INFO
Bi-Monthly magazine of South Woden Uniting Church Congregation
December 2016 January 2017
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year from Rosie and Ray
Regular Sunday Service 9.30 am Pearce Community Centre Hall Collett Place PEARCE
Website: https://southwoden.wordpress.com
The Church Council Minister Secretary: Phone: 6286 1057 Email; [email protected] Email:- [email protected] Treasurer: Ray Lowe Chairperson: 7 Maria Place Lyons ACT 2606 David Cran Phone: 6281 0089 4 Capel Place Email; [email protected] Fisher ACT 2611 Phone: 6288 9948 Other Members:, Email:- [email protected] Libby Coates, Carolyn Curnow, Helen Fairbrother, Joan Palmer, Kirsten Preece, Wendy Schmidt, Bette Triglone. Contact People Worship Liaison Group Rosters Joan Palmer Ray Lowe 15 Oldham Court Swinger Hill 7 Maria Place Lyons Phone: 6286 4615 Phone: 6281 0089 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Contact Group Helen Fairbrother 2/36 Shackleton Circuit, Mawson Phone: 6286 4008 Email: [email protected] Items for INFO. Rosie and Ray Lowe 7 Maria Place Lyons Phone: 6281 0089 Email: [email protected] INFO is published bi-monthly in February, April, June, August, October December. Contributions please for the February/March 17 issue are due by 9th March 2017. . SWUC and Privacy The South Woden Uniting Church (SWUC) uses information and news provided by its members, adherents and officers for purposes of conducting its pastoral ministry. In the course of that ministry, material published in this bulletin may/will reach an audience wider than the immediate membership of the congregation. If any source of such information or news does not wish the information they provided to be used for such purposes, they can require and gain access to their personal information and request the information not to be used, by contacting the editor of Info, Mr Ray Lowe, on (02) 6281 0089 or the SWUC Privacy Officer, currently Mr David Cran, on (02) 6288 9948. If you have any queries in relation to the manner in which SWUC handles your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer, currently Mr David Cran.
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FROM THE COUNCIL CHAIR The calendar year is drawing to a close, and again we can look back on how much we have achieved and shared in the past twelve months. I feel that I’m often being repetitive in thanking all the wonderful people who contribute so much –
every one of you – but I cannot stress how important is the support, commitment and involvement of all members of the Congregation to making SWUC work. In terms of worship services, next year will be somewhat easier once our new Minister starts, but we will still have the wonderful opportunity for leading our own worship services and for exploring and questioning together our understanding of faith for roughly half of the time. Our new Minister, Rev Gary Holdsworth, will take his first worship service with SWUC on Sunday 26 February – something to look forward to after our two-year search. Elsewhere in INFO is a short introduction to Gary – I’m sure you’ll agree he has a lot of relevant life and spiritual experience, which he will contribute to our own continuing search for spiritual meaning. The publishing of the history of SWUC next year is still in the preparation stages. A publisher has been selected, and the team is working on the several inputs required to finalise the ‘look’ of the book: cover, blurb, etc. We have decided on a paperback edition in colour. Due to the inbuilt delays in the publishing process it is more likely that we’ll have a launch of the actual book in the period May-June with the main celebration then. However, we still plan to recognize the actual anniversary of SWUC in February: more details will follow shortly. The National Church Life Survey, on Sunday 13 November, had a terrific response: 45 Attendee forms completed, plus three Leader forms and one Executive form. We will now wait for the summary of our responses, which we (Council) intend to use as a basis, in full consultation with all members, to plan our way ahead for the next five years. It is opportune that we will have this information to begin a new phase with our new Minister. Season’s greetings to everyone, and may God Bless you all. David Cran December 2016
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An Introduction from our new Minister – Rev Gary Holdsworth
