Sentire Cum Ecclesia

I am reading the excellent literary biography of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs, “The Narnian: the life and imagination of C.S. Lewis”. Much to recommend about this book, but I was particularly attracted to this comment:

The society that encourages its eccentrics safeguards itself against the worst excesses of tyranny.

Amen to that. May there always be a place for eccentrics (no one particular in mind…) in our society AND in the Church!

I have just been playing around with Google Translator’s Latin translator, trying to come up with a couple of mottos for the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission. I can’t say I like it’s style very much. If you don’t know any latin the chances are you will get very bad vocabulary choices trying to do English into Latin.

Any way, here are two I have come up with so far. Let me know how you would phrase these better:

Discrimen nullum; colloquimur cuiquam
(“We’re not fussy; we’ll talk to anyone”)

Cenare et bibere propter pacem et concordiam
(“Eating and drinking our way to peace and harmony”)

If you have a suggestion for “We’re happy to dance with you so long as you don’t mind us stepping on your toes”, I reckon that could be a good motto too…

John Allen Jnr has covered (with a full interview with Austen Invereigh) a UK endeavour called “Catholic Voices”, which led on the front foot with media spots during the recent Papal Visit.

Read the interview here for background, and take a look at the media segments on the Catholic Voices website. You might start with this segment where Daniel Coughlan is the “Catholic Voice” on Al Jazeera News on 16th September. This is really impressive stuff.

In case you might have been thinking about awarding the Annual Wooden Spoon for PR to the Vatican, you might take a look at this: the “No Pressure” video by Richard Curtis for the 10:10 Climate Emissions Campaign. Just Google “No Pressure” and “10:10” and you will get hundreds of internet entries on this topic, but the easiest entry point to the discussion is James Delingpole’s blog at The Telegraph. I won’t embed the video here – I warn you: it is NOT for the faint of heart. It’s just unbelievable that anyone thought this would help their campaign.

Statement on Euthanasia

Thursday 7 October 2010

To the people of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

There is a renewed push in Victoria and many other parts of Australia for euthanasia and assisted suicide to be legalised. Misplaced compassion leads some to call for euthanasia. While it is never easy facing the end of life of a loved one, we cannot support the legalisation of euthanasia however it is described.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are the opposite of care and represent the abandonment of older and dying persons. Instead, we encourage all people of goodwill, to respond to this new challenge with truth and compassion. I join the Anglican Church of Australia in affirming that our task is to protect, nurture and sustain life to the best of our ability.

Advocates of euthanasia and assisted suicide are mounting a new campaign for far-reaching change to Victoria’s laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide. If the State government were to ask the Law Reform Commission to review the Medical Treatment Act, there is a serious danger that the Commission would follow previous practice in relation to laws such as abortion and after a brief period of public consultation recommend radical change to the legislation without consultation on the proposed changes. With these laws there was little time or opportunity for public consultation, debate or reflection and the laws were introduced to the Parliament by the Government on the basis that it would not allow amendments.

Since the Northern Territory’s brief experiment with euthanasia in 1996, euthanasia advocates have introduced numerous bills into state parliaments around Australia all of which have been rejected. Why? Because when parliamentarians take the time to debate the issue fully and to consider all the consequences properly they realise that to decriminalise euthanasia and assisted suicide would threaten the lives of other vulnerable people.

The proposals if enacted would allow some people to be treated differently under the law such that their lives could be taken at their request. The impact of a law of that kind on those people who fit the description is to make them vulnerable particularly if they feel that they are a burden to others.

The experience of the Netherlands confirms just how far such a mentality can spread with pressure to increase the scope of the law so that it includes not just those with terminal illness and unrelievable suffering, but also people who suffer from depression, those who cannot make their own decisions, and even children.

As Pope Benedict reminded us recently, “the Church has always had great respect for the elderly” and the dying and this has been expressed practically in Catholic health and aged care, especially in hospice services.

As medical advances increasingly lead to a longer life for many people, we should view older people as a blessing for society rather than a problem. Each generation has much to teach the generation that follows it. We should therefore see care of the elderly as repayment of a debt of gratitude, as a part of a culture of love and care.

The Catholic community already does much to care through our network of hospices, hospitals and other services. I call on the Catholic community and people of good will to continue to care for the frail elderly, the sick and the dying, at every stage of life. I ask you to continue to journey with those who are sick and in pain, to visit them, and ensure they have appropriate care and support and pain management and most of all someone to remain close to them.

