- Dec 27, 2015
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Purely personal but lately I've been wondering just when I first made my Christian confession.
I knew it was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, which ran from 30 September to 9 October 1982.
I had the flu at the time and I couldn't do anything except watch TV. I don't normally watch sport, but since there wasn't much else on I watched a fair bit of the games. Two names readily come to mind - Tracey WIckham who won medals in swimming and Robert de Castella ("Deek") who won the marathon. Some years later my then Presbyterian pastor said of Tracey Wickham that she would go through a terrible time, which she did.
It was not a good time in my life. I was out of work, going through a divorce, going to lose the home I was paying off etc.
But as I sat there a very persistent image of the "Newmarket Presbyterian Church" kept intruding into my mind. I'd had a bit of Sunday School when I was young at that church. It's a private home now, but at that time it was still going.
This image just didn't go away. It was persistent. Since I had nothing to lose and was thinking "There's got to be more to life than this!" I ended up going to the church after the Games finished and the flu was gone. A few weeks later I made a confession.
For some reason I've recently started trying to remember when I made my confession. I think it was probably in the early part of November. Using AI I got the following dates for Sunday in November 1982 - 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.
I suspect it might have been November 14, 1982. I remember making my confession, half reluctantly, and then going home feeling as though I was "walking on air" (to quote another chap who had the same experience after he made his confession, years earlier than I did as he's nearly 20 years older).
In turn I met the pastor of that church (there were three churches in the parish, Wilston-Windsor-Newmarket). I soon gravitated to Wilston which was the main church and where he had his office. Of the three churches it is the only one still going as Newmarket was sold off, and while I think they may still have the property rights for Windsor, it is not being used.
The website for the Wilston Church follows and I can still recognise at least four people even though I haven't been there for 34 years - a former treasurer and his wife, an elder, and another lady who also did some organisation at the Masters Athletics.
In this scene, there is a door down towards the right hand end, which is the office where the pastor and I had a lot of dicussions. There was also a gym under the church. I enjoyed my time there, not because it was "Presbyterian" but due to the people.
Incidentally the Presbyterian Church of Queensland is in receivership, not because of parish churches themselves or pedophile court cases which have been a burden to a number of churches, but due to financial mishandling of their aged care facilities. Apparently the aged care function was not a separate business entity from the Presbyterian Church itself.
www.abc.net.au
The night my father died (when I was still atheist) he predicted I'd become Christian and that as part of that I'd meet a certain pastor, who would "discourage (me) even more". That turned out to be the Presbyterian pastor as he admitted circa 1991 that "You needed encouragement, but all I've done is to discourage you even more!", quoting my deceased father back to me word for word.
But I learnt a lot from him and still hold him with a lot of respect. In turn he predicted I'd become Catholic, which I did circa 1996/97.
I received a Bible dated 7/12/96 as part of RCIA which was probably during the Rite of Welcome. This implies I was inducted into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1997, which happened to be on 29 March, 1997.
So I think I've managed to pin those two dates down. Just a bit of useless information for forum readers.
I knew it was shortly after the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, which ran from 30 September to 9 October 1982.
I had the flu at the time and I couldn't do anything except watch TV. I don't normally watch sport, but since there wasn't much else on I watched a fair bit of the games. Two names readily come to mind - Tracey WIckham who won medals in swimming and Robert de Castella ("Deek") who won the marathon. Some years later my then Presbyterian pastor said of Tracey Wickham that she would go through a terrible time, which she did.
It was not a good time in my life. I was out of work, going through a divorce, going to lose the home I was paying off etc.
But as I sat there a very persistent image of the "Newmarket Presbyterian Church" kept intruding into my mind. I'd had a bit of Sunday School when I was young at that church. It's a private home now, but at that time it was still going.
This image just didn't go away. It was persistent. Since I had nothing to lose and was thinking "There's got to be more to life than this!" I ended up going to the church after the Games finished and the flu was gone. A few weeks later I made a confession.
For some reason I've recently started trying to remember when I made my confession. I think it was probably in the early part of November. Using AI I got the following dates for Sunday in November 1982 - 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.
I suspect it might have been November 14, 1982. I remember making my confession, half reluctantly, and then going home feeling as though I was "walking on air" (to quote another chap who had the same experience after he made his confession, years earlier than I did as he's nearly 20 years older).
In turn I met the pastor of that church (there were three churches in the parish, Wilston-Windsor-Newmarket). I soon gravitated to Wilston which was the main church and where he had his office. Of the three churches it is the only one still going as Newmarket was sold off, and while I think they may still have the property rights for Windsor, it is not being used.
The website for the Wilston Church follows and I can still recognise at least four people even though I haven't been there for 34 years - a former treasurer and his wife, an elder, and another lady who also did some organisation at the Masters Athletics.
In this scene, there is a door down towards the right hand end, which is the office where the pastor and I had a lot of dicussions. There was also a gym under the church. I enjoyed my time there, not because it was "Presbyterian" but due to the people.
Incidentally the Presbyterian Church of Queensland is in receivership, not because of parish churches themselves or pedophile court cases which have been a burden to a number of churches, but due to financial mishandling of their aged care facilities. Apparently the aged care function was not a separate business entity from the Presbyterian Church itself.
Presbyterian Church of Queensland put into receivership
The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, which also operates a Toowoomba private school and aged care provider PresCare, is placed into receivership.
www.abc.net.au
The night my father died (when I was still atheist) he predicted I'd become Christian and that as part of that I'd meet a certain pastor, who would "discourage (me) even more". That turned out to be the Presbyterian pastor as he admitted circa 1991 that "You needed encouragement, but all I've done is to discourage you even more!", quoting my deceased father back to me word for word.
But I learnt a lot from him and still hold him with a lot of respect. In turn he predicted I'd become Catholic, which I did circa 1996/97.
I received a Bible dated 7/12/96 as part of RCIA which was probably during the Rite of Welcome. This implies I was inducted into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 1997, which happened to be on 29 March, 1997.
So I think I've managed to pin those two dates down. Just a bit of useless information for forum readers.
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