Jorie Ryan, the former Parish Priest at St Luke’s Gulgong, has recounted her time in the small town with her latest book, ‘A Poet in the Parish’.
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And she’ll return to the parish she led from 2006 until 2012, this Sunday for a special service and the official launch.
Jorie took a suggestion to publish a selection of sermons from that time and integrated with her poetry. Which took about five years to put together.
“Taking something that’s meant to be spoken and putting it so it can be read has been a huge amount of work,” she said.
“And my theology has changed a bit, but I have to remain true to the time.
“I had seven years worth of sermons and I looked through and picked ones that still resonated with me and that I felt expressed the parish. Ones that demonstrated what it was about.”
The result was a memoir of her time in a small rural parish, and memories of the relationship formed with the community.
“I came from Mosman, so it was a huge shift for me, I’d lived in a small country town before – but I came to this small rural community, filled with people with all different experiences, and said ‘let’s go on this adventure together’.
“I never saw myself as the priest who had all the answers and the longer I was there the more questions I had. How do we live in this world? How do we live a good life? And that’s an ongoing thing in the book.”
“It was all about relationship, I was very much a person who got out into the community, I’ve never been to more pubs than when I was in Gulgong.
“And we used to have this ‘morning tea at St Luke’s’ for anyone who wanted to have morning tea at one of the coffee shops - and they’re still doing it, which is great.
“Sometimes there might be three of us and sometimes we might fill the place, depending on who was around.
“It was that sense of ‘we’re a family, we’re a community, how do we all live together?’ And in a way that’s easier in a small town.”
Jorie will return to St Luke’s for the Gulgong launch of the book – with Sue Grant Frost – this Sunday (February 4) at 10.30am, following a special service at 9am.
The Mudgee launch is the following Sunday (February 11) at the Uniting Church, 10.45am with Reverend Greg Smith, following the 9.30am service.
The book is available at the Mudgee Newsagency and Mudgee Christian Bookshop.