I thank those healthcare professionals and palliative care specialists, nurses, doctors and specialist, psychologists, pain management teams, pastoral carers, religious, volunteers and others who work every day to reduce psychological pain, social and spiritual suffering, in positive and life affirming ways.

It is an uplifting and inspiring experience to observe the love and care of those who work with and support the ill and the dying in their final days of life. I encourage the community to do more to support those often unseen heroes who stand in solidarity and love those who are suffering.

I ask the Parliament to put its energy and creative talents, into positive supports, rather than taking the negative path towards euthanasia or assisted suicide. I call on our parliaments to increase their support for aged care and palliative care programs.

I ask the community to continue to love and care for those who are sick and suffering rather than abandoning them to euthanasia or supporting them to suicide. Our ability to care says much about the strength of our society.

If there is a vote on euthanasia in the next term of the state Parliament, as predicted, each member will most likely be given a conscience vote. As you consider which candidate to vote for, ask them what their position is on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Yours sincerely in Christ

ARCHBISHOP OF MELBOURNE

[Click here to download a PDF version of the statement]

Many of you will have already heard that ICEL has published the chants for the new missal on their website for all to download. This is really good stuff. They have included two chants for the Creed, and a chant (a very ancient and simple one) for the Gloria. The latter is especially significant. Our present missal has chants for everything BUT the Gloria and the Creed. That is, we have standard chants for the Kyrie, the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei in the missal already. But without a chant for the Gloria, there has not been a full standard chant mass setting easily accessible for all Catholic parishes. And so they went looking for other settings that included a Gloria, non-standard settings. NOW there will at last be a common universal standardised chant setting available to all English speaking parishes throughout the world.

Another bit of news: the stuff you download from the ICEL website is just the chant melody. Great for unaccompanied chant. But most parishes will require organ accompaniment at least. AND it’s on its way! The draft accompaniment is already being prepared and hopefully will be available soon.

The next step is to make sure that our parishes use these settings so that they become widely known. It seems to me that the easiest thing to do is to introduce the new texts WITH the new chant settings. It is always easier to memorise a text when you sing it anyway.

Just imagine being able to go anywhere in the English speaking world and join in singing the liturgy! Just imagine being able to break into song at any mass, Sunday or weekday, with or without musical accompaniment!

The pro-Euthanasia lobby is inventing human rights, just as the pro-homosexual lobby is. The latter is inventing the “human right” for same-sex attracted persons to “marry”, and the former is inventing a “human right” to “choose one’s time of death”.

If the language of “human rights” is not to become a devalued currency, we must agree that you can’t just mint brand-new shiny “human rights” according to whim. The Catholic Church teaches that true “human rights” are those that arise from the dignity of what it means to be human. Of course, the question there is “what does it mean to be human?” and that is where the argument starts. It is an argument for a different time. But one thing we can say for now is that part of the definition of “human dignity” has to do with the human being as a social being, and with human community. An out-of-control libertine individualism is not good for human society and thus “my business and no-one else’s” cannot be cited as a basis for a “human right”.

In relation to this, I wish to draw your attention to this article in The Australian today: “Choosing one’s time of death is a basic human right”, by Nigel Gray (former director of the Cancer Council of Victoria). He writes:

I AM distressed by the confusion and disgruntlement surrounding the discussion of euthanasia. Even the admirable Paul Kelly gets it wrong (The Australian, September 29). He refers to euthanasia as "legalised killing", implying that those who support euthanasia want someone to do something to someone else. The word kill occurs seven times. If we take away the labels such as euthanasia, kill, murder, suicide, we can look at the issues.

I disagree very strongly. If you take out these words – which are NOT “loaded” words, or fuzzy words, but words that are clear and have a deliberate and objective meaning – THEN you in fact obscure the issues rather than clarify them.

The people who join the Dying with Dignity movement simply want to die with dignity. This ought to be possible under Victorian law, but it is not surprising that people want to be sure of getting their wishes.

To die with dignity is, I would agree, a “human right” – but in a secondary sense: ie. everyone is entitled to that “dignity” which is due to them because they are a human being in BOTH life and death. The question is: what do you mean by “dignity” in this context? Japanese warriors and Jihadist Terrorists both had/have ideas about what a “dignified” death is. We disagree with both their accounts. We disagree with Nigel Gray’s too.

