Dear Friends,
We had a wonderful celebration on Sunday of 95 years of loving and serving God, God’s people and God’s world here in Canberra! Here is the picture John Clark took on Sunday – replicating the black and white image of people gathered around the church on our commencement day 95 years ago.
If you have not had a chance to listen to Scott Pilgrim’s message on “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.” (Psalm 85:10) please do! It was wonderful. You can watch it here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syu98wFafFU
This Sunday more than 70 of us will be away at church camp at lake Tabourie! Here in Canberra, Doug Hynd will be preaching, and Edna Jones will be leading the service. Rather than celebrating communion this coming Sunday, we will celebrate communion together on Sunday, 10th March.
This morning, as part of the Common Grace Lenten series ‘Surprising Hope’, my reflection on Psalm 46:1-7 was published. You can watch that here: Watch Belinda’s Reflection Or a transcript of the reflection can be downloaded here.
At the Quarterly Church Meeting last Sunday, there was a long discussion of the (recently release) Assembly Council recommendations for disaffiliating church and disaccrediting pastors. The 19 page document stepping out how they intend to do this is found here – Process for disaffiliation of Churches and discreditation of Pastors
They have invited people to comment on the recommendations ahead of the June Assembly – either by joining an online discussion group or by filling in an online form.
If you would like to participate in one of the online feedback sessions (each of these is limited to 20 people) you can register here:
- Monday 18th March, 7.30pm-9pm – register here
- Wednesday 20th March, 10am-11.30am – register here
- Wednesday 20th March, 7.30pm-9pm – register here
- Thursday 21st March, 2pm-3.30pm – register here
- Thursday 21st March, 7.30pm-9pm – register here
If you would like to comment in the online form, you need to supply your name and church for your responses to be processed – and fill in the form by Friday 22nd March. The online form is found HERE.
At the meeting it was agreed that the deacons would prepare some talking points to assist people (so if you would like these – hold off till next week) and publish a written response to the paper from the diaconate, as directed by the church, on our website.
It was a long Sunday – and a long discussion – but at the end of it I had a real sense that mercy and truth had met together, righteousness and peace had kissed!
Belinda XXX