Don's Blog

Hi All,

Today, (Thursday 24th May) as I write, I am mindful that on this day we remember the conversion of John Wesley, when he uttered the famous words, “my heart was strangely warmed”. From time to time I remember his experience and realise that the church we worship and meet in would not be here had it not been for that experience of John Wesley and the people who follow his vision. We give thanks to God.

Tonight at Wesley we celebrate the work of John Wesley through special prayers, re-enacting some of his life and by singing some of his brothers special hymns.  People from various to denominations are coming to Wesley to help us celebrate. It begins at 7.00 pm so I hope you might take the opportunity to come and see.

This event of course has been part of ‘Converge 2012’ and it has been wonderful to see the various activities and events happening in and outside of the church. If you would like to see a photograph of me with some of the knitters please go to our website; http://www.perthunitingchurch.com.au/viewStory/Wesley.

Convergent began yesterday and at lunchtime we had a special speaker Mr Graham Power at our Perth Prayer lunchtime gathering. Graham is a South African businessman who began a movement, which has now spread to many countries. He became aware of the need to gather together Christians from many denominations to pray for his nation. Over a period of years this has now developed into many people from many nations praying for their particular countries. His message was inspiring.

This morning I attended our monthly ‘Ministers from the City’ breakfast and our special agenda item was to discuss together some of the things we wanted to discuss with our Mayor, Lisa Scafidi, who will be attending our next months meeting. It will be good to have a conversation with her about our churches and our relationship with the City of Perth.

After this meeting I attended a group gathering, held in our UCIC Centre, of Minister groups from the wider metropolitan area. It was good to hear the stories of what others are doing and how they are working together ecumenically. Following this meeting, I and three Anglican priests, spent an hour singing the psalms in plainsong. It was a fascinating experience and I loved it, especially singing with others and singing the Psalms. Again this was part of the ‘Converge 2012’ event.

Last Sunday evening 25 Armenian people gathered together to hold their first worship service in our church. A guest minister came from the Armenian Uniting church in Sydney and our own Rev Emmanuel Audishio, who speaks fluent Armenian, joined him. It was a good occasion and the beginnings of we hope will be many services for them.

I have already shared with you that Joyce Roberts died this week and I was very glad that the Rev Geoff Blyth was able to be there with her and the family in their time of need. At the time of writing I am still waiting to hear about her funeral.

I have also been in contact with Uniting Church Homes and between us we are organising the funeral of Michael Daly. Once I have this confirmation I will also share that with you to.

I look forward to seeing you either at the special John Wesley Celebration tonight or our Crossroaders Service this Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister,

Don

Don's Blog

Hi All,

Thanks to all those who helped last Sunday as we celebrated Mother’s Day. Special thanks to Mal, and the children, as they presented the wonderful flowers for our mother’s. I did receive some great comments about the Mother’s Day video clip. Thank you.

For those of you who were not there last Sunday it was an emotional farewell for John Beaverstock, who has been our organist for nearly 14 years. Thank you to those who helped me with the presentation, especially the Murdoch’s and Alison McCubbin. If you were wondering what gifts we gave John, I had heard that he liked reading history books so I was able to obtain a book about Perth and Fremantle, a book on Winston Churchill, a book on Leningrad, and a book about the Antarctic explorer Mawson, plus one more book the name of which I have forgotten the moment. My hope is that he will enjoy reading them.

I began my week preparing for a funeral, the mother of a past Wesley College student, I conducted Graeme and Stephanie marriage 23 years ago and baptised his two sons at Wesley College. I distinctly remember their wedding, as it was the one and only occasion in my ministry life that I had a couple sign the wrong marriage certificate. I spent a distressing evening trying to find them to rectify the situation. We still laugh about it, some 23 years later. Graeme’s mother was quite elderly and lived a good life so the funeral was a special celebration. One of the fascinating incidences that happened after the funeral was four couples independently came up to me and reminded me that I had conducted their weddings all of them over 20 years ago. A little bit scary to think that I did that so long ago, but I was joyful to see them and their happiness together now. I was mildly pleased that I might have got them right!

I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had prepared a video clip on making ministry happened. You can see the video if you go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ZiDEcihh0

This Sunday I will be showing that video clip during our worship service. The following Sunday we celebrate Pentecost Sunday with our Crossroaders. I am looking forward to hearing and seeing them all again as they worship with us. During the service I will interview Lillian Hadley, a long serving member of the Uniting Church in many roles. However she is currently chairperson of the Board of Crossroads and so I will be talking to her about this role.