My name is Gary Holdsworth. I was born the youngest of 4 boys, to my parents Brian and Vera Holdsworth, on the 23rd September 1958 in Canterbury, NSW. My parents and my 3 brothers were born in the UK. My father was in the navy, and so we moved around a lot. Having lived at East Hills for the first 5 years of my life, we relocated to the UK and Europe for a number of years, including 3 years in Scotland. From the point of view of a young child this was an adventure, however it was made difficult by having to attend numerous primary schools. My father was relocated to NSW when I was about 10. We lived in Blacktown and St Marys briefly before settling in Penrith, where I attended Kingswood Park Primary and Penrith High Schools for the remainder of my schooling. During High School I played Rugby League and Tennis, representing the school in both. Upon completing my Higher School Certificate in 1977, I studied Surveying at Sydney Technical College for 2 years, and played Rugby Union for Emu Plains Rugby Union Club. After this I moved to St James in Perth with my wife Dianne, where I attended the Western Australian Institute of Technology, now the University of Western Australia. We returned to
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Sydney after about 12 months, where I worked at Merrylands Council as an Engineering Assistant. After two years, I joined Morgan and Talbot Surveyors as a Surveying Assistant. I then joined NSW State Rail as an Engineering Surveyor, and finally as a Project Manager for Maintenance and Costing Systems. Dianne and I had a son, Daniel, who was born in 1981. Dianne and I divorced in 1989 and continue to remain friends. I started attending the Emu Plains Uniting Church, after Mary-anne and I met. We were married there in 1992. Whilst at Emu Plains, I was a youth leader, an elder and a lay preacher for about 7 years. Our son, Nathaniel, was born in 1998. After experiencing my call to ministry, I began my Bachelor of Theology at the Uniting Theological College at North Parramatta, in February 2000. I also studied a Bachelor of Adult Education at the University of Western Sydney, at the same time. As part of my Bachelor of Theology, I completed my field education at Greystanes Uniting Church. After being ordained there as Minister of the Word in January 2003, my first placement was at East Maitland Uniting Church, commencing in February 2003. My second placement began in July 2007 at Cherrybrook Uniting Church. Apart from my church life, my interests include social justice, lapidary, tennis, watching all kinds of sport, reading, and enjoying a good cup of coffee or a glass of red wine. Gary and Mary-anne will be living in the Weston Creek manse at 39 Mirrool Street Duffy (Ed)
++++++++++++++++++++++++ GREETINGS FROM LALGADH
Recently, Graeme and Meena Clugston from the Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital were in Canberra for a brief visit. Fortunately, John and Doreen Cope were able to catch up with them over a meal. They asked us to convey to the people of SWUC that they were very sorry that there wasn’t time for them to share in a SWUC service while they were here. They send their heartfelt thanks to all of us at SWUC for the on-going support we have given to the hospital. Within a few days of returning to Lalgadh, they were going on an horrendous “road” trip into the very far north of Nepal. They were to take equipment for the re-building of a school in a community which had received no assistance whatsoever since the huge earthquake and its hundreds of after-shocks. Apparently the people of the community are willing to do the actual re-building, but they were lacking the necessary limited materials. Graeme and Meena have done an amazing work at Lalgadh, all the more amazing when you realise that Graeme is now in his 70’s. From John Cope.
This week we received a newsletter from Graeme, here are excerpts from it. The full newsletter is on the noticeboard. Ray Greetings! Love and warmest Christmas wishes from Meena and me, and all the team here, at Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital. We are deeply and enormously grateful and say many MANY thanks for your prayers, your marvellous mission funding support, your encouragement and your faith in action. Wish we could be in both places at once – there in Canberra to share with you (in warmer weather) the terrific Christmas excitement, carols, worship, music, (pudding) etc… but also here at Lalgadh (in very cold weather) because Christmas at Lalgadh Hospital and Lalgadh Church is sooo differently exciting and rewarding. Hand Reconstructive Surgery “Bash” – and a life changing miracle for many Can you possibly imagine trying to cope if you had no hands … or fingers … and for some also no feet?
