Don's Blog

Hi all.

The excitement builds as we count down the days leading up to the Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition.
On Monday afternoon the tour guides came together for the first time this year and we received a peek viewing into some of the artists and their work. Catherine Czerw, our Curator, shared some hints and led us through an exciting presentation as we prepared for the exhibition.
On Wednesday, Catherine and I and Rev Viv Larkin, visited three more of the artists. It was refreshing to hear and see how each of the artists is processing the issues surrounding the journey of Jesus to the Cross. The question of how we “deal with our mortality” was there with all three artists. Each one entered that question very subjectively, conscious as one artist quietly said, “We all die”.
The woman I mentioned last week did die and will be sadly missed, particularly by her daughter. We hope to have a funeral either Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

From this and other experiences I realize that we leave behind us a legacy and in the end we choose whether it is a positive one, with deep loving as a consequence or a less helpful one where estrangement, sadness and hurt are the only memories.

Thanks for Reading.
Don

Sunday 28th February. During the Service I will be interviewed by Paul Coates using the questions that were gleaned from members of the congregation last year. It should be fun. I will also be offering a reflection on “Blessing”.

Opening night for the Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition will be 6pm Friday 26th March.
Please let Kerri know on admin@ucic.org.au or 6103 4222 if you would like to attend.

Volunteers for Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition.

We are still interested in receiving expressions of interest from those who would like to act as volunteers, either just to ‘be there’ or to be ‘Tour Guides’. The Exhibition will be open from 9am till 5pm from Saturday 27th March through to Monday 5th April.
Please contact Revd. Lee Edwards at leerev@optusnet.com.au if you are interested.

For the ‘Tour Guides’ there will be an initial briefing at 4pm, Monday 22nd February and then the final briefing in the presence of the 2010 artworks at 5pm, Thursday 25th March.

8.30am Discussion Group.

A reminder for some that the 8.30 service is still happening. A small group gathers, we get a ‘good’ coffee from across the road and then sit together for 45 mins and talk about the Gospel reading for the day. It's really a ‘chat with the minister' or could be seen as 'minister's corner'. It a great time for me, not only because I get a coffee to get me going but we get to think more about the reading and discuss it’s impact on us. Please feel free to join us.

Don's Blog

Hi all.

This week I had the real privilege of sitting with an elderly woman who was dying. Some of you may know her. After walking quietly into her room and noticing that she was drifting in and out of sleep I sat by her bed. After a little while I said who I was and used the word Wesley, hoping she would give some sign of recognition. That was not to be. I noticed a very tattered, well-used old bible next to her bed and on opening there was a message on the inside cover that it was a gift from her mother. I decided to read Psalm 23, always a favourite when death seems not far away. It gave me a sense of calmness. I offered a prayer and a blessing for the journey ahead.

I did not really want to leave and so for a while continued to sit quietly, sometimes touching her hand, letting her know I was there.

I noticed a guest book next to her bed and decided to take a liberty and look through the pages. The entries went back quite a few years. I noticed the many visits from her daughter and each time there was a special comment, either about the dress her mother was wearing or the things they had talked about during the visit. It was moving and touching to read the little notes each one a gentle entry of love.

Then I started to recognize names mentioned in other entries. People from Wesley, Reg and Bev, Dorothy, Evadne, Bruce and Margaret, the Tuesday singers and many others. I felt deeply proud of the love and friendship that Wesley was able to provide. Her and our lives were truly blessed by our connection.

Her daughter arrived and we sat together talking and remembering her mother’s life and I heard more of the connection with Wesley, her marriage ceremony during a Sunday morning service and the many things in which she and her husband had been involved.

As I walked away from the hospital that morning, I felt incredibly peaceful. Death in this sense is peaceful and I wondered and hoped that I might be able to have this kind of death. It's not always the case. A person I was reading about this week said of life. "I view everything from the perspective of my death". It reminded me that, for Jesus, death was on his mind a great deal, particularly as he approached Jerusalem.

As we enter into Lent, we enter again this journey to death and beyond. My prayer is that as we continue to understand this journey it may enrich and bless our lives so that the wisdom we gain can be shared with those who seek it.

