Sentire Cum Ecclesia

St Paul instructed us to “weep with those who weep”, and so today we share in the sorrow of our good friend Joshua, whose father Keith has passed away. Yet we also remember our Lord’s injunction to the house of Jairus: “Do not weep, for she is not dead, only sleeping”. We commend Keith to our Lord, and look forward to the time when he will raise us to eternal life on the Last Day.

Monday morning, after a brisk morning walk with Mia and Francesca along the creek and a leisurely start including a breakfast of Fraser’s specialty (croissants with hot chocolate), we made our way up through Chain of Ponds (while discussing N.T. Wright’s contribution to the Symposium on Harvesting the Fruits and arguing about the reliability of his Tomtom GPS navigator), to the “Whispering Wall” at the Barossa Reservoir (always a great attraction for the kids). We then made our way into Tanunda where we checked in at “Little Para Cottage” (our home for the next few days) and had lunch together.

The entrance to Little Para Cottage

Then we jumped into the cars again for the first port of call: Linke’s Butchers in Nuriootpa. These guys are one of a very few commercial butchers who still make many of the delicacies I remember from childhood, including fritz (both ham and beef varieties) and – what they call – “rice wurst”, but which others call “blutwurst”, and what we as kids simply called “frying wurst”, because that’s what you do: fry it and have it on toast for breakfast. Noone – not even Linke’s – makes it quite like we used to, but it is still pretty close. So: ricewurst, leberwurst, two kinds of fritz, a bung of garlic metwurst, and a dozen free range eggs later (and a couple of fresh unfilled “bungs” to take home for my own sausage making attempts) and we were off.

This time to a rather more modern and upmarket food establishment: Maggie Beer’s Pheasant Farm and Kitchen. The kids are great fans of Mrs Beer (the cook half of “The Cook and the Chef”) and Maddy was thrilled to be able to watch a cooking demo in the TV kitchen.

Maddy in Maggie Beer's kitchen

From there we were off down the road to Seppeltsfield. My Great Grandfather Heintze had worked for Seppelts for 18 years back in the beginning of the 20th Century as a carter, taking kegs of wine to the station at Freeling. We stopped briefly at Gnadenfrei Lutheran Church in Marananga, then followed the aisle of palm trees down to the Mausoleum. This is perhaps one of the most bizarre private burial grounds in Australia, built in a very bare geometric classical greek style. But, as Fraser pointed out, not even a suggestion of any symbolism, no imagery, no writing, not even the names of those interred there. Neither Christian nor pagan. Just bare. The Seppelts were not part of the Lutheran community of the Barossa, and so, as far as burial grounds go, you couldn’t get further afield in character from the graves of my ancestors just around the corner.

Cathy, Daniel (our Godson) and Maddy at the Seppelt's Mausoleum

Then to the winery itself, where, as we were entering, Cathy noticed a cooper working in his workshop. We went directly there instead of too the cellar door, and we warmly welcomed in by the cooper, Andrew. He was working turning old hogshead kegs into new home kegs, largely, believe it or not, for the Japanese market. He told us that he had been a cooper for Penfolds before Fosters took it over and sacked all their barrel-makers. At that time, Fosters owned Seppeltsfield as well, and were in the process of breaking it up, but recently a new private owner has bought the Winery and its original properties back and is reviving and restoring it. He is even intending to start up the old smoke house on the property again to make small goods. Yummy!

Fraser and self with Andrew the Cooper at Seppeltsfield

The Pearce and Schütz-Beaton children at Seppeltsfield.

Fraser didn’t want to taste wines there, so we headed back through Tanunda to the other side to Bethany Wines (owned by Shrapel’s for five generations), where we tasted and purchased some very nice whites (including their signature wine, the “White Port”). Unfortunately, as it was nearing closing time for the cellar doors, we didn’t have time to linger in Bethany – or Bethanien as it was originally known. None of my ancestors are buried there, but the same Heintze clan who worked for Seppelts had originally settled there for a brief period with the rest of the immigrants who came out on the Zebra, the fourth boat in Pastor Kavel’s floatilla which disembarked in South Australia on 2nd January of 1839. From there they moved over to Walton, west of Bethany and nearer Seppeltsfield. There is still a road near Seppeltsfield named “Heinze Rd” (the original spelling did not have the “T” in it).

