Year 10

RE Local Church Tour

How many times have you driven past the Coptic Orthodox Church on Wooden St Turvey Park and not given it another thought. Just another dusty unassuming building from an earlier era in our town's history. At least it provides a venue for one of the many ethnic minorities in Wagga to meet. 

Well, Year 10 paid a visit on Wednesday 25th October this week and our hosts Michael and Innis, on behalf of the parish priest Fr Yostos, treated us to a cultural and religious experience beyond expectations. We learned that Coptic means Egyptian and Orthodox means (roughly) straight belief. The way the Coptic Orthodox community in Wagga Wagga practises their faith comes directly from the earliest period of Christianity when St Mark, a disciple of Jesus and the author of one of the four Gospels, brought the Good News to Alexandria in Egypt. Traditional rites in the Orthodox Churches, as in Catholicism, preserve and transmit the ancient beliefs received from the earliest Christians through time and to all nations, even to little pockets of Australian suburbia. What a great sign of the presence and protection of the Holy Spirit working in the Church! 

In Athol Street, which runs parallel to Wooden St, is the beautifully appointed Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Pastor David Cherrie hosted us, deepening our understanding of how we encounter Christ in Baptism, Sacred Scripture and Communion. He stressed that it is by faith and God’s grace alone that we are justified, that Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead alone is the means by which this grace is transmitted to us and that this is all for the glory of God alone. He reminded us that there is nothing we can give to God as all good things come from God alone and in this we are reminded of the great surrender Christians make to be “reborn to a sharing of the divine life” (Unitatis Redintegratio 22). 

Despite the differences that exist between Coptic, Lutheran and Catholic Christianity, and despite their separation by historical doctrinal disputes, the presence of these little hubs of sincere devotion and love of God, existing harmoniously in the same neighbourhood, presents a great opportunity for building the Kingdom of God right here in Wagga Wagga.

David Chaston | Religious Education Coordinator