This coming week on Wednesday we begin “Converge”. A multidenominational activity running from 6.00am in the morning through to midnight. The event is twofold in that we will see people outside the church knitting. They are going to ‘knit bomb’ the church. Come and see if you want to understand more. Inside the church will be various church groups organising prayer meetings in varied styles. Everything from quiet meditative prayer right through to the livelier prayer from our African friends.

A special night for us is the celebration of the conversion of John Wesley on Thursday evening at seven o’clock (24^th May). During this service they will be a dramatized reading and prayers remembering the life and work of John Wesley.

Just a reminder for those who would like to hear more of the music of the Wesley family, St George’s Cathedral is conducting a special evensong this Sunday, 20 May at 5 PM. At that service there will be a guest preacher, who I am told has a breadth of knowledge about the Wesley’s. Past students from Methodist Ladies College and Wesley College will also join us.

The following week Wednesday 30^th and Thursday 31^st Wesley will host a labyrinth in the church. We are moving the pews to the side of the church and placing a 7.5 metre square labyrinth in the middle of the church. A labyrinth is a prayer walk and I invite you to come and experience it while we have it in the church.

This coming Saturday I am involved in a training event at the Church Centre in east Perth. I will be teaching people the how to make a small video clip that can be used in worship or for webpages. It is hoped that by the end of the day we will have three video clips that can be placed on the Synod website on the topic: ‘What the uniting Church means to me’. The group of 10 includes people from Bridgetown and my colleague Chris Crause

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister,

Don

Sunday 20th May

8.30am Discussion Group in the Guild Room

10.00am Worship – The Seventh Sunday of Easter. Reflecting on “Unity”

Sunday 27th May

8.30am Discussion Group in the Guild Room

10.00am Worship – Our Annual Crossroads service.

Don's Blog

Hi All,

What an enjoyable week. Some preparation, some meetings, some planning, some organizing upcoming events. Let me share with you some happenings.

You may remember that last year UCIC took over the Warehouse Cafe and entered into an agreement with Crossroads for them to operate the cafe again.  The statement that we prepared said; “UnitingCare Crossroads in partnership with the Uniting Church in the City have proposed a new initiative to give clients the opportunity to learn new living skills, give primary carers respite and at the same time help with the integrating of Crossroaders into the community at large.  This project will be based at the Warehouse Café.”

The good news is that since that time, the Health Department and Lotteries West contributed a grant so that Crossroads could refurbish the cafe and run the training programmes.  During the week I visited the cafe to see the progress and am happy to report that the refurbishment is well under way.  It is hoped that in about 9-10 weeks we will be opening again and the programs for people with a disability will commence. So watch this space. 

On Monday evening we held our second full UCIC Church Council. We are slowly but surely getting to the point of understanding the complexity of UCIC and all the things that need to be done. We have now set a date in July for a Congregational meeting and this will take form of a shared meal. We will also commission our new members of Church Council and present the budget with voting to take place a week later in the various worshiping communities. Can I invite you to watch this space too?

Tuesday evening saw Kay and I at the University of WA Prize giving ceremony held in Winthrop Hall. A great event, particularly as we are able to acknowledge our Wesley Scholars, who offer us their beautiful music in worship at Wesley.

This Sunday we celebrate Mothers Day and although I have some angst regarding the commercial aspects of this day, I still want to acknowledge our mothers and the part they play in our lives. This week I have prepared a video clip to show as part of my tribute to this day. I hope you will enjoy seeing it.

Which reminds me to say that Mal Mohan, who shares with our children, is inviting them to help create a special little gift for all our mothers. Of course we need children to help, so my plea again is to invite your children, your grandchildren, your neighbours children to assist. The more the merrier.

This Sunday is also the last Sunday for John Beaverstock. John has been playing the organ at Wesley for nearly 14 years. He has contributed so much and we have much to thank him for. During worship we will have the opportunity to thank John and make a presentation and after worship we will share a special cake to acknowledge the occasion as well.

This morning I met with Sally Morgan (Station No 15 – The Resurrection) and Catherine Czerw (our Curator for Stations). We began a discussion regarding organizing a special art exhibition on the Theme of the Child. We are hoping that this may be part of our Advent celebration and it may become an annual event. So I will also keep you informed.

