Introducing Dr. Brian Porter as Locum Vicar 2011-2012
In the last year or so Brian has been the locum of five parishes: St Peter’s Box Hill, Holy Advent Armadale, Holy Trinity Surrey Hills, St Paul's East Kew and Holy Trinity Hampton. The circumstances have included sick leave, long service leave and vacancies.
Brian retired as Senior Chaplain of Melbourne Grammar School in 2005, then was a half time chaplain at Brighton Grammar School until his 70th birthday in May 2009. He has served for 40 years as a school chaplain in six Anglican schools, the others being Trinity Grammar School, The King’s School Parramatta, Canberra Grammar School and Ivanhoe Grammar School but he has always had parish connections. These parish connections continue in his home parish of St John’s Camberwell and St James the Great East St Kilda.
Brian is married to Dr Muriel Porter who is well known in the Diocese and in the national church as an advocate for women priests and bishops and as a member of the Executive of the Standing Committee of the General Synod. Brian and Muriel have two adult children: Patrick an Oxford DPhil war historian who is Reader in International Strategic Studies at the University of Reading UK, and Emily, a Melbourne housing and construction barrister married to another Patrick who is a criminal barrister. Emily and Pat have a baby son Fergus who is Brian and Muriel's first grandchild with a grandaughter due in December.
Brian was educated at Caulfield Grammar School, trained for the priesthood at Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxford and is a graduate of Monash, Cambridge and New England Universities and was awarded a doctorate for his study of Archbishop Sir Frank Woods. He has been responsible for the publication of six books and is a Research Fellow of Trinity College. He reads and writes recreationally and has been the Book Review Editor of The Melbourne Anglican for 26 years.
By conviction he is a high church liberal who will feel thoroughly at home at St George's which he remembers well from his 15 years as Chaplain of Ivanhoe Grammar School when his very close friend Noel Whale was Vicar. He has been locum here a few times over the years. Food and conversation matter to him a lot so he hopes to share both with you all over the next few months. Do invite him home one Wednesday or Friday for a cup of Earl Grey tea and a shortbread biscuit.
He will be at St George's on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and one other weekday each week as the need arises, three weekdays in all as well as Sunday. He cherishes the hope that many new friendships will be forged here and many old friendships re-kindled.
He prefers to be called simply Brian
Thought for the week from Brian
For the week commencing 13th May, 2012
Change and changelessness
Those of us who are in the afternoon teatime of life find ourselves increasingly bewildered by the pace of change don’t we?
As I look around the train carriage I realise that I am the only person in the carriage not on the phone. I do have a mobile but I use it only for incoming and outgoing telephone calls. I have never sent a text message and use my desk top computer for emails. As for Facebook and Twitter, I haven’t a clue.
I am wary too of the big move away from paper books to digital literature although I confess to reading several newspapers and magazines on line. But I am a bibliophile for whom the very smell of a book whether it is aromatically new or very old and musty, gives me a thrill. It worries me that libraries will become “electronic information retrieval centres” in the decades ahead. In the meantime my books at home breed and while church fetes see me donating several boxes of books inevitably I return home with another lot!
So when I talk with some of our very old and saintly parishioners who are over 90, I marvel at what they have witnessed in their very long lives.
Recently at another parish one old man who is 98 tells me that for most of his life he was a Collins St tailor, expert in cutting and sewing high quality men’s suits, a task now done automatically by computerised machines. He tells me that his bags are packed!
One thing on which he agrees with me is that: “the old old story of Jesus and his love” is changeless. Its presentation might continue to change, but its essential truth is what brings us here this morning.
Brian Porter
For Sunday 12 February 2012 - The search for a new VIcar
St George's is in a time of transition between Vicars and the search is on for a successor to Barbara. I am merely a part-time locum Vicar minding the shop. In the meantime it might be worthwhile outlining:
the qualities of a good parish priest.
