismissed me with much pity of my ignorance.

"These were men of high flight and above ordinances, and spake spiteful things of our Lord's Nativity. As we went up to receive the sacrament the miscreants held their muskets against us, as if they would have shot us at the altar, but yet suffering us to finish the office of communion, as perhaps not having instructions what to do in case they found us in that action; so I got home late the next day, blessed be God!"

History records the bravery of both Anglicans and Roman Catholics in England during that time who secretly practised the faith when it was driven underground. We owe them an enormous debt.

AN UNDERGROUND CHURCH

We should remember this whenever we slip into thinking that the natural state of affairs for the Church is to be part of the power elite in this or that society, or that as individual Christians we have a "right" to be thought well of in the culture of which we are part. Christmas should remind us that OUR FAITH BEGAN AS AN UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT. Indeed, it began literally underground, as Chesterton delighted in reminding us, in the CAVE where the animals were kept.

Furthermore, at different times in history, Christians (of all traditions) have been pushed back underground, and have suffered greatly for the honour of just being the people of Jesus. And from time to time there has been the wholesale destruction of Christian cultures of influence. We only have to think of the ancient centres of flourishing Church life in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and North Africa, which were trashed so violently by the Muslims.

We don't have to look so far back in history. Did you know that the 20th century saw more Christian martyrs than any other time? Literally millions of our brothers and sisters have died over the last hundred years rather than renounce the faith of Jesus, or the principles of justice for the oppressed that are part and parcel of the Gospel.

I fear that we twenty-first century Christians in western countries like Australia have become soft and sentimental . . . dare I say even "gutless", worried about what people think of us - especially now that the Richard Dawkins crowd has captured the limelight with its peculiar brand of fundamentalist atheism - and we tend to clam up every time there is an opportunity to say or do something that just might prod someone we know into beginning a journey of faith. We are paralysed by fear, when - if we think about it - the worst thing that could ever happen to us is that we might become the butt of snide remarks at a dinner party or the pub.

And the "liberal" Church? Well, it seems more worried about whether or not it meets the approval of our corrupted culture, than if it meets GOD'S approval. 

The real truth is that there are many people out there who desperately want to meet a well rounded, intelligent, caring, fun person like YOU, who is not a "religious nut" but who can engage in a conversation about "spirituality" and the "meaning" of life, and - yes - about JESUS! Right now there is widespread evidence of an intensifying hunger and thirst for spiritual reality in modern secular Australia.

DEPENDING ONLY ON GOD

As Anglicans, let's stop grieving the loss of the supposed "standing" we had a generation or two ago (or whenever YOU think was our "golden age"). Let's lay hold of the grace and power of the Holy Spirit who can turn spiritual whimps into the sort of people who share meaningfully with others, serving them, and loving them into a real relationship with Jesus.

History reveals that many times when the Church has been reduced to an "underground movement" it came to depend only on God's promises and grace, and consequently underwent cleansing and renewal.

I hope and pray that in our time the whole Church - from its increasingly "underground" position - will rediscover the Good News of Jesus - the Gospel - as well as its own essence as a dynamic, loving, sacramental community, the many membered Body of Jesus in the world today, connecting with others, especially the truly needy, supporting them in their troubles, their pain, their sorrow, the tangles and ambiguities of their troubled lives, and bringing them to know and love Jesus as their Saviour.

It is unfortunate that a lot of people who "do evangelism" today (including some well resourced Catholics and Evangelicals) behave as if all that is necessary in order to make "converts" is to have the best logical arguments. Now - as you know - I quite enjoy the challenge of robust debate myself; but I need to remind you that conversion to Christ is not just changing what people THINK or BELIEVE. It's also - in fact, primarily, - changing what - or "who" - they LOVE. That is much more difficult. Jesus has to win our HEARTS as well as our MINDS.

REACHING OUT IN LOVE

So, if I am permitted to use militaristic imagery, the chief "weapon" we use in our struggle as underground Christians trying to reach others for Jesus is LOVE. It's not good enough just to beat people in a debate! We must - as I have just said - love them to the Lord. After all, his love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), so as to flow out from us into the lives of others.

