MINISTRY OF LAYING-ON OF HANDS
Available by appointment during the COVID-19 Crisis

Following the example of Jesus, and his explicit instructions to his disciples, the ministry of healing for any kind of disease or distress is an integral part of the proclamation and application of the Gospel of compassion.

It is administered by the “Laying on of Hands with prayer” by a priest gently touching the head or shoulders of the person in need. No questions are asked although a person may, if they wish, give their name or a brief description of their concern. It is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to receive this ministry on behalf of another who cannot be present.

Those who wish to receive this ministry are invited to make their way to the Lady Chapel (north side of the Cathedral) following the reception of Communion.

The Ministry of Laying on of Hands with Anointing is also available at other times, including after each act of worship. Please contact the Cathedral Office.

What is ‘Spiritual Direction’ …?

Spiritual direction is about making a space for God in your life. Contrary to the name, Spiritual Direction is not about being ‘directed’, it is being encouraged to draw closer to God in a more conscious experience of God’s presence, grace and love in your daily life.

In the midst of life we often find it difficult to notice God’s action within it. And yet we yearn to be able to discern the presence and the voice of God at a deeper level. In the practice of Spiritual Direction you are given the time and space to reflect on the experiences of your daily living, and as this contemplation takes place, you begin to discern God’s invitations and the work God is doing in your life.

Spiritual Direction sessions are now available at the Cathedral. To find out more, please contact Glynis by email

EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY (EfM)
~ a ‘taster’ program!

EfM can be summed up as Exploring Faith Matters! It is formational and transformational for Christian life and ministry. We do EfM in small groups led by trained mentors. Through individual study, sharing discoveries and exploring our faith together, we learn to think theologically. We connect what we come to know of the Christian tradition with our ordinary daily activities.

The 2018 EfM group developed a ‘taster’ program for 2019, to introduce newcomers with sample sessions over several weeks. These sessions are held in St Martin’s House at 6.00pm. To find out more, please call the Cathedral Office on 3835 2222 during business hours.

MORE ABOUT EVENTS

Offsite events, particular theme days/weeks or festivals which might be of wider interest are more likely to be found in the GENERAL NEWS section on the home page of this website.  This is not a hard-and-fast rule: we will be keeping an eye on the dispersal of information across this new website, to try to minimise the number of clicks and cross-reference links needed.

Regarding links, some of the events featured here (and on the home page) may require registration, ticketing or booking fees. Where this is the case, either the event image or a specific text link should take you to the relevant (external) website for more details.

Please note that St John’s Cathedral provides such information in good faith and cannot be responsible for the veracity or otherwise of such links. If you find a link is broken or are concerned about its redirection, please contact the Cathedral office during business hours, 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday, or by email 

Dr. Michael Knopf is a concert guitarist and composer, a dedicated teacher and a music researcher from the United States residing in Southeast Queensland, Australia. The Acoustic Cathedral experience is not a recital but an aural aesthetic assistance to help drain away stress/anxiety/pain for all comers. Michael would love to see people of all walks of life, status and condition benefit. He will be playing some original music, classical guitar repertoire and improvisations, each piece aesthetically modified to encourage a relaxed engagement and to impart the sense of beauty, colour and other-worldliness that we sometimes experience within ourselves as we are immersed in better thoughts and feelings. Michael’s CDs will be available for purchase after the session.

Pre-registration is advisable. Click here to Register

SAINTS on a MISSION
Fridays at 10.30am.

In lieu of wine before breakfast, come for Friday coffee with Blair, our knowledgeable church history enthusiast’

Join Cathedral community member and “self-discovered” medieval and liturgical historian Blair Martin, leading interested folk in reflections and discussion on how we connect the ancient stories and rituals of Feast Days to the world of 2020, developing a sense of purpose & meaning for our disrupted and changed lives. Along the way the focus will also be on matters of social justice and our call to be “Saints on a Mission”, living out the Great Commission – to be “Easter People” living in the Resurrection and bringing the good news of the gospel to the lives of those around us.

or phone (07) 3185 3730, enter:
Meeting ID: 966 2167 6899#
Passcode: 787645#
Participant ID: #.

This month our guest is Sarah Roberts. She will be speaking on women who experience the loss of motherhood. A central Christian story is the miracle birth of Jesus and sanctification of Mary as mother, yet a growing number of women are choosing not to have children or are involuntarily childless due to infertility or circumstance. We live in a pronatalist society where most people become parents, and women’s social value can be equated to their parenting status. Parenting occurs in atomized nuclear family units and the extended family is often limited or absent. This session is a discussion about the complexity and subjectivity of women’s experiences of fertility and the loss of the village to nurture the soul of children.

Sarah has a background in community work and counselling, including child protection, youth homelessness and health promotion. Sarah is currently undertaking a Masters of Social Work looking at women’s experience of motherhood loss and involuntary childlessness. She is the founder of The Empty Cradle which supports women who have lost the opportunity for motherhood to grieve the loss and create a life of meaning and joy.

This event will be held in person and on Zoom and will begin with a short prayer service at 9.30am. Following that, people are encouraged to get a cup of coffee or tea and we will then join Sarah for her presentation at 10.00am.

To register to attend in person please email Kate Ross
Click here to join via Zoom
Dial in (07) 3185 3730
Meeting ID: 823 3447 0652#
Password 303180#
Participant: #. 