I am helped in this by the Editor of the Church Times which is the main weekly newspaper of the Church of England. (My wife has been its Australia Correspondent for 25 years so we are fortunate to receive an airmail edition each Monday) when I read the editorials with much appreciation. Here are his comments written for Back to Church Sunday when he described
factors that make for an attractive parish
such as: "a beautifully appointed church, a decent-sized congregation withpeople who look roughly alike, good music and a priest who actually talks to them." He then elaborated with a comment by Sir Andrew Motion, recently the Poet Laureate, who outlined some of these factors: "Wisdom and wit, principle and tolerance,
gravitas and amusement."
The Editor went on to explore these attributes: "I say 'universal'; would that they were. From this list each attribute is desirable, but if you can't have them all go for principle. I have known priests who can't preach to save a life, tone-deaf priests, priests with funny handshakes, priests who used to teeter publicly on the cliff-edge of faith, priests who were useless with money, priests in awe of the churchwarden/ organist/flower arranger (quite a few of those), and so on. But if they had integrity, none of that mattered.
The best priests are knowledgeable, compassionate and utterly trustworthy. And the very best have no inkling of their worth, convinced they are mediocre or worse. Still, perhaps the clearest sign of a good priest is if you can contemplate meeting him or her over the breakfast table."
Our daily prayer then is for the Incumbency Committee in its large responsibility during these next few months.
Brian Porter
Change and changelessness
Those of us who are in the afternoon teatime of life find ourselves increasingly bewildered by the pace of change don’t we?
As I look around the train carriage I realise that I am the only person in the carriage not on the phone. I do have a mobile but I use it only for incoming and outgoing telephone calls. I have never sent a text message and use my desk top computer for emails. As for Facebook and Twitter, I haven’t a clue.
I am wary too of the big move away from paper books to digital literature although I confess to reading several newspapers and magazines on line. But I am a bibliophile for whom the very smell of a book whether it is aromatically new or very old and musty, gives me a thrill. It worries me that libraries will become “electronic information retrieval centres” in the decades ahead. In the meantime my books at home breed and while church fetes see me donating several boxes of books inevitably I return home with another lot!
So when I talk with some of our very old and saintly parishioners who are over 90, I marvel at what they have witnessed in their very long lives.
Recently at another parish one old man who is 98 tells me that for most of his life he was a Collins St tailor, expert in cutting and sewing high quality men’s suits, a task now done automatically by computerised machines. He tells me that his bags are packed!
One thing on which he agrees with me is that: “the old old story of Jesus and his love” is changeless. Its presentation might continue to change, but its essential truth is what brings us here this morning.
Brian Porter
For Sunday 12 February 2012 - The search for a new VIcar
St George's is in a time of transition between Vicars and the search is on for a successor to Barbara. I am merely a part-time locum Vicar minding the shop. In the meantime it might be worthwhile outlining:
the qualities of a good parish priest.
I am helped in this by the Editor of the Church Times which is the main weekly newspaper of the Church of England. (My wife has been its Australia Correspondent for 25 years so we are fortunate to receive an airmail edition each Monday) when I read the editorials with much appreciation. Here are his comments written for Back to Church Sunday when he described
factors that make for an attractive parish
such as: "a beautifully appointed church, a decent-sized congregation withpeople who look roughly alike, good music and a priest who actually talks to them." He then elaborated with a comment by Sir Andrew Motion, recently the Poet Laureate, who outlined some of these factors: "Wisdom and wit, principle and tolerance,
gravitas and amusement."
The Editor went on to explore these attributes: "I say 'universal'; would that they were. From this list each attribute is desirable, but if you can't have them all go for principle. I have known priests who can't preach to save a life, tone-deaf priests, priests with funny handshakes, priests who used to teeter publicly on the cliff-edge of faith, priests who were useless with money, priests in awe of the churchwarden/ organist/flower arranger (quite a few of those), and so on. But if they had integrity, none of that mattered.
The best priests are knowledgeable, compassionate and utterly trustworthy. And the very best have no inkling of their worth, convinced they are mediocre or worse. Still, perhaps the clearest sign of a good priest is if you can contemplate meeting him or her over the breakfast table."
Our daily prayer then is for the Incumbency Committee in its large responsibility during these next few months.
Brian Porter