Ministers meeting in Australia

I have been away a lot lately, mostly doing Franciscan Stuff.
One of the meetings I was at was a Ministers meeting in Perth. One of the other attendees has written this dairy, so I thought I would just post this.
You can see the original if you follow the link.

Perth Diary

The purpose of the visit to Perth was for a meeting of the Ministers Provincial of the Third Order in the Society of St Francis, which is an Anglican order. There are five provinces in the world, and we have a Minister General who leads the whole order. Meetings take place every two years, and I was blessed to attend the previous one in the USA.

Friday 14 – At Perth airport, Jeremy James met me. He is the Regional Minister (or Guardian) of the Third Order in Western Australia. He had already collected Anita Catron (USA) and Dorothy Brooker (Minister General from New Zealand). We went to the home where Joanna Coney (UK) was staying. Julie-Ann was our driver. We stopped in Safety Bay to collect John Hebenton (NZ). The journey took several hours. At Dardenup we met our host, Ted Witham, the Australian Minister Provincial, and his wife, Rae, who acted as our secretary.

Dardenup village is a crossroads with a post office, petrol station, tavern and some businesses – even smaller than Hoedspruit. There is a very small Anglican church, and a larger Catholic church with a school. We stayed at the House of Prayer, owned by the Catholic Church. It is a retreat house, run by the priest, Fr Michael Leek OSB, and a housekeeper, Trish Broderick, who is also a spiritual director. The weather was cold and wet. Dardenup is flat country with green fields for dairy cattle and sheep. The birds are outstandingly beautiful. In between our times of business, we went for walks around Dardenup. This part of Australia has a similar climate to the Western Cape, with winter rain, and similar vegetation flourishes here.

Saturday 15 – After breakfast, the day began with the brief service of Lauds in the chapel, led by Fr Michael. Archbishop Roger Herft is the Anglican archbishop of Western Australia, and the Bishop Protector of the Society of St Francis. He came from Perth to lead us in a study from Luke's Gospel on the birth of Christ. After morning tea our business began with reports from the five provinces of the Third Order.

Sunday 16 – After lunch we went to Bunbury which is on the coast and met George Harvey, a member of the Third Order who is an expert in local church history. He showed us some historic Anglican churches, St Boniface Cathedral, the OSEH church built for a community of religious sisters, and St Mark's, the oldest church in Bunbury. We had tea with him in his home like a museum, with aviaries in the garden. This diary gives the impression that we spent all our time gallivanting around. But the purpose of meeting together was to discuss and make important decisions for the Third Order throughout the world, and we did that. By working hard in spite of jet-lag, we got through the business quite quickly.

Monday 17 – After completing some of our business, we went to the Crooked Brook Forest for a barbeque: we didn't need wood, we actually used a built-in gas cooker. We took a short walk through the forest, a very interesting combination of eucalyptus trees, yuccas and fynbos.

Bishop David McCall the Bishop of Bunbury and Marion his wife joined us for supper. She is a light aircraft pilot and has won numerous awards. She was preparing for a flight in her single-engined Cessna emulating the first flight in Australia.

Tuesday 18 – After lunch we took a trip to the hilly country of the Ferguson Valley. It is a beautiful area of stock farming, horses, cheese-making and vineyards. In the forest, we stopped at the enormous King Jarrah tree. Then we found the Kingtree Wines cellars, but they were closed. However there were wild kangaroos grazing on the hillside. One of the interesting landmarks is Gnomeville where hundreds of plaster garden gnomes are on display. It puts you off garden gnomes for ever!

Wednesday 19 – I went for several walks, alone and with the others. A group of SFO (Secular Franciscan Order, the Franciscan Third Order of the Roman Catholic Church) members joined us for afternoon tea. Their chaplain Dick Scanlen was from the former Rhodesia. That evening we had a delicious meal at the Bull and Bush Tavern in the neighbouring village of Boyanup.

Thursday 20 – We wound up our business meeting with time to spare. In the afternoon, we went to Busselton, and toured the famous jetty and St Mary's Church. Then we went to Bunbury and parted with Anita. She caught the bus to the airport at Perth on her way back to Utah. We returned to the House of Prayer, and Father Michael and Trish Broderick had supper with us.

Friday 21 - John, Dorothy, Joanna and I said our farewells to the others and returned to Perth. We arrived at Fremantle and had fish and chips on the wharf. Then we found the Farmers Market, which is a fascinating flea-market. We spent a short time at Cottesloe on the coast north of the river. We stopped at Kings Park on the hill overlooking the Swan river and the Perth CBD. Then we drove to the depot to hand in the hired car, but we wanted to fill it with fuel first. There are no petrol stations in the CBD, and it took us some time to find one. At the Avis depot we were met by Jeremy James, who was taking John and Dorothy to the airport.and another member of the Third Order, who was taking Joanna home with her.
Our Ministers' Meeting went well. It is not a rubber stamp: we had to work things out carefully, and we had to overcome differences due to the areas we represented. Every day began with prayer in the chapel with the Catholic priest. Our meetings began with the Daily Obedience of the Third Order, in which we prayed for Third Order members in every province. At noon we had our own Eucharist, and took it in turns to preside. Ted Witham had provided sheets of hymns, some of which were written by him. We tried to go for walks together, depending on the weather. The House of Prayer was an ideal venue, as if purpose-built for us, though it caters mainly for retreats. I greatly enjoyed seeing the countryside. Getting to know the other ministers better was a great privilege.

I am very grateful to all the good people who made it such a memorable experience, and very grateful to the Third Order for sending me.

David Bertram