Highs and Lows

To Christ Church Adelaide, the richest church in Australia and at the Catholic end of the Anglican spectrum. In eight months since Lyndon the vicar's arrival they have invested in new community facilities, and in just getting moving again as he puts it. High quality facilities and a good social program including teaching language skills to those for whom English is a foreign language and computer skills to older people. All pretty impressive and interestingly they have a supportive link to Anglicare whose projects they support including the Magdalene centre which does outreach work to the homeless.. Little or no links to the government at the moment but with a growing civic position it's only a matter of time. Also, Lyndon is the kind of person who if something was happening in his community he would want to turn up.
Later in the day sat in a staff meeting of seven, who are planning a mission, lots of lively decision making until we talk about biscuits then world war three breaks out. Don't you just love church meetings!
Later on the way home in contrast I pop into Elizabeth shopping centre for a few bits and discover a bit more about this interesting community. As with the housing it looks flash on the outside but the inside is full of cheap shops and people wearing what is apparently the winter plumage here, jogging pants. Joking apart you can just sense the very real poverty that surrounds you and the despair if not desperation on the part of the shopkeepers to be able to sell to someone.
It's still really cold here but spotted two Cockatoos on a lamppost as I drove in today.The paedophile scandal is still the elephant in the room. Lyndon tells me whilst in his dog collar he was crossing the road holding his young son's hand and somebody wound down the window of their car and shouted paedphile... how will the church here ever get some sort of closure on this...