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY TALKS

Each Week we provide two video talks for Children. These appear on the Cathedral’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel on Thursday and Sunday mornings at 9.30am. The talks encourage and enable engagement with the Christian narrative and the themes and festivals associated with the Church Year. Many of the talks have resources associated with them.

Click here for The Cathedral FaceBook page

Click here for the Cathedral YouTube channel 

Click here to access the Resources

Over four weeks the Rev’d Kate Ross will guide discussion about women in the Old Testament. We will explore the many roles women hold in biblical stories. This is the first of a three part study on women in the bible. Future studies will be on women in the New Testament, and themes relating to women’s daily life. This study will be held in person and over Zoom. If you wish to attend in person, please register.

This study will be on Tuesday evenings 7.30-8.30pm and will be repeated on Wednesday evenings 5.30-6.30pm.

Tuesday evenings: Click Here to Access Zoom
Dial in 07 3185 3730
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Password 042853# then Participant: #.

Wednesday evenings: Click Here to Access Zoom
Phone 07 3185 3730
Meeting ID: 858 9439 1629#
Password 909081# Participant: #.

COFFEE ON WEDNESDAYS
10.00am-2.00pm

COWS returned to the Cathedral on September 2.

Every Wednesday 10.00am Good friends, good food, great conversation.

Please feel ‘mooved’ to join us at our regular COWS (Coffee on Wednesdays) gatherings between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

Our guest is Bill Coaldrake who will be speaking about Frank Coaldrake. In 1970 Frank William Coaldrake was elected as Archbishop of Brisbane, but died suddenly, twelve days after his election, and before he could be consecrated. Fifty years later, Frank’s son Bill reflects on his father’s extraordinary life.

Throughout his life Frank Coaldrake fought creatively and unremittingly against social injustice and war. Born in Brisbane in 1912, Frank found his vocation as a priest while working as the warden of the Boy’s Hostel at Charleville for the Bush Brotherhood.

In 1939, with the outbreak of war in Europe, he founded The Peacemaker, which was to serve as the monthly newspaper for Australian pacifists. In his work with the newly formed Brotherhood of St. Laurence in Melbourne he adopted Gandhi’s tactics of non-violent civil disobedience.

Seeking “to make our enemies our friends” he unsuccessfully tried to go to Japan as part of a humanitarian mission in 1943. He was to become the first Australian civilian to enter Occupied Japan after the war. He founded St Mary’s Church, Izu.

At the end of 1956, Coaldrake returned to Australia with his young family as the new Chairman of ABM. He was to play a critical role in redefining ‘mission’ in the post-colonial era. He also set out to change the policies of the Church in Australia towards Aboriginal people, from a history of “assimilation” to one based on mutual “acceptance”.

Frank’s son, William H. Coaldrake, was born in Japan while his parents were based there after the war. He received his doctorate from Harvard University and became a specialist on the history of Japanese architecture and restoring heritage buildings. He was Foundation Professor of Japanese at the University of Melbourne for 14 years. After that he moved back to Japan, based in the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo.

Bill was just eighteen years old when his father died but he feels like he has been meeting Frank Coaldrake again in many guises ever since, through the countless people in Australia and Japan who were inspired by him, and through editing the Coaldrake family records in collaboration with his mother Maida.

This event will be held in person, over YouTube and Zoom. Evensong can be accessed live and on our YouTube channel at 6pm. From 7pm those in the Cathedral we will join Bill and others on Zoom for an address and Q&A. Click here to Join the Zoom Session or
Dial in 07 3185 3730
Meeting ID: 768 010 419#
Password 267366#
Participant: #.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we will be offering a virtual labyrinth walk each month.

LABYRINTH WALK – Sunday, September 6
View anytime from 11.30am

Previous Walks

August 2
Click here to view the video.
Click here to Download the Walking Notes

July 5
Click here to view the video.
Click here to Download the Walking Notes

June 7
Click here to view the video.
Click here to Download the Walking Notes

May 3
Click here to access The Video
Click here to Download the Walking Notes

The path is always new, because,
as a spiritual discipline, the labyrinth
is a path of contemplation,
reflection, prayer …
Beneath the surface, walking the labyrinth
is a profound discipline in listening,
in active silence, in finding movement
and rhythm in the stillneses underneath
and in between everyday’s noise.
Walking the labyrinth is an exercise
in finding the voice speaking in whispers
underneath the whirlwind of sound.

~ Travis Scholl, “Walking the Labyrinth –
A Place to Pray and Seek God” p.17, IVP Books, 2014

Christian Meditation Group
Tuesday evening
6.45pm

The Mediation Group is now meeting again in the Cathedral and also by Zoom.

To join by Zoom please either:
Click this Link
or
To join by phone ring (07) 3185 3730 and enter these details:
Meeting ID: 278 417 931#
Passcode: 042853#
Participant:#

Wine before Breakfast

Wine Before Breakfast will resume after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime you might like to join SAINTS on a MISSION on FRIDAYS. (See Above)

End the week well with an early Eucharist in the Holy Spirit Chapel followed by breakfast at a local cafe. The short Eucharistic service will include contemporary reflections on issues of justice and peace and prayers for our communities and our world that reflect recent events of the week.
We will then head to a nearby cafe for conversation with good friends, great coffee and cooked breakfast. All are welcome, with a cost of around $10* for the breakfast (*for those who can afford it).

CHORAL EVENSONG
Wednesday Evensong will not be offered during the COVID-19 crisis.
Sunday 6pm is available by live stream and is also recorded.