Community Appeals Underway at the moment
Friends, the office is receiving quite a few end of financial year appeals for support from local community organisations as well as our Uniting Church agencies. I thought I would post them here in case these are causes you would like to support.
Anam Cara House: https://www.givenow.com.au/anamcarahouse19
Barwon Health Foundation: https://barwonhealthfoundation.org.au/
Frontier Services Bush Chaplaincy:
https://frontierservices.org/the-trusted-friend-who-turns-up-at-the-gate/
UnitingWorld: https://www.unitingworld.org.au/keeping-hope-alive/
Sunday 24th May: Online worship – Easter 7
Greetings friends!
Lloyd and Deborah are presenting today’s worship and they would love you to start with singing along to this song – Praise and Worship people should know it well!
And now join Lloyd and Deborah for worship led from the Sanctuary at St Luke’s:
Don’t forget to check your email for today’s update including the link to our Zoom meeting for sharing time at 10am.
The most recent edition of the Presbytery Newsletter is now available here:
And you can also catch up on the latest news from Synod here:
Finally, a big shout out to everyone at St Luke’s who volunteers their time to the congregation and the wider community – this week is national Volunteer Week when we acknowledge the amazing contributions volunteers make to enriching our community – Thankyou for all you do!
#waveforvolunteers
Stay well friends, more news will be coming your way this week,
Grace and Peace,
Robyn for the St Luke’s Leadership Team.
Sunday 17th May – Online Worship: Easter 6
Greetings friends!
Today’s worship will be premiering on YouTube at 9:30am, followed by our first Zoom gathering. Details have been emailed and will also be posted in the Facebook Group.
The beautiful celtic flute playing in the prayers was by a group called Senor Cabrales, and here’s a little more of them:
For singing today why not join with the Notre Dame University Folk Choir? They’re joyous!
Verse 1
Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.Refrain
Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts.
Shine through the darkness.
Christ, be our light!
Shine in your church gathered today.Verse 2
Longing for peace, our world is troubled.
Longing for hope, many despair.
Your word alone has pow’r to save us.
Make us your living voice.Refrain
Verse 3
Longing for food, many are hungry.
Longing for water, many still thirst.
Make us your bread, broken for others,
shared until all are fed.Refrain
Verse 4
Longing for shelter, many are homeless.
Longing for warmth, many are cold.
Make us your building, sheltering others,
walls made of living stone.Refrain
Verse 5
Many the gifts, many the people,
many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another,
making your kingdom come.Refrain
© Bernadette Farrell 1993.
Uniting have made their newsletters available online and you can find them here:
Be sure to read them and if you are able please continue to donate to Uniting as their services will be more in demand than ever in these coming months.
The Uniting Church Synod has put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the COVID 19 restrictions and what congregations are able to do. You can find this information here.
Church Council are meeting online this Tuesday to review the changes in restrictions and see how they will impact St. Luke’s. The Annual Meeting of the Congregation remains deferred, however we hope to have the Annual Report for 2019 out to you sometime this coming week.
Please continue to pray and care for one another and for our wider community.
Looking forward to seeing you all on Zoom today at 10. The details have been emailed and are also available in the Facebook Group.
Grace and Peace to you!
Robyn
Sunday 3rd May – Online Worship: Easter 4
Greetings dear friends!
This week’s online worship is here, but it won’t be published until Sunday morning at 9am:
Thankyou to Paul and Colleen for presenting, and to Pam for her photo contributions, a rose is featured during the Lord’s Prayer, and Pam writes: “This is a symbol of remembrance of the wonder of God’s creation. (It is actually a bloom from the rose bush given to Beth [Allen] following Ken’s passing)”,
If you would like to hear the version of Psalm 23 that Paul mentioned today, you can find a beautiful recording here:
For a listening song, you might also enjoy this tune from Leigh Newton (if you haven’t already noticed, I’m becoming quite the fan!
We had our first Messy Church gathering via Zoom this week, and it was great to see the faces of our friends again after a long while! We’re looking forward to trying out a lot of new ideas for next time.
Bible Lego Challenge
Our Presbytery is running a Great Bible Lego Challenge!
This is the way it will work…
It starts on 2 May 2020. You are invited to form a team for the Presbytery Bible Lego Challenge. Your team can be a family group or other Lego enthusiasts that you are allowed to be with.
You can have no more than 4 people in your team. There are no restrictions on number of teams per ministry context, they just need an individual name. An example could be “Team Zero from East Geelong UCA.”
