Posted on 12/17/2006 6:41:44 AM PST by Huber
SPIRITUALITY was an eclectic experience amid the pageantry at the installation yesterday of Melbourne’s new Anglican archbishop, Dr Philip Freier.
Befitting a ceremony for a former bishop of the Northern Territory, there were some indigenous touches to the formalities.
In St Paul’s Cathedral, a bare-chested man from the Yorta Yorta rubbed shoulders with a former Supreme Court judge, Clive Tadgell, who is chancellor of the Melbourne diocese.
When the moment came to welcome Archbishop Freier, the Yorta Yorta man, John Tye, produced a didgeridoo and was a procession of one up the aisle. The representatives of 38 denominations and faiths looked on as Mr Tye, from the One Fire Dance group, added a plaintive and ancient air to the cathedral’s acoustic spaces.
It was a colourful scene — plenty of men in red and white, a couple in purple, including Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart, and some men resplendent in black: Bishop Suriel of the Coptic Orthodox Church and Bishop Irinej, the Serbian Orthodox bishop of Australia and New Zealand. Among the 2000 guests, there was also the chief representative of mammon in Australia, Treasurer Peter Costello.
Archbishop Freier, 51, who was elected in August, delivered a thoughtful sermon, drawing from the prophet Ezekiel, which looked at the traditional ideas of Jesus as the good shepherd.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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