Don's Blog
Hi All,
If you haven’t seen it already and would like to catch up on the Floral Festival you can go to http://vimeo.com/29769389
Many, many thanks to all those who helped us with the Festival. Margaret and Bruce Murdoch, Louise and Norman Miller, Merylyn and Bill Lucas, Rev Lee Edwards, Jan Carrick and Christine Nicholas, to name but a few. There were so many people, who helped put it together, including our friends from St George’s Cathedral, St John’s Lutheran church, the Catholic church in Highgate and our Crossroaders. With our own volunteers it made for a exhausting, but great few days. Thank you again to all those who helped make it a success.
I can tell you that many significant conversations were had. One of them deeply disturbed me. I had invited one of the young people, who meet outside the church, to come and have a look. He came and enjoyed what he saw. We then sat down and we had a coffee and scone together. In the course of the conversation we talked about making films, (a favourite hobby of mine). He shared with me that he wanted to make a documentary about youth homelessness and then went on to share that one of the young homeless women of the group outside had recently had a miscarriage and had secretly placed the foetus in one of the small lakes over by the narrows. A distressing incident as you could imagine but I realised that because we were there he felt comfortable enough to share his distress.
I also witnessed many other conversations taking place, with some who were lonely, some who were visiting, and some who came from other churches. In the end I have no doubt that we made a difference in those conversations because we were there. May they long continue.
On a personal note, I was privileged to be part of the Council of Churches of Western Australia (CCWA) General Meeting last Saturday where I was awarded a Lund Award for Ecumenical Excellence. It was awarded in recognition of the help he provided to the Perth Prayer Group who use Wesley for their prayer meetings. To Read more, visit http://www.churcheswa.com.au/2011/10/uniting-church-minister-receives-lund-award/.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHoGM) is the next big event to occupy our hearts and minds. Wesley in conjunction with the Commonwealth Prayer Initiative, an ecumenical group, is hosting events 24 hours a day from Monday 24th to Saturday 29th October. During the week there will be lots of prayers in different styles, including Taize and ‘Lively Liturgy’. There will be special presentations of choirs, dancers ranging from African to Asian. There will be concerts, organ recitals, Harp recitals and lots, lots more. If you would like to see a programme of events please go to our web page and you will see a link to ‘Converge’ which gives a very detailed plan of what is happening.
The most exciting event will be the unveiling of our ‘Tree of life sculpture by Rod Laws on Monday 24th. Engraved on the plinth will be prayers of peace from children around the world.
On Thursday 27th there will be a presentation by the Winthrop Singers. Also of special note will be the Salvation Army Songsters, Band and Timbals offering hymns on Thursday 27th at 7pm. As you know this is the band that I am part of so I am looking forward to being involved. The whole event concludes with a ‘Celebration of the Nations’ service at 5pm at St George’s Cathedral. What a week it will be!!
In order for me to rest up before CHoGM I am taking a couple of weeks leave and heading down south. During this time our preachers will be Rev. Tom Wilson, Rev Dr Bill Jenkins and Rev Lee Edwards.
See you in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading.
From your minister,
Don
Sunday 9th October
8.30am Discussion Group
10.00am. Worship – “Be Ready” led by Rev Tom Wilson
8.30am Discussion Group
10.00am. Worship – “Giving to God” led by Rev Dr Bill Jenkins
8.30am Discussion Group
10.00am. Worship – led by Rev Lee Edwards
