Don Dowling's Blog

Don's Blog

Hi All,

Aaah I’m back and rearing to go!!. That’s mostly true as Kay and I had a great break. We managed to catch up with all of our grandchildren (all 16 with one on the way) and spend some time down south. We also managed a trip to Margaret River staying with friends whose house just escaped the fire. (I made a small video clip while I was there which you can see if you go to: (http://youtu.be/D2EuB6d1ilg)

I managed to play 9 holes of golf, ride a bike for 20ks and surf at the mouth of Margaret River. So all in all a great break…..did I also mention that we had morning tea a Yahava Coffee house and lunch at the Swooping Magpie winery. It was all a bit hard really!

So now it’s back to work and there are quite a few things to do. Even though we probably don’t want to think about Easter at the moment, it is not that far away and we are again hosting 15 West Australian Artists. I will be meeting with Catherine Cwerz, our curator, in the next couple of weeks to receive a list of those participating. It promises to be just as exciting again this year.

I have started gentle conversations with a few people regarding holding a week of prayer, much along the lines that happened at Chogm. I was thinking we might be able to do this around the season of Pentecost, but more on this later.

I heard through the wonderful support of Jan Carrick that a number of people were not well while I was away. I am hoping to make contact with all those going through rough times at the moment. Needless to say you are all in out thoughts and prayers.

Tuesday morning at 7.00am this week saw me at St George’s College Chapel in Crawley conducting morning devotions for those attending the Royal School of Church Music Conference. It was meant to be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, but as you would understand this was not possible, so the WA group offered to have it in Perth. I will be present again on Saturday at 7.00am to offer a second time of devotion. Which leads me to the best part of having RSCM here in Perth. On Sunday morning a choir of 90+people will be taking part in our 10.00am worship service. We will be having communion and the choir will be singing Schubert’s Mass in G Major. It should be an amazing morning of music. As they are so large in number they will be singing from the gallery.

Some sad news is that the service of Anglicare’s Step 1 (The Bus outside Wesley) will be concluding at the end of February. The Step 1 people have formed significant relationships with the young people and this means there will be a substantial gap in meeting their needs. We have made representation to the Minister, Robyn McSweeny and we are having conversations with Uniting Care West but the short term it does not look good. Please keep us in your prayers that we might find a way to continue to connect with them.

As I gradually get back into the swing of things my prayer is that this will be a great year of worship, ministry and mission with many opportunity’s to share our journey of faith with those around us.

I look forward to catching up with you all soon.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister,

Don

Sunday 15^th January 2012

10.00am.– Worship at Wesley with Guests from the Royal School of Church Music

Reflecting on ‘a funny conversation’