From Bethany to Kellermeisters at Lyndoch. When I was younger, Kellermeisters was a rather tacky establishment. They have gone upmarket, and now have some very nice wines indeed, but they still specialise in the sweeter varieties of white wine, so Cathy (for once) really enjoyed the tasting experience. Some of their wines, like the “Pink Mink” (bubbly pink Muscato) and the “Black Fire” (a sweet white version of the same wine) have been on the Kellermeister list since the seventies. Of course, both wines are popular today among the ladies still, but as a rather curious nod to their history, the winery has decided to keep the incredibly cheesy labels of that era. We were served by a young man who had just completed a four years honours degree in Wine Marketing. I kid you not. I have suggested that Madeline might interest herself in this career rather than her plan to go into hairdressing (for which I already have little use).

Kellermeister, situated at the very entrance to the Valley, has a beautiful view of the hills. The Barossa, like all the countryside in South Australia at present, is verdant green due to the higher rainfalls (marked out in vivid contrast to the bright yellow canola crops that are everywhere). The vines are not yet in leaf, although they are starting to appear. It may not be a land flowing with milk and honey, but it flows with wine and that is enough for me. It is a “green and pleasant land”, this land in which my fore-fathers chose to settle, and I bless them for it, and bless God for leading them here.

Meg and Fraser and their family left us at this point to return to Adelaide, and we returned to Little Para Cottage for dinner and an early night.

The only Schütz-Beaton family in the world, in the green and pleasant land of their forefathers.

Fraser and Meg Pearce, with their offspring Francesca, Daniel, Oscar and Emmanuelle

Well, we are having fun. We are currently several days into what I can only describe as a “pilgrimage” to the Land of My Fathers, the Good SA of A, the Austral part of Terra Australis, the Great South Land, aka “South Australia”. Founded n 1836, my ancestors arrived here at the end of 1838 and got very busy establishing Hahndorf, the Barossa Valley, the Lutheran Church in Australia, and Fritz. None of them were in the wine business, but my great-grandfather did work for 18 years as a carter for Seppelts. Does that count?

First stop on the pilgrimage is Casa Pearce. The inestimable Pastor Fraser is now the Pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Flinders Street in the city. Bethlehem is celebrating its 150 anniversary next weekend and is the premier Lutheran parish in Adelaide (members of St Stephens, Flinders Street, may disagree…). Fraser and his family live in Burnside, a suburb at the feet of the Adelaide Hills. Burnside was settled in 1839, so is one of the oldest areas of town. Despite being a good distance from his ecclesial seat, Adelaide traffic being what it is (or isn’t) he really isn’t more than ten minutes away from his office in town. It is very beautiful here. Spring has come, and the fragrance of the blossums is everywhere.

Yesterday – the day of the fateful “hung Grand Final” (another story that I won’t go into just here – let’s just say, when I heard the result I laughed and laughed and laughed!) – I tried to escape from all things football by suggesting to my daughters and Fraser’s two eldest, Oscar and Francesca, that we all go into town. The itinerary was a simple one. We start at the Uni SA end of North Terrace (where Dad learned how to be a librarian), wander on down westwards past, around and through the University of Adelaide (Dad learnt Classics in that building, and History in that building, and Latin in the attic of that building), popped into both the Art Gallery and the Museum (both FREE!!! – a blessing when towing along four kids), past the State Library, Government House and Parliament House, then we did a u-ey (we had a discussion in the car the other day about exactly how to spell that word: you-ee, ew-ey, yewee…) and headed back east through Rundle Mall so the kids could look into all the shops.

The very classical North Terrace in Adelaide

The kids outside the building where I learnt Latin at the University of Adelaide

In the halls of the Adelaide Museum

The traditional Rundle Mall shot!

On our way over here on Friday, we passed a number of vintage and veteran cars heading toward Adelaide, enough to make me wonder whether this might not be the one weekend every two years in which the famed “Bay to Birdwood” rally takes place. My father had taken me and my three brothers to the first “Bay to Birdwood” rally in 1980, and in the years that followed I actually rode in the rally several times with friends who had a 1928 Tudor Model A Ford and a 1913 Australian built Model T. I have always had a great love for these old vehicles – they were built at a time where beauty was an important part of design. Any way, a quick check of the internet on my Palm Treo told me that this weekend was indeed the B2B rally, the cars being due to leave West Beach at 9am on Sunday morning. Here was a chance to introduce my children to the joys of vintage and veteran motoring. They were keen, and Fraser’s two eldest were up for another expedition, so we were off from home this morning at 7am. There were about 1500 cars lined up ready to go at Barrett Reserve when we arrived, and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering around looking at the cars (and motor cycles – those old veteran bikes were made for the days when motorbike riders were REAL motorbike riders!) and talking to their owners before the rally set off at 9am.

