Weekly reflections

The beauty of being part of a team

Would you like to hear some good news? Last week in the 2022-23 Federal Budget the government announced an additional 16,500 places for Afghan refugees. You might remember back in January Immigration Minister Alex Hawke announced the government would allocate 15,000 visas over four years for Afghan nationals fleeing the Taliban -10,000 within the existing humanitarian program and 5,000 from the family stream. Groups such as Christians United For Afghanistan protested that this wasn’t enough and was simply taking places away Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Relay for Life

“G’day, Everyone! I won’t beat about the bush. After church this Sunday, come to the Open Table Lunch at the manse! We can talk about the three ships – fellowship, partnership and sportsmanship! Go ‘Relay for Life’!” That is my homage to John Clark’s wonderful children’s talk on Sunday – brilliantly executed by Kerstin Wallace and Stephen Gee! It was a wonderful service, so thankyou to John and to John! Captain’s calls don’t have the greatest reputation, but this was Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

A Gardening God

I may have taken Sunday’s passage (Luke 13:1-9) too literally! On Monday I spent several hours in the garden (at our house in Hughes) digging around the plants, weeding and pruning and I am definitely feeling the effects of it now! (There has been a lot of moaning and groaning each time I need to use my legs! A lot!) But the good news is I discovered lemons on our lemon tree (transplanted when we extended the house eight years Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

“where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”

Many years ago, when I was a young woman, very concerned about discovering the will of God for my life, I had a conversation with my father about what would happen if I fell in love with someone, but didn’t know if that was the person God intended me to marry. I remember my father saying, “Don’t you think that if you have fallen in love with that person, then perhaps that is the person God intends for you to Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Community Centre Report

Dear Friends, I am very thankful to James Cox who stepped in to preach on Sunday even though we weren’t – sadly – heading away on church camp. (We hope that another campring opportunity may be possible a little later in the year!) I am also very thankful for the way he opened up Romans 12:1-8 for us – his reflections on how the ordinary activity of our lives is spiritual; that what we do every day in our bodies Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Minister’s report

Dear Friends, Before you go any further – just wanting you to know that tonight at St Pauls, Manuka, at 7pm there will be a special prayer service for the Ukraine. Today is also Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent! At prayers this morning we read parts of Matthew 6, and Lucy drew our attention to the assumption the passage makes that, as people of faith, we do faith! We do alms giving (Matt 6:2). We do prayer (Matt Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Mission

Dear Friends, As many of you have heard, our lovely friend, Bev Galloway, died early yesterday (Tuesday 22nd February). She was able to come home from hospital last Friday and to spend her last few days with James, and her very good friend, Gina, and with her children and grandchildren coming and going from the house. She will be very missed. We are so thankful for all that she brought to the life of our church; her work on the Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Community

How is National Church Life Survey Week going? Have you taken 15-20 minutes to fill in one of the forms? This week – Sunday, 13th Feb to Sunday, 20th Feb – we are participating in the National Church Life Survey.  This survey has been carried out for the last 30 years and is the largest longitudinal church survey in the world! It will help us identify the ministries and activities that are important for us as a church, understand our Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago

Baptism

It is a steep climb down into our church baptistry! It is only three steps, but they take you down deep fast! I am curious if it was based on another architectural/theological feature of baptistries – that there should be three steps to represent being baptised, “in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” or whether they just wanted more room to move in the baptistry! There is a wealth of fascinating architectural detail in baptisteries. In her Read more

By Belinda Groves, ago