My wishes are also simple. I want the right to choose the place and time of my own death. I do not want to transfer the responsibility to someone else. The place will be in my own bed, with Louis Armstrong playing in the background. The time: not yet imminent.

The “someone else” who has the choice of the place and time of one’s death is not a human being. Whether you believe in God or not, no human being – including oneself – has a “right” to chose when and where they will die. The very unpredictability of death is one of its greatest mysteries, but we do not have a “right” to solve that mystery by taking our own life or the life of others.

The whole thing could be much simpler and less disturbing if, for example, the law allowed the following two options. All that follows necessarily requires everyone involved to be willing participants. No one could or should be forced to participate, and the service should be free.

Ah yes. If only that difficult and disturbing thing we call “death” could be made “simpler and less disturbing”… Note that “could” and “should” are, of course, two different things.

Option one: The person (I have not said patient) presents to the nearest (willing) pharmacist a form signed and witnessed (as is any will or power of medical attorney) that requests the pharmacist to provide a lethal dose of Nembutal with instructions for use. The person goes home and takes it. At the moment, the family then has to waste the time of a practitioner to certify death and the coroner has to inquire to see that someone was not murdered.

“Waste the time of a practicioner”? “not said patient”? Is he in fact arguing for the right of any and all human beings to commit suicide whenever and for whatever reason they choose? If this it is indeed a “human right” for all human beings to decide the place and time of their death and to carry it out by their own action, does this not mean that it is immoral to try to prevent suicide?

Option two: A charitable organisation, called the Earthly Angel Service, accommodates the person’s wishes. The person provides a form, signed and witnessed as above. The EAS then provides an authorised (registered and licensed) staff member who has some simple skills, and an independent witness. The EAS visitor: Slips a needle into a vein and sets up an intravenous drip. Draws up a lethal dose of morphia and slips the needle into the drip. Hands the syringe to the person. The person, not anyone else, presses the plunger of the syringe. The morphia flows and permanent sleep follows. The EAS visitor then determines that death has occurred and provides a death certificate. With such a law, no one else is required to do something to someone else.

“Earthly Angel Service”? Note that the article is headed with the by-line “EMOTIONAL terms obscure the facts of euthanasia”. If this isn’t “emotional”, I don’t know what is. Anyway, such an “angel” would be nothing other than an “Angel of Death”. And what kind of “charity” would this be? Not the kind that Church understands. Not the kind of “charity” that the good Samaritan showed.

All the labels are pejorative and obscure the real issues: individual choice, no transfer of responsibility to another person (which is, after all, a tough responsibility to transfer), no bureaucracy, and no need for a terminal disease, so no need for a doctor.

As I said: Suicide as a “human right”. Gray is certainly in a “gray” area here. The result would be a moral obligation on everyone to do everything we can to assist the suicidal to achieve their aims. Also note the emphasis on “choice” and “individual”. We have seen this before in the abortion debate, we see it again here. Remember: since a human being is a social and communal being, “individualism” cannot provide a basis for determining true human dignity.

The reason for wanting choice is that this is one’s own business, no one else’s. We should not have to give reasons. It may indeed be a terminal disease and one may have consulted a doctor, or one may have gone bankrupt, or the wrong team may have won the grand final, but these are not relevant to anyone else. A personal decision, which is made as a human right, is all that is required. The necessary legislation should be simple enough.

Sorry mate. It isn’t your own business. “No man is an island”, and all that stuff. This is individualism taken to an extreme. It is the death of human society. Gray and his ilk are inventing a new “human right” and yes, I want him to give REASONS why he thinks suicide is a “human right”.

The morning dawned bright and sunny on Wednesday and, although it clouded over later, it remained fine. We had another slow start. I had several other points on the pilgrimage yet to make, and so Cathy decided it would be good for me to take the children out while she did the bulk of the packing up. Before leaving Tanunda, we visited the bakery and bought some bienenstich (bee-sting) cake and a apfel-streusel küchen for morning tea.

First stop on the list was the Neukirch Cemetery. This cemetery is not attached to the church building, but is about another 300 metres down the road from the Neukirch Church (is that a tautology?) out in a paddock all on its own, a kilometre or so north west of the Ebenezer Lutheran Church, north of Nuriootpa and west of Stockwell. This is where my mother’s father’s grandparents (my great, great grandparents, and the children’s great, great, great grandparents) are buried. They had the wonderful names of Johann Heinrich Theodor Heintze and Johanna Maria Magdelena (nee Schultz). We located their grave easily enough, and picked some wild flowers to place on their grave, before a moment of prayer thanking God for their lives and praying for their eternal rest.