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How would you feed yourself, clothe yourself, loo yourself, pick things up, write, type, scratch an itchy spot, tie shoe-laces, pick up anything ….do anything…? For many many people in this very poor part of the world, one or both hands are mutilated, deformed, often with limited or no function … especially in children. And if it’s due to leprosy, many have to struggle to look after themselves with no-one to care for them, having been deserted, stigmatised, ostracised by community, family, or spouse. An intense 8-10 day hand-reconstructive surgery “Bash” is held at Lalgadh Hospital in November every year – thanks to visiting specialist reconstructive hand-surgeon Dr. Donald Sammut and his team from UK. At Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital hand-reconstructive operations are done throughout the year (by our Dr. Krishna Lama) especially for leprosy patients. However the more complicated ones, including gross deformities, requiring intricate reconstructive surgery, are beyond us. So this annual November intense hand-surgery bash attracts many – especially children with their parents, as well as teenagers, adults and elderly – often from many days travel away or from distant districts of Nepal, from high mountains and Terai, and some from across the border in India. Many come in hope of this often one-chance-in-a-lifetime to get their hands restored, healed or reconstructed, for improved shape and function.
(a) Arati is 18. She has leprosy with resulting claw hands for both hands (b) Chintu is 20 – he has leprosy and is losing his already deformed fingers … and his feet (see below)…. Lovely boy … reminds me of our own boy, Stephen … and that jerks the heart-strings.
Earthquke Relief work continues – including earthquake wrecked Kalika School in remote Sindhuli – work to build a new school has started. This morning’s 5.6 magnitude earthquake-aftershock is a reminder of the urgent need for continuing earthquake relief work … there are still hundreds of thousands who are still living in earthquake-damaged or inadequate houses, and who have not yet received any help. The freezing Himalayan winter is almost here. We’ve been waiting for the monsoon to stop and landslides to be cleared so we can get access and resume work for rebuilding Kalika School, in high remote Sindhuli District, it’s a 5 hour trip from LLHSC including a steep one-hour climb on foot from where the road ends. We planned with the local Tamang community there to help them put in a water supply, latrines and to rebuild the school. The current mud and rock school-building was damaged beyond repair by the earthquake and is dangerous especially when shaken by aftershocks (though they are still using it). This past week Lalgadh Hospital staff including Bijay our engineer got through up to Kalika, and work has started. The community there will do all the manual work, and we will provide the materials (cement, steel rods, water tank, piping, window-glass etc.) and provide technical guidance. Yesterday a tractor hauled the new water tank and pipes and cement as far as the road allows, and then these are being
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carried, bit by bit, up on peoples’ backs. We’ll show you progress as the work proceeds, and we plan to go there in next 2 weeks. There’s lots more to see on Kalika School, on the Lalgadh Hospital Facebook site from 2 of our visits before the monsoon … take a peek at these two sites http://www.facebook.com/pg/nepal.leprosy/photos/KalikaSchool1 and www.facebook.com/pg/nepal.leprosy/photos/KalikaSchool2
Getting to Kalika School – 5 hours including 2 hours on this awful land-slidey road, and then a steep one-hour climb on foot ….To find the most beeeeautiful lovely (but ultra-poor) Tamang kids….
Christmas is coming How can a Leprosy Hospital possibly shine the light of Christmas Joy?
