Message from Archbishop Phillip Aspinall to those gathered at the Ecumenical Service at St Luke's Toowoomba, Friday 14th January 2011
Dear sisters and brothers
I very much wanted to be with you in person today but the current difficulties with transport have made it inadvisable. While I am guided by this advice I am troubled by not being present with you while you are in the depths of your struggle. I want you to know that I and all of your brothers and sisters in the Church are with you now in the intensity of your pain and grief. We are beside you now and will continue to be there for you.
I have been working this week with a small team coordinating responses to the flood devastation. As we have prayed together each day uppermost in our hearts and minds have been the people of Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley grieving the loss of loved ones. We are very conscious, too, that deaths have occurred in other places and of the tremendous hardship that will flow from destroyed and damaged homes, businesses and livelihoods in this and other regions of the State.
With you we are anxiously receiving news of flooding in Goondiwindi and other parts of the country.
As you gather together today to find solidarity, support and comfort with each other in the presence of God, please be assured that many, many others are with you in spirit. Indeed the community of those who are one with you in Christ is vast. You are in the thoughts and prayers of Queenslanders, Australians everywhere and in fact of millions around the world. This is one way in which we experience the one human family of love and support which is God's will and gift to us in Christ.
May you be able to share your pain with others who love and care for you.
May you sense the presence of God with you through this devastation.
May your grief eventually give way to an unshakeable joy
through the one who lives beyond all suffering and adversity, even death itself
Jesus Christ our Lord.
With every blessing and praying that you might know the reality of new life in Christ
+ Phillip Brisbane
Dear sisters and brothers
I very much wanted to be with you in person today but the current difficulties with transport have made it inadvisable. While I am guided by this advice I am troubled by not being present with you while you are in the depths of your struggle. I want you to know that I and all of your brothers and sisters in the Church are with you now in the intensity of your pain and grief. We are beside you now and will continue to be there for you.
I have been working this week with a small team coordinating responses to the flood devastation. As we have prayed together each day uppermost in our hearts and minds have been the people of Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley grieving the loss of loved ones. We are very conscious, too, that deaths have occurred in other places and of the tremendous hardship that will flow from destroyed and damaged homes, businesses and livelihoods in this and other regions of the State.
With you we are anxiously receiving news of flooding in Goondiwindi and other parts of the country.
As you gather together today to find solidarity, support and comfort with each other in the presence of God, please be assured that many, many others are with you in spirit. Indeed the community of those who are one with you in Christ is vast. You are in the thoughts and prayers of Queenslanders, Australians everywhere and in fact of millions around the world. This is one way in which we experience the one human family of love and support which is God's will and gift to us in Christ.
May you be able to share your pain with others who love and care for you.
May you sense the presence of God with you through this devastation.
May your grief eventually give way to an unshakeable joy
through the one who lives beyond all suffering and adversity, even death itself
Jesus Christ our Lord.
With every blessing and praying that you might know the reality of new life in Christ
+ Phillip Brisbane