In the beginning, in the beginning, In the beginning there was..
There was what?
Perfection?
Perhaps?
Spinning stars?
Maybe.
A garden?
Why not.

In the beginning, in the beginning, in the bible, we have a garden.
In the beginning, in the beginning, in Canterbury, we had a small band
of pilgrims who came together to worship God
Who was the God that they came together to praise?
Immortal, Invisible O God of our days
What was His character?

I think we can safely assume that he was a HE
By which theologians was He known?
By which interpretations of scripture was he understood?
And, perhaps most importantly, how did he feel?
How did he feel in folks hearts?
In their guts?
In this church, 100 years ago?
In the beginning, in the beginning.

The foundations of Australian institutional religion were established
in the period between 1788 to 1840.  During this period institutional
religion was imposed upon the song lines of the ancient dreamtime
people and was rammed down the throats of the transported convicts.
These convicts were subject to the enforced blandishments of clergy
who were instruments of the state who oppressed them.
Many of these convicts, were also reacting against the state church in England.
The state church which had neglected the urban poor and colluded with
a Government which refused to care for it's most vulnerable.
God, for the worshipping majority in Britain in this time
was both distant and deaf.

God was for many was a watchmaker who had set the world a-tick
and who had then departed leaving them to their own desperate desires.
So that was the beginning, the beginning, the beginning.
In the 20th century Australia moved with the rest of the western world
into a period known as modernity,
a period in which religion was supposed to be the integrating and
sacred canopy for society. A canopy, which would bring together all
aspects of community and culture and which would impose morality and
instil meaning. For those who worshipped in this place some 50 years
ago the Church of modernity was a place to woo and wed and play and
pray. Church was community and commitment and a volunteer ethic, which
would see buildings, grow and congregations flourish.

Church was tennis clubs and young marrieds and choirs and children in
their hundreds. Listen….shhhhhh…..Can you hear their voices?

She was sitting in the pew second from the front, she had on a lovely
hat. I was thinking about asking her to the dance and then she turned
around. She turned around and smiled.

The choir sounded so clear today, so sweet and strong. I love standing
with all the others, I love lifting my voice for God

We have almost raised enough money for the new hall.
So many people working all together.
Just think of what we can do with all that space!

I have sat in this pew to hear the words of God.
I have sat in this pew to see my babies baptised and then married and
now I sit hear to say goodbye to my husband. I sit in this pew to say
goodbye.

Was this the little girl I carried? Was this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older when did they.
Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset, quickly go the years
By the late 20th century though, mainstream Christianity across the west
was experiencing a massive decline and St Davids' Uniting Church
was not immune to this descent.

Post modernity was being born within the minds of academia
and this birth was felt rippling into the psyche of worlds both
secular and sacred.
As expanded awareness of the world outside Christendom gates
began to creep in under the gates of the congregational  Eden's
the worshipping folk within these gardens began to feel
not so much 'naked and ashamed'
as 'hurt and confused'.

Why were so many deserting the institutions which had cradled
generations from cradle to grave?
What could this wilderness outside the gates possibly have to offer?
Surely it would reveal itself to be as empty of truth and grace
as the secular kingdom revealed to Christ
as he stood with the Devil
while the world unfurled
resplendent
at his feet?

According to the sociologist and priest Garry Bouma,
the Australian spiritual character of those over 60 is not one
generally given to articulate declaration about God but more to a shy,
vaguely respectful recognition of an important if largely indistinct
force.

Bouma writes:
Friends of mine born in Australia in the 1920's usually believe in God,
or as they would say, the man upstairs.
This comment is usually accompanied by a gesture in a vaguely upward
direction, not pointing, not certain, but a sort of a wave.

For those spiritual seekers born in the latter half of the 20th
century and beyond
keeping a respectful distance from the great mystery is often not enough..
As Bouma writes: Today many people are seeking a direct encounter with
the transcendent. They want to experience the numinous and the
presence of God and they question whether or not it is possible to do
this within the walls of the institution.

In the story which we listened to today, Adam and Eve eat from the
tree of knowledge. The Hebrew word for knowledge da'at, refers to both
general knowledge and sexual.
It's a word about growing up, about expanded awareness.
The St David's to which I was called to minister just over 3 years ago
was a rare church
which had begun to take up the challenge of eating from the tree.
The St David's to which I was called had redefined itself as a
'Habitat for Spirituality' which was ready to open the gates of the
traditional Christian childhood garden and to welcome in the wild
world of progressive faith with all its possibilities and questions
and doubts.

100 years of worship in this place. Where to from here?
When I was a little girl and sitting quietly with my mother she would
sing to me my favourite song. It was an old Scottish folk song
and it went something like this.

I know where I'm going and I know who's going with me,
I know who I love and the dear knows who I'll marry'
Who, I used to ask her, is the Dear,
'It's God' she would say
'Its an old fashioned word for God.'

We, in this church, in this moment, are not totally clear about where
we are going and who is going with us.
But we do know who we love
and we do know that the Dear is holding all of us, holding us strong and true,    
And so we move forwards as Christ did
into our future,
hands held open in hope.