Neukirch Church near Ebenezer, the church my Great, Great Grandparents attended

The girls at the entrance to the Neukirch Cemetery where their Great, Great, Great Grandparents Heintze are buried.

Maddy and Mia at the grave of Johann Heinrich Theodor Heintze and his wife Johanna Maria Magdelena nee Schultz (my grandfather's grandparents) in the Neukirch Cemetery

Next stop was a little further to the south and west at Nain, a church just down the road west of Greenock. Here the parents of both Johann Heinrich Theodor and Johanna Maria Magdelena are buried: great, great, great (+ an extra great for the kids), grandparents Schultz (yes, with an ‘L’ – different family from the Schütz’s) and Heinze (yes, without the ‘t’ – that was added by their children). These were the original immigrants to South Australia on the fourth ship in Pastor Kavel’s floatilla, the Skjold, which arrived in October 1842. They had originally settled in Bethany in 1842, before moving up north to this area. The Schultz’s still had their original gravestone, indicating that the old man’s 200th birthday had been in August this year (so he and my Great, Great, Great Grandfather Schütz were both born in 1810). The Heinze tombstone however looked newer, probably 1950’s, although it indicated that Old Man Heinze had been born in 1795. It seems amazing that I can trace my family history back to the 18th Century. Again we said prayers at both gravesides, and placed some wild white irises which we had found growing on the side of the road on their graves.

Mia and Maddy at the grave of their Great Great Great Great Granparents Schultz in the Nain Cemetery. The Schultz's came from the same village in Silesia as the Heinze's and travelled out on the same ship in 1839

The gravestone of Great Great Great Grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm and Auguste Wilhemine Heintze, who came to South Australia from Silesia in 1839

The Lutheran Church at Nain, where my Great, Great, Great Grandparents Schultz and Heinze are buried

We headed back into town, and had lunch of bread, cheese, tomato, fritz and metwurst (washed down with a glass of Bethany white wine) before leaving Little Para Cottage. We stopped in Tanunda and visited Langmeil Church and Cemetery, where Pastor Kavel is buried. The church was open during office hours – but not when we were there – office hours finished at 12 noon. So we were not able to enter a single church during our ‘pilgrimage’! This church is, however, not only one of the most significant historically in the Valley, but also one of the most beautiful, with the cemetery at the front, lining both sides of a central path leading up to the church door. Very well planned for maximum picturesqueness!

The entrance to Langmeil Lutheran Church in Tanunda

Pastor Kavel's grave in Langmeil cemetery in Tanunda

Langmeil Lutheran Church in Tanunda

Our next plan was to visit one more winery before finding a lookout from which to see the whole valley. We went to Rockfords, south of Bethany, which has always been a favourite. They do a beautiful “rose-style” wine called Alicante Bouchet, and a very nice aged tawny port. Heading back through Bethany, we decided to follow the unpaved track up Kaiser Stuhl, the high hill at the bottom of the valley, up which (according to a popular story which, to my annoyance, the expert historian Pastor Henry Proeve declared “spurious” in the book “The Barossa Valley: A Vision Realised”) Pastor Kavel was said to have marched his congregation to await the return of the Lord and the start of the Millenium. The dispute over millennialism and the proper interpretation of Revelation 20 was at the centre of the famous split at the synod of Bethany in 1842 which resulted in Pastor Kavel and Pastor Fritsche leading their flocks in separate directions, and eventually to the “Two Churches”, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia (ELCA – Pastor Kavel) and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia (UELCA – Pastor Fritsche). This split, in which my family ended up with the UELCA, was only healed with the formation of the united Lutheran Church of Australia in the year of my birth, 1966. It could be said that I was the first person to have been both baptised and ordained in the LCA, although strictly speaking, I was baptised a month or two before the union was officially declared and celebrated.

