MtE Update – April 18 2019

  1. Holy Week and Easter Services
    • Maundy Thursday: Thursday April 18, 7.30pm
    • Good Friday: Friday April 19, 10.00am
    • Easter Vigil: Saturday April 20, 8.00pm
    • Easter Day: Sunday April 21, 10.00am
  2. Biber’s Rosary Sonatas in Holy Week As part of the orders of service for Holy Week, Tim, Stuart and Donald have put together three sonatas from the wonderful collection known as the Mystery Sonatas, by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704). Based on the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, these works are notable examples of the mid-seventeenth-century German style of sonatas for violin solo and basso continuo (harpsichord/organ and cello). They are perhaps best known for their imaginative use of scordatura, a technique in which the violin is tuned in ways other than the conventional method. This changes the sound of the violin completely, giving it new sonorities and expressive means. As far as the listening experience is concerned, the approach to these pieces has been guided by the seventeenth-century concepts of personal contemplation. These sonatas are written according to ideas expressed in such works as St Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. In other words, they are performed to assist in reflection and meditation. This eschews the idea of a programmatic narrative which serves only a singular goal, namely, to tell the listener what to hear and what to feel about it. As a way of illustrating this: the first four violin notes of the “Crucifixion” constitute a musical emblem of the cross. This is musical device which suggests what the subject of contemplation is to be, but it does not represent an ongoing description of the moment as it is described in the Gospels. For the music to draw attention to itself in this way, would destroy the very concept of personal reflection.
  3. Mark the Evangelist Day Lunch: Sunday 28 April 2019 – After Worship : On Sunday morning, 28 April, we will be celebrating Mark the Evangelist Day with a lunch after worship.  All are welcome – the more the merrier.  The lunch is always a great occasion for sharing our life together over good food. As usual, we will cater for this event ourselves, with people contributing food. SO, please give your names to Rod or Ann if you can come.  AND equally important – please talk with Ann, Peggy, or Barbara and let them know what you can contribute for the lunch. 
  4. Justice and International Mission (JIM) Unit April Update
  5. JIM Unit (above!) on the forthcoming election…
  6. VicTas Synod eNews for April
  7. Our final Ecclesiastes readings for the present series of reflections are
    • Ecclesiastes 3.1-14 for Good Friday: ‘Catching the wind – the vanity of the crucifixion’
    • Ecclesiastes 8.6-8 for Easter Day: ‘The wind blows where it wills : the vanity of the Christ’

Other things potentially of interest 

  1. Queen’s College ANZAC Commemoration Chapel

Old News

The Master, Dr Stewart Gill OAM, warmly invites you to attend the Queen’s College Anzac Commemoration Chapel Service, with Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC, Fellow of Queen’s College
“Anzac: The Guns Are Not Yet Silent”
DATE: Sunday 28 April 2019
TIME: 6:30pm
VENUE: Queen’s College Chapel

  1. Advance Dates
    1. April 28 — MtE Day Luncheon after worship
    2. May 12 — Congregational AGM 
    3. May 19 — Speaker from Lentara on the Asylum Seekers Project
  2.  A Good Friday performance of Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion
  3. Details of our Lenten and Easter services are here.