I often think of this at Christmas, especially when gazing upon the Christmas Crib with the hands of baby Jesus outstretched towards us. He left the glory of heaven to join us in our poverty, so that through him we might become rich! Our redemption cost him everything. I once preached a mission sermon on the "hands of Jesus", beginning with those little hands outstretched in the manger, moving on to the hands at work in the carpenter's shop, then to the hands reaching out, touching and healing all who came to him with their broken lives in the time of his earthly ministry; then the hands dripping with blood, nailed to the cross - hands outstretched in a cosmic embrace; and finally the hands of the Risen Body held out to doubting Thomas who cried out to Jesus in that moment of realisation, "My Lord and my God."

It was St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) who said. "Christ has no . . . hands . . . on earth but yours" now with which to minister compassion to the world. As an underground Church slowly bringing about the Lord's revolution of love, we accept the cost of serving others as Jesus did . . . giving ourselves away, if that's what he calls us to do.

HOW WILL THEY KNOW?

Even orthodox parishes need to hear this, because Jesus did not say: "By this shall everyone know you are my disciples, that you have the best and most breathtaking liturgies in town", or "that you believe everything in the Creed, the Bible and even the Catechism of the Catholic Church", or "that you have stunning contemporary emergent outreach services", or "your healing services and spontaneous times of praise and worship lift you to heaven", or "that you operate the most effective social welfare programs in the district." No. However important these things are, Jesus actually said, "By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples, that you have LOVE one for another." (John 13:35)

And the greatest sign of that love is THE WILLINGNESS TO FORGIVE THOSE WHO HURT US DEEPLY. Look at Ephesians 4:32 where it says: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."

Authentic Christian life like that develops when the Church goes underground, because nothing but a culture of love works for people who are completely marginalized, poverty-stricken and persecuted. Our parishioners - for all we have been through in these days when Anglo-Catholics like us are persecuted and bullied by those who have risen to power in large slabs of Australian Anglicanism - know this better than most. Many of you have said how that in spite of all our faults as a community (and we have some!), our experience of God's love and the love of the Church family over the last five years years is so much greater than anything you have known elsewhere. A wide range of visitors to our worship have said the same kind of thing.

What happens to us in our personal lives or as a Church community if we do not allow our hands to be the hands of Jesus, reaching out and loving one another and the world around us? After all, we know that kind of love carries with it enormous risks, and we want to be "safe." What happens to us if we close ourselves off to love? Think of Jesus on the cross, and the love that flows from the cross into your life and mine as you read this devastating answer to that question from C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung

and possibly be broken.

If you want to make sure of keeping it intact,

you must give your heart to no one,

not even to an animal.

"Wrap your heart carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries;

avoid all entanglements;

lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change.

It will not be broken;

it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . .

The only place outside Heaven

where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love

is Hell."

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

As I gaze into the manger and see those little hands that are destined to be pierced for me and nailed to the cross, all I can think is how amazing and real that love is, and how unworthy I am to be loved like that. I can't help it . . . I am smitten every time! And I understand more and more deeply just how costly it was that first Christmas for God to come among us to rescue us, to redeem us, to forgive us, to bring us back to himself, to give our lives meaning, to pour his love into our hearts, and to be with us in the joy and the pain of our very human life.

What about you? Will you come to Mass at Christmas, and open your heart to him? Christmas is a great opportunity to renew your relationship with Jesus. It's the perfect time, if you have strayed, to begin receiving Holy Communion again, and know the wonder of his love in that special way.

Finally, if someone has given you this letter to read, and you're not one our Church members (in fact, maybe you've never been to church before!) there's no better time to dip your toe in the water than Christmas. You'll be so glad you did. We’d love to have you with us.

This comes to you with my prayers and best wishes for a happy and holy Christmas.

Fr Bates: ". . . in his Sacrament of love he is present in a very special sense."

Archbishop Peter Hollingworth inducted me as Rector of All Saints' Wickham Terrace

on 31st May 1995 at Evensong and Benediction, 

during which I had the privilege of taking the holy Sacrament outside 
for the blessing of the great City of Brisbane.  