Christmas Eve at Lalgadh Hospital: is always a fun-filled exciting combination of getting the Christmas meaning and message across, with its wonder and gospel significance, to amazed leprosy patients, … and doing our best to share with them the joy, light and love of Christmas. Lalgadh Hospital is normally a wonderful haven of care, love, cure and compassion throughout the year. But then at Christmas these things reach a marvellous climax. The children in hospital, if they can, usually help with decorating the hospital wards. On Christmas Eve all the patients gather together with the staff for sharing together in singing Nepalese carols, children – both patients and staff-children performing together, the nurses singing, and the special Gospel message of Christmas is told. And there’s Nepalese dancing – can you imagine… when one is missing some toes and/or feet!, with hilarity and laughter. Then present-giving to all the patients and plus feasting in the wards always warmly moving and unforgettable… Most of the patients have never heard of Christmas before. There is often wide-eyed amazement as they hear of God’s love for each and every one of us all, in becoming a little baby in Bethlehem, then dying on the cross for us, rising again and ascending to heaven, and being present here and now as our Savour and Lord. Mind-blowing for many. Nothing like it in Hinduism with its hierarchical discriminatory caste-system (and most
(a) Nurses singing Christmas carols (b) Patients and staff gather together for the Christmas Eve celebration (C) Dambar telling the amazing faith- story of founding & growth of NLT/LLHSC
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leprosy patients are amongst the lowest castes) and its endless cycle of karma – retribution through reincarnation. On Christmas day. Down at the church in Lalgadh Village - it’s about 1 KM walk down through the rice paddies from the hospital to Lalgadh Church for the special Christmas morning church service. The church has been decorated a few days earlier, and despite the cold everyone sits on the floor as usual, ladies on one side, men on the other. The service is longer than the usual 1½ hour weekly service. This one last about 2 hours… sometimes 3… the sermon being at least an hour. (And if you are not used to sitting cross-legged on the floor I can tell you it gets pretty hard on one’s bottom). But the church family loves it – and sit amazed as they hear the story of the wonderful gift of God and saving significance of Jesus birth at Christmas is explained.
(a) Lalgadh Church – surrounded by rice paddies (b) the 2-3 hour Christmas service
Before the church service, and during it, some of the guys kill and chop up 2 or 3 goats. Goat – meat is the most preferred meat (certainly not my favourite). As the church service proceeds, the goat-meat is cooked along with great cauldrons of very spicy vegetables, tomatoes, and rice and lentils, on wood fires, behind the Sunday-school building. When the service is over there is a rush out the church door to queue-up for food. Additionally the local village folk are welcome to come and join in, both church and feast. A tiny note of concern: Increasing Anti-Christian movements with some persecution, are increasingly challenging Christian and evangelical work in Nepal right now. This will make for a difficult time at Christmas this year. The usual national holiday for Christmas Day has been abolished this year. The supposedly secular Nepal government, which last year allowed national holidays for all major faiths (Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian) is now taking an increasingly pro-Hindu anti-Christian line under pressure from extreme Hindus groups, fanned by the pro-Hindu Indian BJP government. The new Nepal constitution prohibits Christian evangelistic activity and prohibits any act or behaviour (that may be interpreted) as trying to convert from or undermine the religion of another…punishable by law. It’s not too severe at present. But it warrants increasing caution. There have been arrest and imprisonment already this past 6 months. So how should we, as a Christian mission hospital, respond? How should we, as Christian mission respond? Should we – stop offering the Gospel message in daily morning devotions in the hospital? Stop baptising newcomers to Jesus through the local church? Stop praying before operations? Etc. etc. Stop our daily Christian activities and evangelical outreach? The Principle we try to follow at present is this We try to carefully obey all laws, rules and regulations of the Government… right up to point where the Government forbids what God commands… or commands what God
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forbids… Then, with civic disobedience if necessary, we follow God’s commands rather than man’s . (as did Daniel – Daniel 6-10; and Peter & John – Acts 4)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FRED HYDE AND CO-ID
