PLEA ON ir SPIRIT
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1981 PE RT1-1, WA: APRIL (09) 3 298- 1153, 88 TELEPHONE:
V ATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II has called for a re -affirmation of belief in the 1600-yearold statement ". . . the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life."
He wants to stress the fact that the statement, used in the Nicene Creed by all major Christian churches, is the common faith of the whole of Christianity. He also wants the ation of faith with him He said that he does not want these two early church to re-affirm the on that day. to be rememcouncils The year 1981 is the 1550-year -old statebered as events in the ment that Mary is the 1 600th anniversary of p ast but to be an First Council of ConMother of God, Jesus the stantinople which made a cknowledgement that being "conceived of the first definitive state- the teachings of the the Holy Spirit and ment about the Holy Second Vatican Council born of the Virgin Spirit proceeding from are based on the teachings of those councils. Mary". the Father. It is also the 1550th anniversary of the Council of Ephesus that declared Mary to be the Theotokos, the Mother of God. Pope John Paul says that this year's celebration will give thanks to Pope John Paul has the Holy Spirit that the asked bishops' confer- church has been able to ences around the world express its faith for each to send representatives age but in complete harto make the re-affirm- mony with the truth.
The recall to faith will culminate in Rome on Pentecost Sunday with c eremonies in St Peter's Basilica and later at St Mary Major Basilica.
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The renewal of the church, he says in a 22page letter issued this week, can be carried out only in the Holy Spirit, with the aid and light of his power. "There is no doubt that at the present stage of the history of the church a nd of humanity, a deeper need is felt to go deeper into and to give new life to the truth about the Holy Spirit," his letter continues. "The gathering at St. Mary Major Basilica on the late afternoon of Pentecost Sunday will be reminiscent of the gathering of the Apostles with Mary in the Upper Room," he said.
Pope John Paul's letter to bishops on re-affirming belief in the Holy Spirit and the Motherhood of God refers often to the history of early councils that proclaimed these truths. *The First Council of Constantinople in 381 was the second of the church's ecumenical or general councils, the most recent being the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65. That council in 381 issued the so called "Nicene" Creed that is now recited in the liturgies of most of the Chrisian churches both east and west. * The council held at Nicaea near Constantinople in 325 was the first general council of the Church. Arius had claimed that Jesus was not of the Godhead and he was condemned as a heretic by the 318 bishops at Nicaea who said that Jesus was of the "substance" o the Father — a word that later created difficulties in interpretation. Division continued in the church for many years until the second general council, at Constantinople in 381, put an end to any misunderstanding. "It elucidated the mystery of the Holy Spirit and his origin from the Father, thus affirming the unity and equality in divinity of the Holy Spirit with the Fathe and the Son," Pope John Paul stated in his letter. Later, the Eastern Orthodox churches separated from the Catholic Church over the phrase ". . . proceeds from the Father AND FROM THE SON". The western retention of the latter words has been an obstacle to re-union ever since.
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The Council of Ephesus in 431 was the third ecumenical or general council of the church. It opened on June 7, 431, on which Pentecost fell that year as it co-incidentally does in the year 1981, Pope John Paul notes. The monk Nestorius preached that in Jesus there were two distinct persons, human and divine and aroused anger by saying that Mary was, therefore, mother only to the human person. The Council condemned him as a heretic by reaffirming the doctrine of Nicaea that Jesus is both God and man, but in the one personality, and that Mary can be called the Theotokos, The Bearer of God, rendered devotionally as Mother of God.
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Pictured against a tall gum tree, the new church of St Augustine at Pinjarra has been designed by architect Tony O'Hara to recall the themes of the early housing in the district. A steeply-pitched colorbond steel roof sweeps down to a large verandah area tor public gatherings and from which large windows allow people inside the building to feel in touch with both areas. Black -speckled red bricks set off the exterior while inside cream pastel bricks contrast with the exposed steel portal frame and the high ceiling following the rake of the roof. A floor sloping to the sanctuary increases the sense of space. The price of the construction was around $90,000.
NEW MARRA ERA
"When I took peaceful make sacrifices for the of Pinjarra, Bishop possession of the Pin- achievement of this day," McKeon praised the contributions of priests and jarra parish for the dio- Bishop McKeon said. "It is a united effort, a Sisters of St Joseph to the cese of Bunbury (in 1978) the first thing I c ommunity effort and area over the years. did was condemn the nobody can stand apart "Without the priests and old wooden church," from such efforts claiming sisters there would be no Bishop Myles McKeon to be still a 'good' Catholic, church; it would have died said at Pinjarra last still a 'good' member of the spiritually," he said. church." Sunday. He challenged young He was congratulating He told the anecdote of a people and asked them to the parishoners on taking clergyman who held a fun- consider if God was calling up the challenge he put to eral service to bury his them to be a priest or relithem at a meeting held two dying parish. A coffin was gious brother or sister. "We need a generation years ago after Mass when placed in the church and he attended the official the parishioners asked to of parents who will talk to transfer of the parish, walk past and view the their children about offeralong with Mandurah, remains. ing themselves for such a from the archdiocese of vocation. What they saw in the Perth to the diocese of bottom of a coffin was a "There is no greater. Bunbury. Bishop Healy repres- mirror reflecting them- honour than to have God stretch out His hand and ented the archdiocese last selves. say: I want your child to Sunday for the solemn "The parish did not die," serve me." dedication of the new Bishop McKeon conBishop McKeon said church of St Augustine tinued. "People who stand that a church was a place that stands near where the apart need to look at the for praising and 69-year-old jarrah church thanking God and the new church h ad stood till last mirror in the coffin." Noting the presence of was a more fitting building December. "It shows the people are Father John Russell of than the old in which to alive, that they have pride Bayswater, one of the two carry out this task. to have banded together to earliest surviving pastors (Continued Page 2)