Don Dowling's Blog

Don's Blog

Hi all

I sat in church on Monday morning for a little while and listened to Graham Oxley, the pianist I told you about last week, play. I have to say, it was very pleasurable. Not only is he an accomplished pianist, but also the acoustics of our church make for a wonderful sound. It was incredibly meditative and a appropriate prayerful way to start the day. If you happen to be in the city at this time of the morning (8.15 – 8.45) I invite you to share the experience.

It is now official! Our Flower Festival will take place from Thursday 29^th of September to Sunday 2^nd October. Margaret Murdoch has agreed to coordinate this event and we will want to have a team of people helping us. For those who have not heard me talk about this before, Floreat Uniting Church put on their “Floral Carpet” last year but felt they could only do it every second year so invited us to have a similar event at Wesley this year. The basic idea is to form a floral display coming down the isle and going up into the raised area at the front of the church. I have pictures of the Floreat display and it looks stunning. So if Margaret taps you on the shoulder to lend a helping hand please oblige, as it will be a wonderful event. It will take on some of the form of our ‘Stations of the Cross’ art exhibition, as we will invite people to come into the church to see the display. More will emerge as time goes by.

Chris Crause and I spend two days this week listening to Rev Dave Male, an Anglican Priest from England, talking about ways the church can connect with those who don’t normally connect with the church. It was noteworthy that in the UK, and I know here as well, that there are now large numbers of people who do not have any religious, Christian or otherwise, understanding or experience, and almost the same number have never been in a church, other than maybe a wedding or a funeral. There is now a huge generation who are completely unaware of what churches do and are for. As he said, “People don’t wake up on a Sunday morning and think, ‘I wonder if I will go to church today?’, Church is not even part of their thinking pattern.” As it was pointed out to us we now have a whole generation whose parents never took their children to Sunday School or any religious event. Dave shared with us some of the ways his particular church, called, ‘The Net’ made significant connections with what he called the ‘unchurched’. You can see more at: http://www.netchurch.org.uk. As you would expect I not only gained some valuable ideas for Wesley, but also felt very affirmed because some of the things we do are exactly those things that help us make those significant connections.

After attending this seminar it did become very obvious to me that one of the significant ministries of our church is our “Open Doors”, or Friends of Wesley as it is also known. This is where members of the congregation come and sit in the church and are ‘available’ to have conversations with those who visit our church, should the need arise. When I spend time in the church I am constantly surprised not only by the number who enter the church but by those who would like a conversation. We desperately need more volunteers in this area. At the moment we have a great group of faithful people who come every week and are quiet witnesses. The coordinator of this ministry is Reg Lincoln and he would be ‘over the moon’ if you were interested. The time spent can be from a couple of hours through to 4 hours, depending on your availability. If you need contact details, either see me or contact my PA Judy Muskett on 6103 4222 or judym@ucic.org.au.

It was great to have a small number of Children@Wesley last week and we will endeavour to continue it every week. I am very appreciative of the for the time and energy of Mal Mohan as she provides a wonderful atmosphere for the children to learn something of God’s love. I loved the picture they produced at the end of last weeks service. I am sure that Mal would appreciate help from time to time and if you are interested please let her know.

I look forward to catching up with you on Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister, Don

Sunday 3^rd July 2011

8.30am Discussion Group.

10.00am Morning Worship – A Reflection on “Come to me all who are weary” Holy Communion.