Weekly News 25/4/2024

Weekly News 02/05/2024

This Week’s Messages from Rev Allison

*An invitation to discernment 

The discernment process that began earlier this year is concluding soon. Elsewhere in this week’s news, you will see that a special congregational meeting is scheduled for Sunday 19^th May. The purpose of this meeting is to approve the four mission strategies outlined in the Minister’s Report to the AGM in February.  Please contact me if you have not received that report, or if you have questions about the process. 

*Sunday 5^th May 

Readings – 1 Corinthians 13:1 – 13; Mark 12:28-31
We will celebrate communion together, so if you are participating online remember to prepare some bread and juice (or another drink) so you can participate alongside the congregation in the church. 

*Study leave 

I will be taking each Monday in May as study leave, to finish coursework for the subject I am currently taking at theological college. 

*Hunter Community Alliance (HCA)

Take a look at this wonderful video, summarising the HCA Founding Assembly on 10^th April. It is a great demonstration of the breadth and strength of the representation from across the Hunter, and the presence of our Uniting Church.  

Prayer for Peace 

Please see the Blog on this website.

Presbytery Prayer for this Week – Each week we have been asked to pray for a particular church in The Hunter Presbytery area. This week we pray for: –

5th May 2024 Charlestown – Garden Suburb Uniting Church

Charlestown Garden Suburb Congregation is an older congregation with attendance hovering around 40 each Sunday morning. Like many we are grappling with issues regarding finance and property. However, we have a strong desire to leave a legacy, and so

have committed to forming relationships and participating in ventures outside of our own walls in a mission we are calling “Neos”. As a beginning, we have “Coffee in the Community” at two shopping centres each week and participate in the Hunter Community

Alliance.

Prayer: We pray for the leaders and congregation of Charlestown Garden Suburb Uniting Church as they seek to engage with the community in new ways so that they might give life to something new that will contribute to an ongoing expression of the love of God and the ethos of the Uniting Church in their area. Amen.

Notices for the Coming Weeks

Poem

Firstly, a poem by Hafiz. See if this doesn’t make you smile and dance!

I sometimes forget

that I was created for Joy.

My mind is too busy.

My heart is too heavy

for me to remember

that I have been

Called to dance

the sacred dance of life.

I was created to smile.

To Love.

To be lifted up

and lift up others.

O’ Sacred One

untangle my feet

from all that ensnares.

Free my soul

that we might

Dance

And that our dancing

might be contagious.

-Hafiz

Uniting Climate Conference – Saturday May 11th

Please click on this link for more information https://comms.nswact.uca.org.au/v/47004/2134765/email.html?k=833stXKbNWwP9B0ES_A3JDDPZrlw1dX6QDwBcdBpQlI

Workshop for Thriving as a Small Church Saturday May 11th 

Please see Coming Events on this website

A Message from Russel re Suicide Prevention Workshops May 15th and 16th 

Please note that this workshop has been cancelled

Understanding Grief, Loss and Change – Friday May 31^st

Please see Coming Events on this website

The Official Opening of the Diocesan Resource Centre and Library AND The 2024 TWEC Dinner
Please see Coming Events on this website

Dates for your Diary

Singing Practice – Friday May 3rd at 10am

Christian Meditation – Friday May 3rd at 11am

Sunday Worship Service –Sunday May 5th at 9am – Rev Allison Forrest (Communion and monthly Community Outreach Fund)

Prayer for Peace – Sunday May 5th – in your own home

Long Tan Communion – Wednesday May 8th at 10am

Kinship Carers – Thursday May 9th 

Social Justice Meeting – Monday May 13th at 10am

Property Meeting – Monday May 13th at 3pm

Jan’s Thought for the Week

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

Prayers for the Week

Sunday

Let us give thanks for Rev Allison and also pray for her as she lives and works with us here in Lake Macquarie.

Monday 

Thank our wise God who chose each one of us, knowing our varying gifts and placed us here together.

Tuesday

With some of the things happening in the world, I again offer a Prayer Principle I return to frequently.  Author Robert Warren talks about us sometimes not feeling like praying and then says “But we feel many other things.  We feel sad, angry, relieved, joyful, anxious, puzzled.  To pray, all we need to do is harness that emotional energy as fuel that lifts our prayers, and ourselves, to God.”

Wednesday

Thinking of the Hunter Community Alliance and its formative time now.  Let us prayerfully consider all that, together, they/we hope to achieve.

Thursday

Let us pray for all those who are travelling.

Friday

As you pray for our church’s work through its groups, would you include, please, our TUC Prayer Chain as we pray for those who have requested prayer for something going on in their lives.  Pray for strength and insight to continue in the way of our call to prayer.

Saturday

Express to our Lord, our gratitude for Lay Preachers, retired Ministers and others for their wonderful work bringing The Word to congregations without a Minister, be it for one day or for a much longer period.