This year South Woden gave $2,000 to support the work of CO-ID (Co-operation in Development), a charity founded by Fred Hyde. CO-ID works on remote Bhola Island in southern Bangla Desh, the largest island in the Ganges delta, with a population of more than two million. This island is plagued by devastating flooding. Its people have had their homes washed away by the river and have been forced to settle in this most inhospitable area, where even the basic necessities of the Third World do not exist. Bangla Desh is a democratic country, at peace, striving hard to lift itself from poverty, a country that displays a high level of religious tolerance, with Muslims, Hindus and Christians working together. Fred Hyde came from Val’s home town of Warwick in southern Queensland. A World War II veteran, he spent his life working hard to help others. After seeing the plight of children orphaned after a tsunami on Bhola Island in 1970, Fred sold his house and poured all his savings into his not-for-profit organisation. He sold his service station in Warwick and went to Bhola Island for six months to get his project under way. Until last year he spent half of every year there, seeing to the work of building schools and training teachers, returning to Warwick during the monsoon. Since 1991 Fred has built 45 schools, five kindergartens and teacher training facilities for 165 teachers, and 12,000 children are now attending CO-ID schools. Even in his nineties he was still making the 50-hour journey to and from Bhola Island, and there is a picture of Fred, shortly before his ninety-fifth birthday, riding pillion over the bumpy roads of the villages where he spent so much of his life in service to the poor (CO-ID Chronicle June 2015). We don’t know whether Fred held any particular religious faith, but his life was one of compassion, service and commitment. The parable of the Samaritan comes to mind: what matters is that the work of the Kingdom gets done, not the credentials of those who do it. Last year Fred felt too tired to do the trip again, and so he stayed in Warwick and retired from his active role, being cared for in his own home by members of the CO-ID committee. A strong committee and support network from several states are running CO-ID. On 8 November this year Fred died peacefully at the age of ninety-six. A humble, unassuming man, he will be mourned by many, particularly among the poor of the Ganges delta whom he served so magnificently, but his work will go on. Colin and Val Boreham
++++++++++++++++++++++ An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and told her preacher she had two final requests. First, she wanted to be cremated, and second, she wanted her ashes scattered over K-mart. "K-mart?" the preacher exclaimed. "Why K-mart?" "Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week." Some members may remember reading this. It goes back to around June 2008.
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Source of this poem is unknown (Ed)
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Rosie and Ray’s Perth Holiday Last month’s Info was one sheet because we only had one item and we were going to be away on the usual second weekend when it should have been published. As we are always asking about your activities I thought that we should tell about our recent trip to Perth. We left Canberra by car on the 3rd of October with overnight stops at Narrandera, Balranald and Renmark, to board the Indian Pacific to Perth on Thursday 6th. Remembering the heavy rain earlier and reports of local flooding we travelled to Narrandera via Wagga on the Hume and Sturt highways. The only flooding we struck was around Narrandera where in most places we had half road closed and single file with portable traffic light controls. On our travels we usually stay in cabins at caravan parks. At home we have a minor problem with the little black ants. Renmark was a different story. At night I usually put some dried prunes and sultanas in one cup and dried apricots with sultanas in the other with some water to soak, next morning the prunes were pretty much ok but the apricot cup was covered with ants and drowned ants in the liquid in the cup. I managed to wash most of them out of cup so I could use the mixture for breakfast. I think I tasted one or two with the weet-bix. We arrived at the Keswick terminal mid afternoon on Thursday and booked the car and our train luggage in. we saw the train arrive from Sydney and the passengers disperse to their various Adelaide activities Around 5pm they put us in a taxi and we went in to Adelaide for a complimentary dinner at Jolie’s boathouse. Here we met up with some of the passengers from Sydney and embarking passengers from Adelaide. We met Ed an Adelaide resident who is doing a trip by car up the west coast from Perth to Broome and across to Darwin and back home via Alice Springs. Also at dinner were Alan and his wife and their elderly mothers who had all come over from Perth to Adelaide by road for an eightieth birthday party. Other guests at dinner were part of an organised tour group which was Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific then joining the Pacific Princess on a cruise up the west coast and across to Port Moresby then on to Darwin and Brisbane and flying back to Sydney. We departed Adelaide at 10pm central standard daylight saving time. Because of daylight saving in the eastern states we had two time changes on the train, first of an hour before Cook and lost another hour and a half before Rawlinna. Sleeping on the train was interesting; on the first night as we left Adelaide I think I felt heard every bump in the track from rail joins and points. Rosie slept OK on the lower bunk. We passed Woomera, both ways, in the early hours of the morning and on to Tarcoola where the Ghan branches off for Darwin, Ooldea is near the Maralinga Defence site. Then
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on to Forrest which has an airstrip and overnight accommodation and refuelling facilities for light aircraft. We are now on the 478Km longest rail straight in the world.