One of my predecessors at All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, Brisbane (Australia) was Father Robert Bates. Some older parishioners, who grew up in that part of the inner city during his incumbency when today’s trendy Spring Hill was the very poorest end of town, would tell me stories of Father Bates' devotion and care, his zeal to preach the Gospel, his heartfelt attachment to the Catholic Faith in its fulness (for which he was often ridiculed), and his sense of humour.

Robert Bates began training for the priesthood at the small Anglo-Catholic St John's College, Melbourne, but while he was there, World War I started and he enlisted in the Army. After serving at Gallipoli and in France, being awarded the Military Medal and being severely wounded, he entered Merton College, Oxford. He obtained honours in theology there, completed his training at Cuddesdon, and, in 1922, became curate at St Andrew's Bethnal Green in the poor East End of London. 

In 1924 he returned to Australia to become Vicar of Copmanhurst in Grafton Diocese, but two years later, when Father Maynard became Vicar of St Peter’s Eastern Hill (Melbourne), Father Bates replaced him at All Saints’ Wickham Terrace, serving as Rector from 1926 to 1947. 

Being Corpus Christi, I thought I’d share with you something devotional - and beautiful - that Father Bates wrote for the February 1939 parish magazine about Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament:

Once the truth that the Blessed Sacrament actually is the Body of Christ enters not only our minds but entwines itself into the fabric of our spiritual lives, nothing is more natural than that we should seek his presence in this Sacrament, in order to pray before him more intimately and directly than we otherwise could. 

Of course, it is true that God is everywhere, but God is less hidden in you and me, his children, than he is in a stone or tree; and above all in his Sacrament of love he is present in a very special sense - in his Divinity, but in his humanity too, the gracious Body of Jesus Christ His Son, which worked out our salvation of old in the countryside of Galilee, God as we have learnt to love him, though now in this Sacrament concealed beneath the veil of bread and wine. 

Here in the tabernacle upon the altar he fulfils his promise to be with us till the end of time. We can imagine the tabernacle as a white-hot furnace of love; and as our life and work is fruitless unless it flows from Jesus, those of us who try to love much will be before him often to replenish our own weakness and to increase our faith. So gracious an atmosphere does a church in which the Sacrament is reserved develop that many people believe that they can recognise these churches without looking for lights or other signs. “I always sit on the south side of All Saints,” said a religious to the present writer, “it is so much warmer there.” 

As the devotion of men grew to this Blessed Sacrament of love, the Church began to organize services of devotion. Because these services are only supplementary and are not intended to take away from our attendance at Mass which is our duty, they are called “extra-liturgical.” They are not commanded, but do you have to command love? 

Father Faber’s desire for “Love’s reward, What rapture will it be prostrate before thy throne to lie And gaze and gaze on Thee,” has been realised in the Middle Ages, as to-day, for a moment in the Elevation of the Host at Mass. And it was the desire to extend the glory of this moment, that it became the custom in the 13th and 14th centuries to take the Sacrament from the tabernacle and expose It in a transparent vessel which became known as the “monstrance,” during Vespers of Our Lady. The service was given a traditional form by the lovely hymns written by St. Thomas Aquinas, that we use today - ”O Saving Victim” and “Therefore we, before him bending.” The service closed with the people receiving the Blessing of Our Lord as the sign of the Cross was made over them with the Sacrament, just as the priest does today as he gives you your communion. What more beautiful close to a day of worship could you imagine than to receive Our Lord’s own blessing in the twilight as you go home to rest, after a short service that experience shows is unrivalled in opening our eyes to the glory of the Heavenly Kingdom. For where God is, there is Heaven.

Most of us certainly understand that, as John Keble said, “Where Christ is, he is to be worshipped.” And none of us would willingly withhold from him our devotion in this Sacrament that we have tried to make the centre of our life in this parish . . . Some of us are accustomed to assemble on Saturday nights, by way of preparation for our communions, and to take part in a service of Adoration before the tabernacle. But how many of us stay away? Have you thought of those long hours of the night when from the tabernacle go out waves upon waves of prayer and love over a careless and forgetful city; and with that ceaseless intercession is united not one of the prayers of us his brethren, and when we are invited there by the church, we do not care to come?