Connection to AIDS response
During the AIDS crisis St Marks was an oasis with a warm welcome and a mission to include people with HIV/AIDS in the parish. It was a remarkable response at a time when many were too scared to be supportive. The combination of a Parish Priest with a mission and commitment to individuals, a congregation that was open to helping others and a place that holds an amazing sense of peace, warmth and spirituality was behind the success of the response to people with HIV/AIDS.
Background
In the 1980s when the first waves of the HIV-AIDS epidemic hit a ministry to those suffering from its ravages was commenced in 1986. During the late 1980s and 1990s annual AIDS Requiems were held on the evening of Melbourne Cup Day. At their peak over 500 people would gather in the church.
https://www.stmarksfitzroy.com/lgbti-community
St Mark’s is evidence of the early growth of Fitzroy, Melbourne’s first suburb, and has a strong history of providing social welfare support and facilities for the local community. The church also holds important meaning for its longstanding mission to support LGBTIQ+ people, especially during the AIDS crisis. A church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, St Mark’s Anglican Church has long held attraction for queer believers. In 1980 St Mark’s appointed a social worker, Peter Burke, to run emergency relief and a community lounge. From there, the church began a more active collaboration with its surrounding communities. It hired out its hall to gay groups for meetings at a time when many organisations found that idea objectionable or too controversial. A fundraiser for Gay Community News was hosted there in May 1980, nearly a year before decriminalisation was implemented in Victoria. Beginning in the mid-1980s, St Mark’s ran an AIDS ministry, offering pastoral services and advocacy for people living with HIV and AIDS. Its annual AIDS requiem, held from 1986 and throughout the 1990s, was an important event for many people living with AIDS, drawing crowds of about 500 at its peak. A new phase began in 2012 when the first Midsumma Mass was held at St Mark’s. Commencing in 1996, the Midsumma Mass had previously been held at St Agnes’ Anglican Church in 116 Booran Road, Glen Huntly
How did the support for people with AIDS start
One day a parishioner knocked on Father Tony’s (Priest from 1985 to 2022) door and wanted to know if he could still keep coming to church because he had HIV. Had to be prepared to welcome people and make them part of the church
Father Tony went to vestry (the Anglican Churches administrative group) and suggested that they engage with AIDS work. The Vestry was supportive. Father Tony and members of Vestry went to orientation and training at the Victorian AIDS Council. This led to ministry supporting people with AIDS.
In 1987 Father Tony went to America to see what the American Church was doing in relation to AIDS. He went to an AIDS requiem mass in New York for people who had died from AIDS. Father Tony suggested a requiem mass to St Marks Parish. They were supportive.
The first AIDS requiem mass was held on world AIDS day and included a liturgical dance, people from the AIDS Council read out the names of people who had died; it was a celebration of lives lost.
At that first AIDS Requiem Mass Father Tony wanted priests to come dressed as priests so that people could talk to a priest if they need to - but not many priests came. The Bishop was supportive and it became easier as the word spread of the impact of this AIDS Requiem Mass.
Memories of a Parishioner from St Mark – Eric Gamon
My first brief and fleeting encounter with St. Mark’s was probably in the late 1980’s. Graham Baker and I were attending an evening theatrical production at the Fitzroy Town Hall. It was a play with an all Aboriginal cast about the struggles of an urban Aboriginal family. During the interval Graham mentioned that there was a nearby Anglican Church, St. Mark’s, which he had heard was reaching out to marginalised communities, including the gay community and he suggested we use the interval to walk over and take a look at the church. We did that. The place was in darkness by then and as we walked around near to the Calvary Garden, a neighbouring dog began to bark and the next thing was that a flash light lit us up. A disembodied voice said ”Can I help you?”. We explained ourselves and the voice introduced itself as Father Tony Noble, parish priest. He then offered to open up the church so that we could look inside. In the illuminated interior of the church, we had a quick look around, saw who Father Tony was, thanked him and then made our way back for the second act of the play at the Fitzroy Town Hall.
At the time (late 1980’s, early 1990’s), I was a volunteer receptionist/ general help one night each week at the Victorian Aids Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre in Johnson St., Collingwood, prior to its move to St. Kilda (now known as Thorne Harbour Health or Centre Clinic at the Victorian Pride Centre in Fitzroy St., St. Kilda). There were three volunteer receptionists who came on duty at night to staff the phones, set up meeting rooms, do photocopying and collating and sell condoms, lubricant etc. The medical clinic in the same venue had its own paid receptionist and part of our job as front of house receptionists was to direct people to the medical clinic reception. At 10 p.m. we closed the switchboard and transferred calls to a messaging service, counted the money and put it into the safe, secured the building and then we three volunteers would head for the Laird Hotel for a drink and a chat.
It was there that on a number of occasions I spotted a man usually in the Leather Bar surrounded by a group chatting and exchanging views. He looked somehow familiar and one night I asked someone who was the man in the Leather Bar holding court and surrounded by quite a large group. "That's the priest from St. Mark's, Fitzroy " came the answer. Then, of course, it hit me that this was the man with the flashlight who had opened up the church for Graham and myself.
Shortly after that I saw advertisements for the Aids Memorial Mass at St. Mark's and also for a weekly evening prayer group to offer prayer for those affected by AIDS. I attended a few of the prayer meetings. There were maybe a dozen of us and we sat in the sanctuary and Father Tony would have a list of names of people he had been in contact with who needed the offering of prayer. Sometimes he would elaborate a little about one or other person on the list and one person who has stuck in my memory was a young Muslim man who had become infected with AIDS. He had been rejected by his own family, by his faith community and by his relatives and was in a very dark place. Father Tony had reached out to him to tell him of God's love for him and we lifted him up in prayer.
I attended a few of the AIDS Memorial Masses which were held in the evening I think once a year. The church was absolutely packed and some of the AIDS memorial quilts were displayed on the carved wooden screen in the narthex.
At one of these Masses, I witnessed liturgical dance for the first time. I recall there being four female dancers, contemplative quiet music. The dance was dignified, calming and moved across the front of the sanctuary and then down the central isle and then back again to the front of the sanctuary. From memory I think that the liturgical dance took place just before the homily, but it could have been after the homily.