Elspeth Kernebone

25 August 2024

Naomi Johnson’s life revolves around the Eucharist. As sacristan at St Peter’s Eastern Hill, her job is to facilitate the liturgy, and for her, this role is a gift every day. After that, Ms Johnson spends most days studying for her Masters at Trinity College Theological School.

What is your job title? How long have you been doing this?

I joke that part of my job is moving objects from point A to point B. I take care of everything behind the scenes to ensure that the liturgies can proceed as intended.

This includes everything from taking care of the linens to setting them up and packing them up after Mass or taking care of the vestments. It’s everything that needs to be done so that the Mass can take place, so that the priests can come in and know that everything they need is exactly where they expect it.

There are also weddings and funerals. I will hold a service, hand out brochures, show people to the toilets and deal with all kinds of small emergencies. Someone might need a safety pin or a glass of water or might be feeling unwell.

Basically, it’s about being there to see what needs to happen and doing it before anyone else, and handing it over when the person realizes they need it.

How did you get to your current position? How do you think it fits into the bigger picture of God’s work in the world?

I found a home at St Peter’s as soon as I moved to Melbourne. I was in the choir pretty quickly and have since become an integral part of the congregation, quietly in the background, which has been a real blessing.

What I love about this place is the centrality of the Eucharist. We celebrate the Eucharist every single day of the year, and part of my job means I have to be present at the Eucharist. So my life literally revolves around me coming to morning prayer, receiving the Eucharist, and everything else flows from that.

I appreciate that the Eucharist is always the Eucharist, no matter what I contribute to it. It doesn’t matter if I’m distracted at Mass, if I’m mad at myself for forgetting to do some of my work, if I’m wrestling with faith issues, or if I’m super engaged. The Eucharist is always the Eucharist. And it’s always a gift and always a grace, regardless of what I contribute to it.

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We sit together in the morning before the Eucharist. And we say the morning prayer. And the Psalms are Psalms, and they offer us a gift. And sometimes we are in the mood to accept them and sometimes we are not, but this grace is always there.

I can come here and know that the sacrament is there, that our Lord is in his tabernacle in this sense, even though our Lord is just as present elsewhere. There is a sense of right, okay, everything is fine, because that is the same thing.

How do you think your role fits into the bigger picture of God’s work in the world?

In this role, I facilitate the liturgy to continue. This role means that the priests can just come in and know that everything is ready for Mass, everything is ready for the evening prayer. It means that they can devote themselves entirely to the liturgy, whatever it is. It is a behind-the-scenes role. But the role facilitates the liturgy, and that is the most important thing we do here.

Everything else we do here, our breakfast program with our homeless guests who come every morning, all our other ministries, spring from the Eucharist and the gift that we receive in the Eucharist. Being part of that, even on the fringes, and making it possible is a really important way of serving God’s work in the world. And it means that people can receive the Eucharist and then go out and do their own ministry, nourished by that experience.

The Eucharist is the real, embodied presence of our Lord in the world. We literally eat the presence of our Lord, we take it into our body, our own being, just as God takes our life into his being. So the Eucharist is this concrete experience of that. To me it means that we draw God’s life into our own life and in turn we are drawn into God’s life.

The fact that there are consecrated hosts sitting up there in that tabernacle. And we know they are there. And it is almost never empty. It is a concrete reminder of God’s presence in everything we do.

What is your dream for this position? What do you think is your calling?

I really appreciated being asked to write at St. Peter’s and being part of a group that writes weekly reflections for our church newsletter. That’s the kind of ministry I want to develop in the future: offering that kind of educational focus and getting more people to offer that kind of work so that people can have a different or deeper connection to Scripture.

I love the Old Testament, so if more people would talk about the Old Testament, I would be really happy. But I would love to see really well-educated lay people, and lay people who have access to the educational opportunities that I was fortunate enough to have had.

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I take this time in my life to pray and reflect and walk the path with trust, knowing that I am being led on a path and that this path is a path of love and comes from God. I would like to do more academic work, I don’t know if that is part of the ordained ministry or not. I know that I cannot imagine a life away from a church like this.

I cannot imagine not being involved in such a community and building my life around the Eucharist in prayer. What that looks like is in God’s hands at this stage.

What inspires you in your work?

I’m very lucky to have people around me who encourage me so much. I’m thankful to God every day for the people around me. Father Michael, who is the pastor here, is a brilliant, brilliant person, a wonderful priest, a great spirit. He’s a mentor and very encouraging.

I’ve made some good friends here. There’s a small community here, a very loving, caring community. This is one of the places in the world where I can be myself. And that’s not something I take for granted. Having a community of prayer and a community around the Eucharist is really important to me.

But also the rhythm of prayer and Mass here is very, very invigorating. Even when I can’t be here, I know that at different times I am praying Evening Prayer and Compline with Christians all over the world and am involved in a community that is really invigorating.

What would you like to share with Christians in Melbourne about your work?

I want people in Melbourne to know that this place exists and what it offers. And that it just consistently and objectively offers grace.

That it is not because I hear from many Christians, “I did not pray because I did not feel God’s presence, or I did not take communion because I was not in the right mood.” It makes me so sad when I hear something like that, because it is always there. It is always objective. It is like the ground.

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