The Nullarbor was reasonably green this trip as there had been a lot of rain earlier. It is virtually treeless with low scrub growing on it. One optical illusion we found was that some objects on the horizon appeared to be traffic moving along a road but realised that it was a tree closer to us and the movement of the train created the illusion. (That’s my explanation anyway).
Cook Early Prison Cells Mid-day we arrived at Cook and had about 30 minutes to have a quick look at the old settlement. It now has a population of 5 who are employed to service the trains. It is a loco refuelling and refilling the water tanks on the train stopover and also one of the many passing loops on the single track line. We had an extended stopover while they cleared a water problem with one of the cars, leaving about 30 minutes late which they made up before our next stop at Rawlinna which is a large sheep property which extends from the line down to the Great Australian Bight. This is an off train dinner stop, a BBQ under the stars – complete with flies. Leaving at 8.30 West Australian time, after leaving Rawlinna on the second night the track is much smoother with less crossings and joins so slept fairly well. Saturday morning was fine but with rain clouds in the west. Eventually we ran into rain so that by the time we arrived in Perth the van which was sitting on the top deck of the Motorail truck down the back got a good wash. As we had to wait for the vehicles to be unloaded I went down to watch the unloading of the cars. I met up with a man who each weekend comes to the platform to watch the unloading on Saturday and the loading early on Sunday morning. He had some interesting stories of problems encountered, such as the vehicle which had been left powered on and flattened the battery, this apparently affected the brakes on the car so it could not be moved until they jump started it. Another case where the tyres on the vehicle were too fat
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to fit the track on the motorail truck. Alan’s cruiser almost fitted this category as we could see the tyres touching on both sides of the guide rails. Home for us in Perth was the Big4/Discovery Park at Forrestfield a suburb to the south east of Perth. We visited the Kings Park botanical gardens to look at a display of the W.A. wildflowers which were in bloom.
We travelled through Joondalup to see where friends Tory and Chris Kowalski formerly members from South Woden live; unfortunately they must have been away as we had tried phoning them and they were not home, so we left a note to say we visited and our mobile number. On then to the Nambung National Park with a feature called “The Pinnacles” desert in coastal bushland, many of the shrubs in flower. The pinnacles are Tamala
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Limestone (probably more accurately called) aerolian calcarenite pillars standing in a large coastal dunes area with yellow sand. After leaving Tory and Chris a note to say we had visited, we got a call a couple of days later and an invitation to catch up with them. We opted to visit them in Joondalup and spent the day with them catching up and having a look around the town. Perth has a Central Area Transit free bus service with 2 circular routes and 2 end to end routes, designated by colour, which we found was a great way to have a look at the city without having to walk or drive. It is possible to change routes at places where they use the same street and stops. At the stops there is an information post where at the press of a button it will tell you how long before the next bus will arrive. Although, as you have probably heard, a lot of Perth is on sand but as you go east you get into the Perth Hills which give views of Perth and the coastal area. We visited the Lesmurdie Falls and then on to the Mundaring Weir which is the source of the water supply for Kalgoorlie/Bolder. One Sunday saw us head south to the Hotham Valley Railway at Dwellingup. We had the afternoon Steam Ranger trip which runs down the Darling Range to the Isandra siding then climbs back up to Dwellingup. A good trip with the sounds of a steam loco working as we climbed back up the range to Dwellingup. On the way home we visited the Serpentine reservoir which forms part of the Perth water supply. Fremantle has a hop on hop off “tram”, so we used it to have a look around the sights of Fremantle, while we were booking a return lunch trip on the Swan River from Fremantle to
Perth and return. Parking was a lot more convenient at Fremantle than in Perth for this sort of trip. We had a good view of the river along with the
