Sunday Mass, Museum and Mass Transit

At Sr. Judee’s suggestion we went to St. Francis Church for 10am solemn High Mass today. One of my goals is to see how Australians celebrate the Sunday Eucharist. Three of us set out at 9:00am. We had directions but they were a little vague and I was a little over confident in my reception of them. The result was that we learned more about the suburbs of Sydney. The church is located in Paddington on Oxford St. I have walked up and down this main street in the CBD many times. But, it seems that Oxford Street numbers run in two directions. I knew from the Internet that we were looking for 463 Oxford St., but I didn't realize that it was in the suburb of Paddington. Oh well, it all worked out fine in the end.

It was a good exposure for Dana, our newest arrival in the program. He sailed in (literally) from his diocese in Oakland on Friday. We backtracked a bit and finally found the church. It was a very hot and muggy day and we veteran "Sydneysiders" were not as bothered as our newest compatriot. He will to get used to walking in the heat real soon .

The mass was "very high" with more incense than I’ve seen in a long time. There were tons of servers dressed in white albs (like ours) but with purple collars for Lent, choir members in red cassocks and white surplices and other ministers. The congregation was of mixed ages with a slightly larger number of younger folks than I have been seeing elsewhere we attended. Fr. Pat McGrath welcomed us after mass and when we commented on the all female choir, he explained that their regular choir has as many men but they were off this weekend.


After mass we took a bus to Circular Quay and had breakfast at a favorite restaurant, City Extra. The theme is the newspaper business and the menus came on newsprint. It's located in the heart of Circular Quay where all the ferry boats come and go. Dana and I went to the Maritime Museum after breakfast while Dan went back home to prepare for his guests who arrive on Monday morning. The museum was very fine and our experience was enhanced by the fact that it was air-conditioned and the temperature was over 90 degrees outside.



We returned to The Centre in time for a nap. But I was excited about a steam train excursion that was returning from an outing at 7:15pm so I headed back to the CBD to see what I could see. The picture shows a 2-6-2, 1947 built steam locomotive which hauled 13 coaches in from the Blue Mountains. The fans had mostly departed by the time I got there so I had the platform to myself. Neat.






After the steamer backed out of the terminal, I was so thrilled that I knew I wouldn't be sleepy any time soon, so I took my camera on the next CityRail train across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to take a few night shots of the city and its famous bridge. This picture was a time exposure taken by leaning against a light post, but as the shutter snapped a train came rumbling through. But all in all, it's not a bad shot.

It was a good day!