Rockford's Winery

The view of Tanunda and the Barossa Valley from Kaiser Stuhl

Anyway, we went up the hill, which afforded the most magnificent views of the valley, much better than the better known view from Mengler’s Hill slightly to the north. However the latter has a paved road and viewing area at the top, which means it is much more accessible. From here you can see why the Barossa Valley IS a true valley, as you can see the circle of hills all around the flat in which Tanunda and Nuriootpa are central. We went next to Mengler’s Hill, where there is a memorial to the German Settlers and to their faith, before leaving the Valley and heading over the hills to Flaxman’s Valley, where Great, Great, Great Grandpa Schütz settled and lived out his life to 1900.

Mia and Maddy on Mengler's Hill with the Barossa Valley in the background

The Memorial to the Barossa Pioneers on Mengler's Hill. Note the text and its thankfulness to God.

We were able to locate the farmhouse where Great, Great, Great Grandpa Johann Gottfried built his home and from which his sons set out to make a new life for themselves much further north at Point Pass. The owner of the farm was in the yard, and he confirmed that this was indeed the original Schütz holding. He was happy for us to take pictures of the farm, but didn’t invite us in, so we turned around and headed for Eden Valley, home of the best Barossa Reislings (although not strictly Barossa) and where my ancestor is buried with his wife in the cemetery of St Petri Church. Again we laid fresh wild irises on his grave and sang “Happy Birthday dear Johann Gottlieb” for his 200th Birthday coming up.

The property in Flaxmans Valley where Great Great Great Grandpa Schütz settled in 1855

St Petri Lutheran Church Eden Valley - which wasn't J.G.'s parish, even though it is closest to his homestead. He was in fact a life member of Bethany Lutheran Church, and his wife is buried in the Bethany Pioneers Cemetery. Unfortunately I didn't know that when we were in Bethany, and so we drove right past the cemetery where Great Great Great Grandma is buried. Next time...

David, Maddy and Mia at Great Great Great Grandpa Schütz's grave in the St Petri Cemetery in Eden Valley

Matthias asked what was on the bronze plaque set in front of his tombstone, and it is a literal translation of the German poem on his tombstone.

Here rests in God
J.G. Schütz [note the umlauts!]
born 13 Oct. 1810
in Grünberg Silesia
died 10 Nov. 1900
At the age of 90 years

Rich in days you left us
Weary of life, slipped into its ending,
Life on earth brought little joy,
Heavenwards your thoughts were tending.
In Heaven forever in the Lord made whole
In life ever trusted to console.

The view of St Petri Church at Eden Valley from GGG Grandpa Schütz's grave

From there we headed down to Springton, where there is the famous “Herbig Tree”. The Herbigs, a family of 16 surviving children, converted this ancient hollow gumtree into their home for five years between 1855 and 1860. Old Vater Herbig had been the tailor in the same town that my ancestor came from, Grünberg in Silesia, and they had come out in 1855 on the same boat as he did, the Wilhemine. Yes, we all have boat people and refugees in our ancestory!

The Herbig Family lived in this tree from 1855-1860

That was the end of our ‘pilgrimage’ properly speaking, as we headed back into Adelaide through Williamstown and Gawler. It has been a remarkable trip, and we hope to top it off tomorrow with a brief visit to Hahndorf, where my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather on my father’s side brought his family in his old age and where he died in 1839. Unfortunately we have no idea where he was buried, so no more graveside visits, although I do know where he lived, as records show the land that he purchased.

[Post Script: We spent the next two nights in Adelaide with a friend of Cathy’s. I took the children to the Adventure Playground at St Kilda (nb. St Kilda in Adelaide has only one similarity with St Kilda in Melbourne – it is near the water).

On Friday we drove to Pinnaroo (my home town) via Hahndorf. We saw the property which was originally owned by my Great Great Great GREAT Grandfather Pfeiffer, who came out on Captain Hahn’s ship, The Zebra, in 1839, with his wife, son and young grandchildren. Unfortunately he and his wife both died in the cold winter of 1839 when the vegetable crop failed – basically of malnourishment and pneumonia. We don’t know where they are buried. His son – my Great, Great, Great Grandpa Pfeiffer – is, in fact, buried in the Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Point Pass – something I didn’t know when we were actually there visiting the other Great, Greats. Damn. Next time.

Finally we spent two nights in Pinnaroo at my parents’ home for the the wedding of my oldest neice. My girls both said they want “a wedding like that, Dad”. Very reluctantly we headed home on Sunday because we all had either work and school on Monday.]

