Our Values • Us At a Glance • Becoming Part of St Michael’s • All Practitioners

Values are ‘the way things work around here’ - the unspoken rules underpinning behaviour. Values help us feel safety, belonging and the freedom to become the unique person that God is co-creating in partnership with us.

We articulated the values listed below at a past parish visioning day. Values are often aspirational: what we commit to being at our best, even if we don’t always completely fulfill them. In naming this collection of values parishioners described the ‘vibe’ at St Michael’s as they encounter it.

This does not mean we’re perfect, or that the behaviours of all who attend always reflect these foundations. Values are invisible like the water fish swim in - we don’t notice the water until it get dirty! When someone oversteps the boundaries of these values it’s incumbent on those around them to respectfully and sensitively draw attention to this behaviour and/or reinforce the alternative behaviour we strive for in our faith community. In this way we each take responsibility for our own actions and the culture of our parish.

Our values are:

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St Michael and All Angels:

• Acknowledges the original custodians of this area, the Turrbal and Yuggera peoples

• Has a parish history ranging back to 1889, within the multi-cultural community of New Farm lodged in a fertile loop of the Brisbane River

• Is a genuinely inclusive faith community that embraces diversity, acceptance and respect

• Has an active Parish Council, elected annually by the congregation to assist parish decision making, and Parish and Community Engagement Team, building connection between parishioners and with the wider community

• Has a traditional pipe organ and electric keyboard used for Sunday worship

• Is part of the Anglican Diocese of Southern Queensland, which is in turn a member of the Worldwide Anglican Communion

• Is located on the 196 and 199 bus routes in an exciting and vibrant part of Brisbane

• Values the role of sacred music (eg through our traditional pipe organ), sacred art (eg meditating on Orthodox icons) and simple Christian rituals (like lighting a votive candle in prayer)

• Hosts a weekly Bible study series once or twice a year during Lent (leading up to Easter) and/or Advent (leading up to Christmas).

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A Tour of St Michael’s Church

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Lyn’s story

“We were first introduced to St Michael’s about 12 years ago by my art teacher. Patrick encouraged me to exhibit and sell some of my paintings in the annual art and craft show. It was a wonderful first evening and weekend where I was made so very welcome and comfortable. Following this art and craft show, Buddy and I then attended the St Francis blessing of the animals day which was so special. 

There after we became regular parishioners and part of the St Michael’s congregation.  For both of us it was our happy place. Everyone, is just so friendly and so welcoming.

I am a regular participant in event coordinating and baking brownies for the bake stalls at several of our annual events.

St Michael’s is a very special place in our hearts where we always feel very much at home, thanks so much to our priest and our fellow parishioners.” 

Lyn and Buddy

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Picture Wall

At St Michael’s we celebrate the role of the Arts, Humanities and Physical Sciences in helping us understand better God’s unfolding creative action in the world. When it comes to God’s self-revelation around us, Anglicans believe in the ‘three-legged stool’ of Scripture, Tradition and Reason and Experience. Our Picture Wall, at the back of church near the entrance, is an alternative way of reflecting on the three legs of the stool, by supporting a theme taken up in a sermon or particular church season. It does this by displaying:

• Art works with a theological or spiritual emphasis (see Mary and Elizabeth, a reflection on the Nativity Story in Luke’s Gospel by St Francis College lecturer Peter Kline, below), or

• Historical charts from our living Tradition (eg like Andre Rublev’s fifteenth century Russion Orthodox The Trinity icon, to assist reflection on God’s nature on Trinity Sunday; or a picture of the serpent on a pole from the Hebrews’ Exodus story, used in John 3:15 as a prelude to the famous verse 16 passage).

Lyn’s story and the picture attached to the Community parish value above indicate the principle that when it comes to our experience of community, it’s like we’re each positioned somewhere within a series of concentric circles. We’re practitioners being formed and forming each other, but at various distances from the centre of the circles - reflecting the varying strength of connection we have with the faith community:

• Vicariously Connected - Attending a one-off event, visiting for a wedding, or donating for the garage sale, but not being repeat attenders of parish worship

• Occasional Attenders - May come to worship at Christmas and/or Easter time, or attend occasionally with a family member or friend

• Sunday Sacramentalists - Attend worship regularly (with or without additional parish involvement outside of services) - whether it’s weekly or once or twice a month - and experience some degree of belonging

• Mature Practitioners - A core group of people who through practice and time are deepening their Christian faith: with or without being very active in the non-worshiping life of the congregation.

It’s like we’re all on a journey in relation to a community of faith. Sometimes we hike closer to the centre, sometimes we move further away, while also accompanying others on their journeys with various levels of closeness, and always in the context of the boundless circle of God’s unconditional love.

Back to Top • Our Values • Us At a Glance • Becoming Part of St Michael’s