Maddy and Mia at the Bay to Birdwood start with their new car!

The children with MY new car!

My new bike!

We were due at Bethlehem for the 11am service this morning, so we had a few more hours to kill. Next step on the Pilgrimage then: Immanuel College, the old Alma Mater in Novar Gardens. This is where Dad lived for two years during his final years of schooling in 1982-3. It was just as I remembered it, only completely different. The place had sprouted buildings like mushrooms. In the place of the open wide lawns, there were now laboratories, tech rooms, concert halls, etc etc. There was a service going on in the chapel, nevertheless we got to take a look at the good displays of the history of the College.

Basically Immanuel has four phases: First phase was at Point Pass, the town where my Schütz ancestors settled north of the Barossa. My Grandfather was a farmer, and his father had no intention of sending him to the local college. The College then shifted from these back blocks into Adelaide, to the site and building that became (eventually) Luther Seminary, where I lived and trained for nine years. Then it shifted to Walkerville, to an old mansion that doesn’t exist any more. My father went to Immanuel at that campus in its last years. Then the campus shifted to Novar Gardens, where my mother was a student in its opening years. So in a way, we have had a connection with the college at all its stages.

Still with a bit of time up our sleeves, I thought we could pop out to Luther Seminary itself, now rather cheaply named “Australian Lutheran College”. Here I was able to show the kids the three locations on campus where I lived (both as a single and a married student), the pub where I had my first legal drink, the pine tree in Wellington Square up which I had my 18th birthday party, and the Library where I famously never became Librarian (despite being trained by the Lutheran Church as a librarian for that very purpose).

The kids under the bell outside the chapel at Immanuel College Novar Gardens. I was a student here in 1982-1983. My mother was a student at the college when it first opened at this address, but my father had attended Immanuel at the Walkerville Campus.

104 Jeffcott Street. Built as Whinham College originally, it became Immanuel College after the shift from Point Pass, and then the Seminary of the UELCA. Since 1966 it has been the Seminary of the LCA (now known as Australian Lutheran College). I was a student here from 1984 to 1992.

Francesca, Mia and Maddy in front of 132 Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide. Now in private hands, my wife and I lived in the bottom righthand half from 1987 to 1989 when it was used as accomodation for married Seminarians. It was also the boarding house for girls when 104 Jeffcott Street was Immanuel College, and served as the Seminary during the war years when 104 Jeffcott Street was taken over by the military.

Oscar, Cesca, Maddy and Mia in front of the Löhe Memorial Library. The LCA trained me as a Librarian with a view to future staffing for this library - it never happened.

Then it was down to Flinders Street for the 11am service, the “bongos and banjos” service. No, seriously, it was just flute, piano and bass guitar, but if I wanted the organ I had to come back at 7pm that night. Assistant Pastor Matthias preached (they were celebrating St Michael’s Day – a few days ahead of time – in the attempt to ensure that the holy days are at least observed Lutherans tend to transfer them from weekdays TO the Sunday, whereas, to preserve the Lord’s Day, we do the opposite), and the girls got to go to communion.

The spire of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Adelaide spring sun-shine

The interior of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Flinders Street Adelaide. Note the sanctuary lamp - truly unique among Australian Lutheran churches.

Pastor Fraser Pearce with parishioners after the service at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide

I knew I would have to fit in Mass sometime today, so Fraser kindly offered to take me to the local Latin Mass parish for their 5pm Low Mass. I will discuss my impressions of this at a later point, but it was a good opportunity, and the first time since becoming Catholic that I had received communion kneeling at an altar rail rather than in a processional queue.

Then we were off to Bethlehem for the 7pm Eucharist. This time we got the organ. In fact, the organ has just been refurbished at a hideous but necessary expense. The organist for the evening was Andrew Ampt, and he did a superb job.

Andrew Ampt at the organ of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide

We had “Wachet Auf” (the third verse is all about Angels joining with men in worship), “Jerusalem the Golden”, and “Stars of the Morning” as hymns. The service was the traditional chanted communion liturgy. Very nice. Only my voice was running out. The only thing I can put that down too was herding the children this morning, and spending all afternoon talking with Fraser!