different developments and a commentary pointing out points of interest along the way, including a fisherman waist deep in the river. Nola was another South Woden member from the past we had trouble contacting so we left a note in the letter box at the Info address that we had and later she phoned us to tell us that her daughter is living there and she is now at Victoria Park, which is closer in to Perth. We had lunch with Nola at Victoria Park which is on Claisebrook Inlet across the Swan from the new Perth stadium which is under construction, after lunch we had a look around the area and a visit to a lookout on Reabold Hill which in a large bush area known as Bold park it gave us a view of the whole area from the Indian Ocean to the city and up and down the coast. And so early on Sunday morning we set out for the Perth Public Transport Centre, using our satnav. Ten minutes later she says “here we are”, Hmmm wonder where the train is? Fortunately I had a Perth city map with me so tried a street nearby. Success this time We put the van on the train again and at 10am we set off for home. Around 9pm we stopped for a quick look at the Superpit ,at Kalgoorlie/Boulder, which works 24hrs,and we were treated to a short skit about early life at Boulder. Next stop, for those who chose it, was breakfast at 6.30am at Rawlinna, we settled for breakfast at 8a on the train. Then another loco crew change and refuelling stop at Cook. We arrived back in Adelaide around 8.30a Tuesday morning and headed for home by car.
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A Tale of Two Conferences. In recent months Sue and I have attended two conferences that have helped develop and change our thinking about what it means to be a member of a church in the 21st century. Perhaps these reflections will be helpful to others or at least stimulate some discussion. The first conference was the Common Dreams conference held in Brisbane in September. Common Dreams is the conference of what is often called the Progressive Christian movement in Australia. Interestingly, however, in her session at the conference, Val Webb challenged whether the word “progressive” was an appropriate name for this movement. This struck a chord for us, in that often the word “progressive” seems to act as a barrier excluding others who are seen as “less progressive” or “conservative.” The wide variety of people attending and their often quite different questions and starting points seemed to offer support for Val Webb’s questioning. Indeed, it was often the informal discussions that were the most interesting as people grappled with their current faith issues, whereas some of the speakers seemed caught in debates from an earlier time.
Part of the crowd at Common Dreams One of the most interesting sessions for me was on the work of “A Progressive Christian Voice.” It is an organisation based in Brisbane that tries to promote an alternate Christian voice in the media and in politics to that of the right wing Australian Christian Lobby. It set me thinking as to whether we in Canberra should be more active in this area. The second conference we attended was the Beyond Festival, a Social Justice Festival held at Greenhills. This festival was attended by a much
younger group and had a strong music component, with Megan Washington being the main attraction. However, many of the workshops were excellent. These included one on understanding poverty presented by the team from Bidwill Uniting, sessions on a more inclusive church by Jason John, and an excellent session on assisting people fleeing persecution and in need of protection by lawyer,
Megan Washington Nathan Willis.
Team from Bidwill Uniting Jason John
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This festival was well attended, even though the first days were marked by heavy rain at times and the ground was a quagmire. Perhaps we should as a church community consider having some input into next year’s festival especially as it is held right on our doorstep. Len Baglow
Nathan Willis ++++++++++++++
From the Sunday School… Things during the year have been very busy at the Sunday School. We have enjoyed learning new things, and finding ways that we can incorporate the theme of the service into our weekly activities. One fun day was in September this year, where the theme of the service was caring for our environment, renewable energies etc. I decided that one way we could demonstrate this was recycling. Now, recycling is not always thought of as a fun activity, but what if we could turn something that we don’t need or want anymore, into something that we could use everyday? Cue old shirts and enter new fashion bag! We took some old shirts that were destined for St Vinnie’s and, using a very simple template and a pair of scissors, we turned them into a bag. Step 1 Cut the sleeves off the shirt, level off the bottom, and cut 3 inch strips all the way along the bottom of the shirt.