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a slow start. Our accommodation is really very pleasant. Anyone travelling to the Barossa would do well to try to book “Little Para Cottage” on 5 Para Road, Tanunda. Wendy, the proprietor, works at the Faith Lutheran College – and there was a bottle of Mengler View Shiraz waiting for us when we arrived (it’s produced by the kids at the college, would you believe!). The price is right, although it will not suit larger families, as there are only a double bed and a single bed in the bedroom (one of), so we added a fold out bed for Mia. The kitchen lounge room is very comfortable. There’s no open fire, but the faux-log fire electric heater gives the right impression without the mess (or, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the smell). It is quiet and private and we enjoyed the morning just pottering around. While Cathy and the kids had bacon and eggs for breakfast (cook your own, not provided), I had fried blud/ricewurst on toast. I couldn’t convince any other member of my family to taste it. It was not exactly like we used to make it on the farm in Pinnaroo, but close enough to evoke childhood memories.

I smoked my pipe on the veranda (reading an hilariously funny book “The Va Dinci Cod”, which I bought for $3 at a Lion’s Club second hand book store in Adelaide with Fraser), but it was dreadfully cold (God knows how cold it must have been in Melbourne) and drizzly. The showers would be on and off all day, interspersed with sunshine, and that gave the Barossa an extra special “feel” and gleen. We then set off to walk up and down the main street of Tanunda – the kids wanted to shop. Whenever we saw a church coming up I said to the kids “Guess what kind!” and they answered in chorus “Lutheran!”. There are no less than FOUR Lutheran churches in this little town, which shows not just that there were a lot of Lutherans in the area, but also their history of bickering. One of the churches, “Tabor” in the main street, was originally a “Free Evangelical Lutheran Church”. As the sign says on the outside, it was frequented by Germans who were not part of the original “Old Lutheran” sect that my fore-fathers were and who had no truck with some of the more strict ways of the majority sect.

[Tabor Lutheran Church in Tanunda, one of the four Lutheran Churches in this town. This one was a “Free” Lutheran Church, that is, they did not subscribe to the funny ideas of Kavel and Fritsche’s “Old Lutherans”. Not “our mob”!”]

We went into the Museum in the main street that has a very good display on the history of the early settlers, including a couple of rooms done up as Lutheran Churches (given that most Lutheran Churches in the area are shut, this gave a good view of how it would have looked).

The excellent little Museum in Tanunda - don't miss it if you are travelling through the Barossa!

A fairly good reproduction of a traditional Lutheran Church in a small room in the Museum in Tanunda

We had lunch at the Tanunda Bakery and Wursthaus, where I bought a slice of Jagerbraten, a kind of metwurst made by stuffing a porkbelly with sausage and then roasting it. Yummy! After lunch, we hopped in the car and drove north to Eudunda and then to Point Pass, where all the sons of Great, Great, Great Grandpa Johann Gottlieb moved from their original settlement in Flaxman’s Valley. It is a good distance, about 50km, and we did most of the journey along the gravel road that leads north from Stockwell to St Kitts and then to Eudunda. As this road travels along a central ridge of hills it afforded us a splendid view of the surrounding countryside. We drove through Eudunda and up on to Point Pass, arriving at the splendidly crowned Immanuel Lutheran Church with its copper steeple (which shines bright in the sunshine). Behind this church, in which my Grandfather played one of only three surviving Klempke pipe organs (another was in my old parish at Frankston) while my dad would work the hand operated bellows, is the cemetery. If my children had any lingering doubts concerning the size of their family, the names on a great number of tombstones put that firmly to rest. We first located the grave where I buried my Grandfather about 16 years ago. He is buried with his first wife, my grandmother who died in 1953 and whom I never knew, and with his second wife, who was my “grandma”. She died just as I was leaving for Constantinople in 2007 and so I had never been able to visit her grave before. We said an “Our Father” together and prayed for their repose. The children had known step-Great Grandma, and so this had some meaning for them also. Directly behind their grave is the grave of Grandpa’s parents, and further back in the cemetery is the grave of his grandparents – my Great, Great grandfather was born in Silesia in 1845 and came out with his father, Johann Gottfried Schütz in 1855.

Immanuel Lutheran Church at Point Pass, with its copper steeple. My Grandfather played the organ in this church.

My Grandfather's grave at Point Pass. I officiated at his burial in 1995. He is buried with my Grandmother Clara who died when my father was 12 years old, and his second wife, Grandma Lorna, whom my children were privileged to know before she died in 2007.