Converge is now only a couple of weeks away. If you would like to see a full program of events you can go to http://www.gtp.com.au/ucic/inewsfiles/6ppDL_Flyer_PRINT.pdf

Of particular note for those of us who would like to celebrate our heritage is the ‘A Stitch in Time’ event, which is on the Thursday evening beginning at 7pm. This day is the anniversary of John Wesley’s conversion when he uttered the famous words, “My heart was strangely warmed’  On this night we will be taking a step back in time in the form of a dramatized prayer meeting of revival
 prayer and hymns, with the ‘Wesley’s’. It promises to be a good night, with yours truly taking part.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister,

Don

Sunday 13th May

8.30am Discussion Group in the Guild Room

10.00am Worship – The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Reflecting on “Love”

Don's Blog

Hi All,

Last weekend was spent at a Presbytery, which meets every six months. I have to say that all in all it was an enjoyable weekend. It was a two-day meeting and by anyone’s standard that is long, however the meeting was punctuated by special celebrations, presentations, worship and positive proposals. Of most importance was the affirmation of Kay’s appointment as General Secretary for another three years. It was great for Kay to receive the affirmation for the work she is doing. It was also good for me to hear my colleagues and peers offering her significant support. If you would like to see a small video clip I made of Presbytery you can go to… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pPDoWyCSx0&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to Rev Geoff Blyth who preached at worship last week. I really appreciated being able to have someone else step in for me. Which reminds me to say that Geoff is taking over from Jan Carrick as Pastoral Coordinator for a few months. Jan is heading of to England to visit and offer support to her Mother in law. We wish her safe travel and an enjoyable time.

I have enjoyed preparing for Sunday this week as the topic is, “I am the vine, you are the branches”. As part of my preparation I met with two of my colleagues and discussed our particular interpretations. However, the most enjoyable aspect of my preparation was to meet with the Rev Dr John Bodycomb and his wife, Lorraine. Dr Bodycomb was my Dean at theological college and influenced my preaching style quite considerably. He has just produced a book called “Excited to speak, Exciting to hear” which discusses preaching in the church. Part of the book offers a reflection on the text for Sunday and I will be using some of his thoughts as I think they’re very relevant for us.

John the and his wife, Lorraine, Kay and I were able to spend time together over dinner talking about old times, solving all the problems of the world and the church, but mostly catching up on what each one of us was doing now. It was a special time for me as John played a positive part in my formation as a minister and I was able to thank him for his wisdom and insight during my time in theological college, which by the way was over 30 years ago.

My week has been punctuated with many meetings and I have enjoyed catching up with people, hearing of plans for the future and thinking through some of the issues of in our church in the city. The new UCIC Church Council will be meeting next week; this is only our second real meeting with a full complement of people. So as you can imagine we are still working our way through the complex issues of UCIC. It is hoped that we will have a Joint Congregational meeting very soon, particularly as we will need to present the budget for next year. I can tell you that everybody on the Council is working very hard to produce the best outcomes for our congregations in the city. We would value your prayers.

Today Paul Whitfield from City Bible Forum, a group that offers ministry in the city, is using Wesley to present a conversation between a Hindu, an Atheist, and a Christian. The topic is “The Origin of the Species”, and is held between 12 and 1pm. I’ll be interested to see how it goes. Paul, like me, is keen to encourage conversations between people of faith and those who pass by our church every day.

One of the meetings held this week was with representatives from Uniting Care West. They are in the process of renewing their Strategic Plan and asked us for input, not only because we are a significant congregation in the city but also because we still fund many of their activities. It was felt that we do need to develop a stronger partnership and I am now sure that this will become part of their future plans. I think it will also mean that we will hold a special annual service reflecting on the many aspects of their work with people in need in our city. I am looking forward to seeing what comes of our thoughts.

Mal Mohan, who offers teaching to our children each Sunday, has asked me to remind you that we are hoping to involve the children in Mothers Day at Wesley. So if you would like your children, your grandchildren, your friends children, to offer something special to our Mums, can I encourage you to bring them to church on that day.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Thanks for reading.

From your minister,

Don

Sunday 6th May

8.30am Discussion Group in the Guild Room

10.00am Worship – The fifth Sunday of Easter. Reflecting on “I am the vine, you are the branches”. Holy Communion