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Step 2 Turn the shirt inside out and tie the strips together so that you are using one piece from the front and one piece from the back. Do this the whole way till the end. Step 3 Turn the shirt back the right way and viola - you have your new bag!
Stay tuned for more fun and frivolity from the Sunday School!
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WALKING IN THE BUSH On the beautifully sunny second day of October, 2016, seven of us went for a bush walk at Mulligan’s Flat Woodlands Sanctuary. The walk was led by Col and Val Boreham and is one of a series of after-church walks they have organised over the years. We had chosen the only sunny day in about a fortnight of rain and even the park ranger was excited – he said he’d never seen so many people enjoying the wetlands. Despite the above-average rainfall we had been experiencing, the main roads were firm and we were able to get off the beaten track in a couple of locations. We walked into the sanctuary enclosure, making sure to close the gate after us and then looked for a place to have lunch. There were lots of large white dead logs, in fact about 2000 tonnes of them, placed around the sanctuary intended to simulate fallen trees. We checked out their suitability for us to sit on but then found a table and benches near the old woolshed.
After a leisurely lunch, and a wide ranging discussion including the upcoming ACT election, we set off along a walking track and met our first wildlife – a shingleback skink. The track got wetter and we were crossing from side to side to find dryer ground so then struck up through the bush to higher ground. On our left we could see some red backed kangaroos including a very large male and a herd of a dozen or more. Then on our right we met a solitary wallaby with a very
white chest – she had a joey in her pouch. As it was a sunny afternoon, we saw very few birds. There were three or four choughs scratching round the ground and a couple of ravens and later a very raucous cockatoo. The landscape was Australian bush – box-gum grassy woodland – with gentle slopes and level sections. The area had been extensively grazed since the mid nineteenth century and there were a number of dams in the gullies to provide water for stock. Since becoming part of the Canberra Nature Reserve, Mulligan’s Flat is now part of the program to restore the rich variety and abundance of woodland habitats and native wildlife that were present before European settlement. Programs are on foot to remove feral predators and when possible reintroduce native species. The Brown Treecreeper was brought back in 2010 and the Tasmanian Bettong more recently. Unfortunately we did not see either of them.
About three o’clock we decided to finish and walked back out of the bush into the suburb of Forde, back to our cars and our everyday life. Some of us went for a cup of coffee, others to home and jobs to be done. All in all, we had a very pleasant and interesting day. Joan Pratt
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A Christmas Bowl envelope is included with Info more are available from the book trolley
20 Month Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
December 12 Carols Under the Stars
13 Church Council 14 15 16 Term 4 Ends 17 18 Advent 4 Worship Leader: Trish Cran & Gwenda Bramley 'Lessons and Carols'
19 20 21 December Solstice
22 23 24 Christmas Eve 25 Christmas Day Worship Leader: The SWUC Team
26 Boxing Day 27 Christmas Day Holiday
28 29 30 31 New Year's Eve 1 New Year's Day Christmas 2 Communion Shared Service led by Yarralumla UC
January 2 Public Holiday 3 4 5 6 Epiphany 7 8 Baptism of Jesus. Shared Service led by St James UC
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Epiphany 2 Worship Leader: Arto Avakian. Shared Service with Yarralumla and St James Ucs
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Epiphany 3 Worship Leader:
23 24 Carers Group 25 26 Australia Day 27 28 Chinese New Year
29 Epiphany 4 Worship Leader: Libby Coates
30 31 Term 1 Starts 1 2 3 4 5 Epiphany 5 Communion Worship Leader: Jean Shannon (TBC)
February 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Epiphany 6 Worship Leader:
13 14 SWUC Council 15 WCUC Council 16 17 18 19 Epiphany 7 Worship Leader: 50th Anniversary of SWUC
20 World Day of Social Justice
21 Valentine's Day 22 23 224 25 26 Transfiguration of Jesus Communion Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth Congregational Meeting