Thanks for Reading.

Don

Opening night for the Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition will be 6pm Friday 26^th March.

Please let Kerri know on admin@ucic.org.au or 6103 4222 if you would like to attend.

Volunteers for Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition.

We are still interested in receiving expressions of interest from those who would like to act as volunteers, either just to ‘be there’ or to be ‘Tour Guides’. The Exhibition will be open from 9am till 5pm from Saturday 27th March through to Monday 5th April.

Please contact Revd. Lee Edwards at leerev@optusnet.com.au if you are interested.

For the ‘Tour Guides’ there will be an initial briefing at 4pm, Monday 22nd February and then the final briefing in the presence of the 2010 artworks at 5pm, Thursday 25th March.

8.30am Discussion Group.

A reminder for some that the 8.30 service is still happening. A small group gathers, we get a ‘good’ coffee from across the road and then sit together for 45 mins and talk about the Gospel reading for the day. It's really a ‘chat with the minister' or could be seen as 'minister's corner'. It a great time for me, not only because I get a coffee to get me going but we get to think more about the reading and discuss it’s impact on us. Please feel free to join us.

STATION OF THE CROSS Art Exhibition.

Go to http://www.perthunitingchurch.com.au/viewStory/Wesley to see a list of participating artists

Don's Blog

Hi all.

Update on the Stations

I have now visited 6 of the artists who are participating in our ‘Stations of the Cross’ art exhibition. From the artworks seen so far we are in for a very good exhibition.

Station number one, ‘Jesus is condemned’ By Karin Wallace shows a picture of a raven’s claw, (ravens are a common biblical image) and surrounding this image Karin has painstakingly written, using an old family pen with a nib that you dip in an inkwell, the Luke account of Jesus being condemned by a pilot and the crowd calling for Barabbas. It is vert delicate and took her hours and hours to do, but done with loving affection for the story. In a section of the painting she has gone over the text making it a little darker and subsequently forming the shape of a large cross with the Raven claw image in the middle. I was very moved by the effort and the way she has presented this Station. It is truly a labour of love.

No less stunning was Wendy Lilje’s ‘Station number 10, Jesus is stripped’. She has created a ceramic bust of a Jesus figure from the waist up. What is stunning is that the figure, stripped to the waist and slightly bent over depicts a very vulnerable Jesus. Whilst the figure can be viewed from the front, the most powerful view is from the back. She wanted to say that at that point that Jesus was stripped he became very vulnerable and that in our lives when sometimes we are stripped of the things that are dear to us we become vulnerable. It seems to me that she was also saying that at the point of our vulnerability, we place ourselves in the hands of God as Jesus did.

One of the ‘surprises that keeps happening as I have conversations with the artists, some of whom are not connected to the church, is that they give us a truth about the journey of Jesus that is profound. What I am also finding is that the artists make connections with their ‘Station’ and their own journey in life. It appears, that by taking on this project they have entered into a special place that helps them find meaning.

I guess you could say that we, by offering this opportunity to them, have offered them a great blessing.

Opening night for the Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition will be 6pm Friday 26^th March.

Please let Kerri know on admin@ucic.org.au or 6103 4222 if you would like to attend.

Volunteers for Stations of the Cross Art Exhibition.

We are still interested in receiving expressions of interest from those who would like to act as volunteers, either just to ‘be there’ or to be ‘Tour Guides’. The Exhibition will be open from 9am till 5pm from Saturday 27th March through to Monday 5th April.

Please contact Revd. Lee Edwards at leerev@optusnet.com.au if you are interested.

For the ‘Tour Guides’ there will be an initial briefing at 4pm, Monday 22nd February and then the final briefing in the presence of the 2010 artworks at 5pm, Thursday 25th March.

8.30am Discussion Group.

A reminder for some that the 8.30 service is still happening. A small group gathers, we get a ‘good’ coffee from across the road and then sit together for 45 mins and talk about the Gospel reading for the day. It's really a ‘chat with the minister' or could be seen as 'minister's corner'. It a great time for me, not only because I get a coffee to get me going but we get to think more about the reading and discuss it’s impact on us. Please feel free to join us.

Thanks for reading.

Don