St Luke's Uniting Church, Highton
St Luke's is a congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia, located in Highton, Geelong.
Here is the Congregation Connect Newsletter from Uniting Victas:
Congregation Connect Winter 2020
Read on to hear how local UC congregations are supporting the work of Uniting.
Our own community appeal for Food donations has increased the amount of food donations arriving to the Grovedale Emergency Assistance program – be sure to share our Facebook or Blog post with your friends who would like to help.
We’ve hunted teddy bears and drawn rainbows – now that long winter nights are here, what better time to bust out the Christmas lights to bring a bit of joy and show our support for everyone working to keep our community safe. You could string up a heart, a rainbow, or a message of love and light – use your imagination!
Take a photo of your lights and send them to info@stlukesuca.org.au – get your street involved and let’s share hope in Highton!
Dear Friends,
Matthew 11: 28 … which is sometimes called “The great invitation” contains a hope-filled message for our time.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus invites us to come to him because he is here for us’ Come to him and not to those who actually pile up the burdens, who add to the worries.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens…” In other words, we don’t have to come to Jesus when we have it all sorted out, when we have got our religion right, our faith right, when we are in great shape … No … Jesus invites us to come as we are right now … with all our baggage … all our fears and anxieties … all our limitations and sins … all that ails us …
Jesus says, “… I will give you rest …”
This rest is more than a break from work and activity, the Greek word that is translated “rest” is “anapausis” and evokes the experience of weary travellers finding an oasis in the desert.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
Surely a word for our time.
Paul.
A special welcome to the members of the Belmont Congregation of the Uniting Church who are sharing with us this week and next week, while Rev. Ikani Vaitohi is enjoying a couple of weeks of very well-deserved leave.
We are reflecting this week on the experience of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, migrants … those who have left their places of birth and set out on journeys to new lands.
As part of this service you will hear the story of Shoghig Araboglian and her family. We are very grateful to Shoghig for sharing her story so that we can all grow in our understanding.
Thanks to Sue, Shoghig, Marina and Shaghek for helping to present worship today. Thanks also to The String Contingent for granting permission to use their evocative music in today’s video presentation – an amazing and generous group of musicians, some of whom have spent time in Afghanistan teaching music at the Afghan National Institute of Music in 2016.
For a song today you might enjoy this version of “The Blessing” sung by people from churches all over Australia, including some Uniting Churches and some Geelong churches – an ecumenical project!
If you would like to hear more stories from refugees in Australia, see these stories recommended by the Refugee Council of Australia:
Some local folk who have attended the Sacred Edge Festival in the past will recognise Mariam Issa, a “festival favourite” introducing a Global Storytelling night for Refugee Week 2020:
You might like to make this your “Family Movie night” this week!
And:
May the grace of Christ attend you,
the love of God surround you,
and the Holy Spirit keep you,
this day and forever.
Amen.
Here is the recording of last week’s combined celebration service for those who missed it:
As the ripples of COVID-19 restrictions continue to be felt in our community, Uniting’s Emergency Assistance pantries are experiencing higher demand. Now that we no longer gather each Sunday in person, the number of food donations to Uniting from St. Luke’s is dropping.
But! You can still help!
The church office is open between 10am and 12 noon on Tuesdays and Fridays to receive donations in our trolley – these are take to Uniting by Jean Daw who is a regular volunteer there.
Jean has advised that the following items are currently needed:
The regular list of items for you to add to your shopping includes:
Please remember to:
Your donation of a few items from your weekly shopping makes a huge impact on our ability to help people in need – thanks for your support!
Synod Communications team is continuing to produce Crosslight, however while the current lockdowns are in place, it will only be available online, as either a “flip book” (which can be read on screen) or as a printable PDF. The June “Flip book”edition is available at:
https://issuu.com/ ucavictas/docs/2020cross_06june
We hope to resume publishing the printed version of Crosslight for the next edition in August. News and feature stories are posted to Crosslight’s website on a regular basis available at: www.crosslight.org.au
Dear friends,
As we prepare to re-open our buildings and find new ways of gathering together, the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania have a team of people working on providing advice to congregations about how to proceed.
I encourage everyone involved in Ministry and Mission at St Luke’s to become familiar with these regular updates so that any face to face gathering you are involved in is organised in a way that will keep all participants safe.
This weekly update can be found on the Synod Website here and is updated every Thursday. There is a pastoral letter for the moderator at the beginning of the update linked below which I encourage you to read:
Currently Church Council is working through a recovery checklist to ensure that we are ready to safely open the buildings again. The areas we must consider include:
As you can appreciate, some of these are tricky issues to address. For now, we have set up a station in the foyer where we ask everyone attending the building to sanitise their hands and sign in and out of the building. This is so that we can contact anyone who may have been potentially exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 as soon as we are made aware.
Posters have been placed around the building advising people on the steps we must take to keep everyone safe while we are in the building. We will keep you advised of other measures as we put them in place.
If you wish to use the St Luke’s buildings to meet or for other church business, please contact Robyn to arrange booking the space and to receive any further information you will need to host the activity safely.
Grace and Peace to you all,
Robyn.
For personal daily reflection, we offer this Daily Examen from Amelia Koh Butler
to help your daily connection with God.
If you wish to join in with the Wednesday morning prayer gathering on Zoom, please contact Robyn for the meeting details: info@stlukesuca.org.au
From our friends at Christ Church in Geelong:
Don’t miss the Winter Woolies and Wonders Market
at Christ Church Hall, cnr Moorabool and McKillop Streets, Geelong…
on Saturday 27th June 2020 from 9.30am- 1.30pm….
including –
… and lots more too!
….social distancing and all health restrictions will be met, and there’s lots of on site parking! …don’t miss this great opportunity to get that special present for that special someone.. or for yourself! …
…don’t miss the 2020 Woolies Market!
