From The Goldfields
God-Talk: Changes
The Revd Dr Elizabeth J Smith AM, Mission Priest, Parish of The Goldfields
I have been walking in Karlkurla Bushland Park most days for more than 10 years now. The salmon gums and gimlets, the saltbush and bluebush, the mulla-mulla and wattles, the lizards, spiders, ants and birds have kept me company and refreshed my spirit. They have blessed me with many an insight into God’s presence in this land, and into the Spirit’s working in my heart and mind. You have been kind enough to read along with me in many an edition of the Messenger, this past decade.
I have been praying with the people of Christ Church, Southern Cross and St John’s Old Cathedral, Kalgoorlie all this time. There were some mis-steps in the early years, after an amalgamation of parishes and some stumbles in leadership, both lay and ordained. Yet, with the Holy Spirit’s help, we have learnt how to walk together as Anglican Christians in the complex human community of the Goldfields.
When I first came to the parish, I searched for the spiritual equivalent of the green shoots that germinate, and the healthy survivors that persist, after a bushfire, storm or land clearance. In the bush and in the church, regeneration may come with time, rain, and some judicious weeding. A decade on, we can see healthy regrowth.
We look quite different these days. Racially, we are much more diverse. Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a city of migrants from all around the world, making new lives by working in the mines, the hospital and nursing homes, the schools and businesses. Some of those migrants come as Anglicans looking for a new spiritual home. St John’s has opened its doors, and Christ’s heart, to them and their children. They are now among our leaders.
Our age profile has also changed. While we have mourned the death of some of our oldest and most faithful members, we now also delight in the babies, toddlers, primary school children and teens who have come for baptism or confirmation, and stuck around. On Easter Day 2025, we baptised Jasmine, aged nine, and Zayne, not quite six months old. We are so proud to count them and their families in to the Body of Christ!
There are many churches in this town, and we Anglicans have a particular vocation among our fellow Christians. We are called to be hospitable and generous to all kinds of households, not requiring cookie-cutter, middle-class families, though we have room for them, too, along with singles and couples of all ages. We are called to express women’s full spiritual leadership, and to befriend straight and rainbow spiritual sisters and brothers equally. We are called to play our part in the public life of the community, as well as the private lives of our members. We are called to be people of thoughtful faith, keeping our minds switched on to science and sociology as well as scripture.
The Holy Spirit has worked energetically in this context, and I and the lay members and leaders of the parish have done our best. Some of my energy has gone into the parish, and some into the wider Goldfields community. My goal has been to form relationships that the Spirit can use for people to meet Jesus. Some of those people have been outside the church, and some within it.
The other part of my mission has been to manage (form, tend, teach, feed, sometimes discipline and direct) a worshipping congregation that is safe (spiritually, theologically, physically, socially, emotionally safe) for people to connect with, who have met Jesus by one means or another. Jesus is definitely out there, in a
post-church or an over-churched world, chatting people up, as in his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. He is risen from the dead, and making new friends every day. How will they meet the other friends of Jesus, and what sort of reception will they receive?
I often pray: ‘Dear God, make us ready to receive the people you want to belong with us.’ So, if nobody new comes through the door, it’s probably that God doesn’t quite trust us, yet, to receive them as they need to be received. New Christians and new members always bring change. It’s very easy for a local church to resist or resent that change. Yet blessing comes when, by the grace of God and some human effort, we embrace the new people, and expect the best from the changes they bring.
What about Southern Cross? In the more than 17 years I have known the people of Christ Church, their numbers have dwindled, as older farming families have retired to the coast. But, with the help of Diocesan Council-approved governance variations, the few ongoing members persevere in faith and service. They keep the church building spick and span, pay the bills, and fill a dozen volunteer roles around town. Importantly, with willing non-parishioner volunteers, all duly screened and Safe Ministry-trained, they run a brilliant Anglican Op Shop, highly valued by the Yilgarn Shire and many a traveller on the Great Eastern Highway.
As I write, conversations are underway about a new, ordained mission leader for the Parish of The Goldfields. I am praying for a gracious transition for the parish and for the new person. I know they will all be warmly supported by everyone at Church House, and by your prayers, too. And the Spirit will not rest from the work of making Anglicans effective and joyful in mission in the Goldfields.
As for me, I am retiring from full-time parish leadership, and moving back to Perth at the end of June, to begin different ministries. Thank you for your companionship through so many episodes of Goldfields God-Talk. As you pray for the Goldfields, please pray also for me to become an ever more fruitful writer, teacher, mentor, and provider of lively liturgical resources for many mission contexts.