All in all, a very very good start to our pilgrimage. Tomorrow we set off for the Barossa Valley, although the kids have already booked me up to walk them up the kilometre or so of bush walk along the local creek. I AM having fun! And Cathy is too. She said that the one thing she wanted to do was sit and relax these holidays, and, given that I have had the kids with me most of the time, she has had the chance to do that.

And here is a special treat: video of Andrew Ampt playing the organ before the evening service:

The Western Australian bill for Euthanasia has been defeated! 24 votes to 11! From the SMH “WA euthanasia bill rejected”:

Voluntary euthanasia will remain illegal in Western Australia after the bill was defeated in parliament. MPs were granted a conscience vote on the legislation, which was introduced by Greens MP Robin Chapple. The private members bill would have allowed people over the age of 21 with a terminal illness who were sound of mind to ask a doctor to end their life.

Labor MP Kate Doust, who is opposed to euthanasia, told AAP she had always been “fairly confident” that the legislation would be rejected. “It’s a very good outcome. The actual vote should send a clear message that the members of the council do not regard it as good policy,” she said. “What Robin Chapple proposed was a simple solution to what is a complex issue. I’m very happy that we’ve put this matter to rest.”

Liberal MP Nick Goiran, who also voted against the bill, told AAP he was “relieved” with the decision but did not think it was the end of the debate. “The Greens have a track record of putting these bills up on a regular basis…I have no doubt that it will come up again,” Mr Goiran said.

The same article goes on to provide some background to this:

The decision in the Upper House comes after Health Minister Dr Kim Hames revealed he helped a terminally ill patient die with a lethal dose of morphine. Speaking to ABC radio on Wednesday, Dr Hames, who voted against euthanasia, said he had helped a patient pass away by issuing a strong dose of morphine.

“I warned the family that the dose of painkiller that I was about to administer was a respiratory suppressant, can stop that patient breathing,” he said. “Did they want me to do that? Did the patient want me to do that? The patient and the family said yes, so I administered that dose of painkiller.”

Dr Hames said his actions were legal and rejected any notion that the incident was euthanasia. “What I did was give pain relief, and the side effect of that pain relief resulted in that patient dying then rather than in half an hour’s time,” he said. “That’s very different to me putting in a drip and administering a concoction of drugs deliberately to take the life of that patient.”

And that’s the simple matter here – not a complex matter at all, really. The distinction surrounds the intention of the act. If the act is intended to relieve pain, rather than hasten death, it is legal. It was a therapeutic act. The dose of morphine was intended to relieve pain in the living patient, not to end the pain by killing the patient, even though a side effect was to hasten the death itself.

Note too that the article reports that the Green MP who introduced the bill “has told reporters he will re-introduce the bill if he wins another term in parliament.” It is clear that they will not take no for an answer. They will keep chipping away at public resistence to their ideas.

(Incidentally, The Age published my short letter on Euthanasia in their “….and another thing” column this morning:

RANJANA Srivastava’s story (Comment, 22/9) demonstrates perfectly the difference between shooting dying cows and euthanising dying human beings. We shoot cows to put them out of their misery. We want to euthanase human beings to put them out of our misery.

Is this supposed to be a news story? Basically it amounts to the headline “Man sends email to Baillieu”, which provides a rather flimsey opportunity for the Fairfax media to beat the gay marriage drum once more.

We have a State election coming up here in Victorian in November. As I have mentioned before on this ‘ere blog, I am very impressed by my local member, James Merlino. A Catholic and a man of principle, he is also a minister in the current Labor Government, and this may be the first time in my life that I “cross the floor” and vote Labor. And while I am not particularly impressed by the present government, the paper today did contain two other bits of information. First, the “man sends email” article also contained the closing point that that “Premier John Brumby, like Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is opposed to same-sex marriage”, and a separate article, “Euthanasia Debate Back on the Agenda”, reports:

Premier John Brumby, who has long opposed euthanasia laws, said there were no plans for the government to re-examine the matter, or refer the issue to the law commission.

That doesn’t entirely reassure me, but makes me feel a bit better about my current voting intention.

Keep an eye on Western Australia today too – and a pray for their government. They are voting on Euthanasia legislation there today.