Each week for 6 weeks a new Lego challenge will be issued for teams to complete – this will be posted on our Presbytery Facebook Page each Sunday – Regenerating the Church – Port Phillip West Presbytery.
A full copy of the rules is available on our Facebook page or you can download it here:
Presbytery of Port Phillip West LEGO Challenge
There will be prizes… so come aboard and join the fun!
Presbytery has also begun producing a regular newsletter – you can find a copy here:
The Synod is also sending out more frequent e-news updates – here’s the latest one
Last year, our family watched this story on ABC’s Compass about a Minister in Surrey Hills trying out new ways of being in community, and of ministry. It got us thinking about different ways of ministry for St Luke’s, too.
Take care this week, friends – and don’t forget to send us your photos and contributions for online worship – we’d love to see photos of you “attending” church these days! Or perhaps you have some favourite photos or videos of Geelong or of the St Luke’s community you’d like to share.
Sunday 19th April: Easter 2 – Online Worship
Grace and Peace to you all, in the name of Jesus.
Heartfelt thanks to Linda Salamy for editing this week’s worship service so that I could catch up on some very behind university study! Thanks to Paul and Sue for presenting our worship today.
We also have many families from our Messy Church community who celebrate Orthodox Easter this weekend as part of their traditions – here are some special greetings from some of them!
If you are wanting to sing today, you might enjoy this favourite – “Be Thou My Vision”:
We also have some multi-sensory activities for you to do at home:
You might like to try dyeing your own eggs with Costa and friends:
Please keep in your prayers our partners in the Pacific, particularly Vanuatu, as they deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Harold. Here is an update from UnitingWorld about the impact of COVID19 on our partners from poorer nations:
Above all, we urge you to continue to uphold one another in prayer, and we pray that you and your loved ones stay safe and well, and know the transforming presence of Jesus through these challenging and uncertain times.
Sunday 5th April 2020 – Online Worship – Palm Sunday
Hello friends!
You can find our Palm Sunday worship on Youtube here:
In our second episode of Worship online, Paul shares a reflection on what Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem says about the kind of leader he is – a servant leader. In the turmoil of the COVID19 pandemic, what kind of service are you called to?
Linda leads us in prayers of the people and gives thanks for the people serving our community now, despite the risk to themselves and their families.
We meet Shaghek Qassabyan, our new Community Ministry Worker for St Luke’s.
For some music listening, please enjoy “From a Still Small Voice” performed by Leigh Newton, with thanks to Craig Mitchell for sharing!
Lent event
As the COVID19 pandemic ripples through our UnitingWorld’s partner countries, we are more conscious than ever of the need to support our neighbours who have much less than we do.
The future of our world depends on people of all faiths and backgrounds being able to work together for good. In Maluku, Ambon, Rev Jeny is working with high school students to train up leaders for our region who embrace difference, respect each other and have a passion for peace.
Today we’ll meet the students and hear about Rev Jeny’s inspiring work.
Please visit www.lentevent.com to help it continue. UnitingWorld continues to stand alongside people in Ambon and far beyond, and they need our help.
Please keep praying for Rev Jeny and her team, Mary, Attika, Petrus and Nyoman.
Resources for home
Linda Salamy has gathered some multi-sensory activities you can download and do from home in your devotional time.
Karen from Western Heights Uniting Church shows us how to fold our own paper palm crosses:
We hope you have a peaceful and reflective Holy Week – may God give you the wisdom and insight to discern how you might continue to bring light and hope in troubled times, and may you be well, may you be happy, may you be safe in Christ’s love.
Stay tuned later today for a special Kid’s Church edition of online worship!
Sunday 29th March – Worship online
Hello friends,
Here is our first completely socially-distanced online worship service:
We hope that you are safe at home and feeling connected even though we are physically distant. If you are looking for something to sing along to, you might enjoy this version of the Hymn “In Christ Alone”:
Lent Event
2 weeks ago, New Zealand commemorated the first anniversary of the Christchurch Massacre – a tragic reminder of the hatred, intolerance and misunderstanding in our communities, but also of the beauty of people pulling together to bring solace and solidarity. Today we meet three old friends – a mix of Muslim and Christian women for whom friendship across faith boundaries has proved rich and lifegiving. Do you know people of other faiths with whom you could have a (physically distant) meal and develop stronger relationships?
Next week: Blessed are the peacemakers
Message from the Moderator
Frontier Services February Update – Keeping Spirits High and bringing Relief
Be sure to pick up your copy of the latest Frontier Services update this week for all the latest on Bushfire relief and recovery.
https://frontierservices.org/news-media/media-resources/frontier-news/
