During this time of upheaval, it’s amazing what one can do when faced with difficult situations! To enable us all to still be connected as a community here at St Mary’s we – 

• made extra effort in finding people’s email addresses in order to send out our bulletin
• place extra copies of the bulletin on the front door of the Church    

           

• keep the parish informed via our facebook page which Mrs Hannah Charles updates
• email the bulletin and prayer to the residents of our aged care home, Mont Cler     

        

• personally distribute the bulletin and prayer to those who haven’t internet, thus enabling face to face contact – be it at arm’s length, talking through the screen door, over the fence or while watering the garden!
• placed, over the weeks, Bishop Michael’s messages on the front door of the Church thus enabling those who pass by to view them

The Church was set up for each of the special days during the Easter Triduum, even though the parishioners couldn’t attend. The cross that is usually carried through the streets during our Ecumenical Good Friday service was placed out in front of the Church.

 As St Mary’s is a caring community, people have been keeping in contact with each other checking out how they have been travelling during this time of isolation.

 History of the Clermont “Old Rugged Cross”

(“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross..” lyrics Alan Jackson)

In 2000, with the arrival of Fr Bruce Little, the Good Friday liturgy at St Mary’s Clermont took on an extra perspective.

A life size cross was fashioned from a young Ironbark tree. To the eerie overwhelming sounds of a solitary drum beating a death march, the rattle of a dragging chain and a cracking whip plunging the congregation into spellbound silence, the Cross was carried into the church. A crown of thorns fashioned from mesquite and a sign bearing the letters “ÏNRI” were placed on the Cross which was then hoisted up and secured to its stand with three pegs driven into place.

During the reading of the Passion at the words “and bowing his head he gave up the spirit” a red cloth was draped over the Cross indicating the shedding of the blood of Jesus.

On Easter Sunday morning, the red cloth was replaced with a white cloth heralding the Risen Christ. The cross then remained in the church until Pentecost Sunday

IN 2003, an Ecumenical movement was commenced in Clermont with all the mainstream Christian Churches meeting in combined worship on the fifth Sunday of the month. This Ecumenical solidarity remains strong to today.

The following year, and as the Eucharist is not celebrated on Good Friday, an Ecumenical Good Friday commemoration was instigated. The heavy Cross was carried by two men in procession from the Anglican Church to the Uniting Church before coming to rest at the Catholic Church. At each church, part of the Passion was read with story unfolding as the journey of the Cross was completed.

The service concluded with the following words: "Today, Good Friday, we have come together and have walked with Jesus on his road to Calvary. Today, we have done this as the wider body of Christ in the Clermont Community, acknowledging the source and the summit of our Christian faith, Jesus Christ.

Today as we see Jesus physically broken on the Cross, we also understand that, though sometimes we may be broken as a community of believers, we are still drawn together by the spirit of Jesus, and through him to the love of God. We are many parts, but we are one body.

Our Good Friday commemoration has concluded but there remains the invitation to stay awhile and make our private peace with Jesus. We may do so according to the practices of our own faith traditions or whatever we feel appropriate for the occasion".

In later years, due to the size of the Cross and the completion of the new St Mary’s church building, the Cross was placed outside the front of the church following Good Friday where it stands for the people of Clermont to see until Pentecost Sunday.

This year, due to COVID 19 restrictions, the Ecumenical Commemoration of Good Friday was , for the first time, not able to held but the Old Rugged Cross, now very much part of the Ecumenical community in Clermont, was placed in public view on Good Friday with the red cloth which was changed to white on Easter Sunday proclaiming “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again”.

Footnote: Ironbark is very susceptible to termite damage. The Cross has been stored in areas exposed to termites, yet no damage has ever been caused to the Cross in twenty years.

Alan Guilfoyle