Talking Point by Sr Elvera Sesta
I HAVE always been intrigued by the findings of yesteryear and Stanley Hall provides me with a feast of such opportunities.
Stanley Hall is the residence that the Presentation Sisters purchased for their new school and accommodation for the Sisters and boarders in 1926.
After almost 125 years of use, it had begun to look rather weary especially with the many accretions that had been added over the years.
This year, St Rita’s College as much as possible has returned this stately mansion to its former glory.
I have always been intrigued by the wall safe in one of the rooms with its large, old-fashioned key. I had been told by the last occupant that the room had been used as an office.
But, as part of the plaster on the wall and the floor covering were removed for repair, it was discovered that it had been a fireplace.
There were the remains of the chimney and the hearth. I then realised that in about 1885 the first storey only had been built by John Forth who had a large family.
This room therefore had most probably been a bedroom or a living room.
Again when the plaster had been removed from what I had been told was the dining room, there on two areas of the walls were curved brick arches.
These, I was told, would have been over the main doors leading to the outside of the building. In 1890 the building had been renovated by the addition of another storey and a tower for viewing the races at Eagle Farm by the next owner, Herbert Hunter.
These erstwhile outside doors now became some of the internal doors
When the Sisters bought the property from E.G. Blume, they boarded up many of the balconies so that they could become accommodation for the boarders. When I walked onto these balconies after the restoration, I gasped with delight at seeing how beautiful they were and the magnificent view that they gave.
In the 1960s the Billiard Room was demolished and a wing was added.
We have some of the photos of E.G. Blume’s racehorses given to us by his daughter. The photos used to adorn the walls of this room.
Where am I going with all of this?
To me it seems very like the process we go through when we try to uncover first-century Palestine as recorded in our sacred writings.
We remove the accretions that have been added over the years. Like the heritage architects, we try to discover the culture of the time, the meaning of the language in which it was written and how the people of that day spoke.
It is also important for us to look at the socio-economic conditions of the time in which it was written and the time with which it deals.
Just as I heard about the tragic death of the first owner and why the last owner, before the Sisters purchased the property, had to sell, we also read about the people depicted in both the gospels and in the Hebrew Scriptures.
They were people of flesh and blood similar to us. They may have dressed differently to us, had different customs, perhaps been more family oriented, but they would have had desires and feelings with which we are familiar.
The parables that Jesus uses to teach us make more sense if we understand the conditions of that era – farming, winegrowing and fishing.
When 1 Corinthians 14:34 says that “women should be silent in the churches” it seems like a total ban on women’s speech in church, which is inconsistent with the other teachings that Paul makes.
However, it becomes more meaningful if we realise that this passage could be an interpolation by a later editor who introduces the restrictive ethos of the pastoral letters and was most probably not written by Paul.
Jesus tells us that relationships are vital. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27) – surely pertinent for us for today.
If we learn to walk with Jesus, then we can apply his words to us in the 21st century language.
Sr Elvera Sesta is a Presentation Sisters and a teacher at St Ritaís College, Clayfield.
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