Thre is a story in today’s Age by oncologist Ranjana Srivastava: “Family’s pain multiplied at pointlessly lingering death”. It tells the story of a dying 97 year old woman and the way her family dealt with the process of her dying. She fell into a coma and the family expected her to die soon, but she was still alive, still in a coma thirteen days later, and that’s where their patience ran out. Except for one daughter who remained with her (out of a sense of duty, it seems), the others all went home and said “tell us when its over”. Srivastava describes the following conversation with one of the woman’s sons:

Outside the room, I run into her son. A burly man, he is bleary-eyed from having slept in a chair for the past seven nights. He comes straight to the point. ”Doc, this is inhumane. I can tell you that if it was one of my cattle dying like this, I would have shot it, done anything to end its suffering.”

The analogy is a familiar one to many oncologists; although it makes sense on one level, I find it difficult to base my decisions by equating cattle to human.

”Surely, in this modern era, there is something you can do?” he pleads.

”I assure you that we are doing everything to keep her comfortable and nothing to prolong her life.” It sounds odd, an apology that says, ”I am sorry your mother won’t die.”

It is then, his voice muffled by wads of tissues, that he drives the point home.

”I started off feeling sad for mum. But we had talked about it and I really felt that she was ready to die. She misses dad and all her friends, there is nothing that she longs to do any more, and she just wants to go in peace.

”But here she is, something in her body just not surrendering when her mind is made up. And you know what this does to us as a family? It replaces images of a wonderful and rich life with those of aimless suffering and a drawn-out death.”

I desperately want to help. But this time, for a change, there is no life support to unplug or chemotherapy to stop. It is simply waiting for nature to takes its course.

”Euthanasia is against the law,” I say gently.

He chokes on his tears. ”I hate myself so much for being angry that mum won’t die. I should be sad, but I am not. This is not my mum any more, I want this to end.”

I find myself telling the truth, ”I, too, wish she would die.”

He looks up at me, as if suddenly he has found an ally. ”Doc, I don’t know how you guys deal with this stuff. This is painful. I am going home, call me when it’s over.”

Srivastava ends her article by saying: “Some days I muse about the slippery slope argument but today would have been a good day to discuss euthanasia.”

Well, yes, discuss it by all means. Let’s do that. Let’s start with the way that this story demonstrates so perfectly the difference between shooting dying cows and euthanasing dying human beings.

We shoot cows to put them out of their misery. We euthanase human beings to put them out of our misery.

According to this report in The Age, Bishop Phillip Huggins has proposed a motion to the National Synod of the Anglican Church (currently meeting in Melbourne) to oppose the moves of the Federal Labor Government to move toward allowing Euthanasia laws in the Territories. The motion includes the words: ”Our task is to protect, nurture and sustain life to the best of our ability.”

Bishop Huggins correctly points out the rather underhand way in which the Greens have acted in regard to this matter:

Bishop Huggins said: ”This was not a matter of pre-election debate. Would people have voted the same way if they knew a Labor government with the Greens would, as a near-first action, promote a conscience vote on euthanasia?

”There would be more integrity in foreshadowing this proposal before an election rather than immediately after. It should have been made plain during the election campaign. There should be a broad-based public debate.”

This point was echoed in a short letter to the editor on The Age’s opinion page (not currently online), which commented that there were more than twenty Green’s policies listed on Andrew Bandt’s election pamphlets – not one of them mentioning Euthanasia, and this was their very first move once they got a candidate into the lower house.

Lesson No. 1: If you paint your agenda Green it is easier to hide it in the woods.

Johann Gottfried Schütz (1810-1900)

Well, okay, I am a few days early, but I don’t want to miss this occasion. On 13th October 2010, my great, great, great grandfather, Johann Gottfried Schütz, turns 200. With a bit of luck, we hope to make a pilgrimage to his grave in the next week or so.

Here is a picture of his gravestone, which is online at this site:

The fittingly named “Hochkirche” in Tarrington, Victoria.

Well, how about this? I’m doing a bit of research on the net to find out about the burial places of my ancestors, and (Lo and Behold!) I find this German website with nifty pictures of a lot of Australian Lutheran “country” churches. Josh has just been talking about these wonderful buildings which he encountered on his recent trip to the Barossa Valley. Now you can get an eyeful too.

The Pope quoted Newman in his beatification homily:

“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”

Pray for us, Blessed John Henry Newman!