Mia and Maddy at the grave of their Great Great Grandparents Gustav Herman and Ernestine Emilie Schutz (note the umlauts have been dropped!) at Immanuel Cemetery in Point Pass

The grave of my Great Great Grandparents Carl Heinrich and Maria Elisabeth Schütz at the Immanuel Cemetery in Point Pass. Carl moved to Point Pass with his brothers from Eden Valley where his father had settled.

Unfortunately, the church was locked and none of the neighbours had a key, so we got back into our car and drove out to find my father’s original home (within view of the cemetery itself). We drove past the original Immanuel College building – now a bed and breakfast.

The original Immanuel College at Point Pass. It is now a bed and breakfast.

I had spent some time with my father on the phone and with Google maps to find the exact locations of his house, and the houses of my grandfather’s twin brother nearby. First we drove up a rather weatherworn track to get to their old shearing shed, a thatched log arrangement now tumbling down, but still standing. [Actually since writing this, I discovered that I had the information wrong: the thatched building belonged to my grandfather’s twin brother; my grandfather’s shed was the tin one on the other side of the road. Anyway, the thatched building looked more historic!]

Mia and I in front of my great uncles old shearing shed at Point Pass.

My Grandfather's shed was on the other side of the road, and rather more characteristic of his building style...

Heading back towards the homestead, we took pictures from the hill looking down at the house, and lamented that we couldn’t go in and have a look.

Me with my Great Grandfather's farm house at Point Pass in the background. My Grandfather worked this land with his horse teams.

But I heard the sound of chainsaw nearby and saw a man and his young son chopping up a tree that had fallen over a fence. Taking a guess, I drove down to them, and pulled up and introduced myself: “Hi! I’m David Schütz and I would guess that you must be Bruce Schütz?” Sure enough, it was my second cousin, who lives in a third house on the property, with his sixth son Gary. He happily gave us permission to go up to my father’s old home, which he now owns again and is currently renovating as a home for his son who is getting married in the near future. He told us that the house was open and invited us to let ourselves in to have a look.

We met up with my second cousin Bruce Schutz and his sixth son Gary

This was unexpected! I had never even been on the property before, and now I could see where Dad, and his father, and his father before him had once lived. They are treating it for salt-damp before repainting the interior, and have put a new roof on and repainted the exterior. Many of the old farm buildings which my great-grandfather and grandfather built are still standing – although Bruce pointed out that some of the sheds have been badly damaged by storms and will need to come down.

The rear view of the home my father grew up in at Point Pass

The front view of the home built by my great grandfather and in which my father grew up at Point Pass

After spending an hour or so on the property (Bruce and Gary came up to show us around a bit more), we drove home through Eudunda, seeing where my father went to school, and then home via Kapunda and Nuriootpa. A good meal of pasta, and again we were in bed early.

There is a good article in the Herald Sun today: Tread carefully when dealing with dying. One of the first comments at the end says:

Anni of Melbourne Posted at 3:17 PM Today
There is a huge difference between turning off life support for someone unable to make that choice, and assisting someone to end a painful and terminal condition who can choose. As per usual the Herald Sun has some how completely ignored the issue. As some one who has a disability I understand the desire to have some say over how you die. It disgusts me to believe that some people believe it is kinder to watch fellow humans suffer intense agony than allow then a dignified and peaceful death.

Granted that there IS a difference between 1) “turning off life support for someone unable to make that choice” and 2) “assisting someone to end a painful and terminal condition [by killing themselves] who can choose”, the difference does not make the latter action good and right.

In the article, Alan Howe writes:

We put up all sorts of barriers to prevent people from killing themselves – quite literally. Soon, there will be expensive high fencing across each side of the West Gate Bridge to try to stop the regular suicides that take place there. Surveys show that many people who believe they want to commit suicide think again if there is just one degree of difficulty.

It is worthwhile asking why a society that sees suicide prevention as a priority (though probably not a high enough one) would want to introduce bill to legalise suicide? What is it about the mental strains of bearing physical illness and suffering that we treat it as a different case to the mental strains of any other kind of suffering? Why does our society regard suicide as wrong and requiring to be prevented at all costs, except in the case of those who are terminally ill (according to diagnosis, not knowledge of the future), in which case there are a disturbing number of people who wish to actively enable such suicides and assist people to achieve them?

Does anyone have an answer?