catch up – Melbourne Welsh Church

07
Feb 17
0

CELEBRATE WHAT WE HAVE IN COMMON NOT WHERE WE DIFFER

Category:Pride,rant,respect,respectable,Rest. Doing,Second Chances,Silence,Sorrow,Stranger,Welcome,WOW

Loitering and ‘being’ opens the horizons of the mind and heart, it also challenges prejudice.
Meeting people from around our world. people with who we have much in common, others who see the world quite differently from us, all make a rich and interesting tapestry.

At a Vigil held in the city of Melbourne where I work, after a tragic incident to place, I observed a diversity not always appreciated. Mostly this is often as a result of ignorance, fear and mistrust of other.

Sitting after the vigil with a man, a complete stranger to me, we held hands we chatted about what we have in common.

He a Hindu and me a white anglo-saxon commonly known as ‘a Christian”.

Both affected by what had happened, both deeply moved by the service and both saying how at times like this we need each other.

While we do love ‘our’ country, and want it to ‘be safe’ and for some just like ‘the good ol’ days’, we are called to love.

For those of us who claim to ‘love God with all our heart, strength and mind’ sometimes forget to love neighbour as self.

I don’t expect its always easy, its not for me, so together lets strive to get it, who knows we may even look back one day and claim these were the ‘good ol’ day’!!

15
Aug 16
0

This too shall pass

Category:Church sign of the week,Community,grief,Hope,LISTEN,respect,Stranger,streets

“This too shall pass” is a phrase with a long history. Abraham Lincoln sums that history up well in a speech he gave in 1859 – Lincoln said;

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

For some people this has been a great week. A new grandchild; a new job; a long deserved holiday; it could be a thousand different reasons.

For some people this has been an awful week. A relationship breakdown; bad news at work; an unwanted sickness; again a thousand different reasons.

Our sign this week can be read and understood by both of the above groups, it should teach us to enjoy the good times for the do not last forever and also have hope in the bad times because they, too, do not go on indefinitely.

There is a verse in Paul’s letter to the Romans which reminds me of “this too shall pass” – Paul writes “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” To me it reminds me to be in the moment with people, if they allow you to share in their lives then sit with them, be with them, show up and live the moment with them. Reading my Gospels I find that this is what Jesus did. He shared with people where they were, in what ever circumstances he found them, with a grieving centurion or a joyful healed woman.

Over the past few weeks we have been opening the church hall on a Sunday evening to serve food and offer shelter to anyone who wants it. Those who have helped out have had the privilege to sit and eat with many people – the happy ones (like the chap who learned he had just been granted housing), the unhappy ones, the addicted ones, the lonely ones, the ones who just want to listen. We have also been heard and helped by those who have joined us, this community stuff is not just a one way street – we (the volunteers) get as much out of it as those who join us week by week.

Last night I arrived at church to find the place buzzing – people everywhere, eating, talking, joking, one even crying. There was rejoicing and weeping going on and Jesus was there sharing in all of it. I cannot thank the Melbourne Welsh Church, and the elders in particular, for allowing us the opportunity to minister like this every Sunday evening.

So wherever you are in life; with whatever is happening remember that this too shall pass – enjoy the good moments, have hope in the bad for, as in all things, this too shall pass.

02
Aug 16
0

BEING AND DREAMING RESTING BEING HUMAN

Category:Bubba,catch up,Chocolate,Coffee,Community,Family,Friends,happiness

Life is ‘full’ and we often feel the need to be ‘busy’.

Im not opposed to ‘hard work’, Ive been in ‘the work force ‘since 1974, when I was fourteen.

These photos below were taken on a recent weekend ‘retreat’, the need to retreat and be is part of being human.

Don’t fall for the ‘Christian Work Ethic’ which makes one feel guilty for taking time to be.

Be still and know I am God, is often said but rarely practiced.

MAKE TIME TO TAKE TIME

Take me back, take me way, way, way back
On Hyndford Street
Where you could feel the silence at half past eleven
On long summer nights
As the wireless played Radio Luxembourg
And the voices whispered across Beechie River
In the quietness as we sank into restful slumber in the silence
And carried on dreaming, in God
And walks up Cherry Valley from North Road Bridge, railway line
On sunny summer afternoons
Picking apples from the side of the tracks
That spilled over from the gardens of the houses on Cyprus Avenue
Watching the moth catcher working the floodlights in the evenings
And meeting down by the pylons
Playing round Mrs. Kelly’s lamp
Going out to Holywood on the bus
And walking from the end of the lines to the seaside
Stopping at Fusco’s for ice cream
In the days before rock ‘n’ roll
Hyndford Street, Abetta Parade
Orangefield, St. Donard’s Church
Sunday six-bells, and in between the silence there was conversation
And laughter, and music and singing, and shivers up the back of the neck
And tuning in to Luxembourg late at night
And jazz and blues records during the day
Also Debussy on the third program
Early mornings when contemplation was best
Going up the Castlereagh hills
And the cregagh glens in summer and coming back
To Hyndford Street, feeling wondrous and lit up inside
With a sense of everlasting life
And reading Mr. Jelly Roll and Big Bill Broonzy
And “Really The Blues” by “Mezz” Mezzrow
And “Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac
Over and over again
And voices echoing late at night over Beechie River
And it’s always being now, and it’s always being now
It’s always now
Can you feel the silence?
On Hyndford Street where you could feel the silence
At half past eleven on long summer nights
As the wireless played Radio Luxembourg
And the voices whispered across Beechie River
And in the quietness we sank into restful slumber in silence
And carried on dreaming in God.

Songwriters
VAN MORRISON

Published by
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Street Lyrics | MetroLyrics

28
Jun 16
0

Category:be excellent to each other,Being,Bubba,Cafe,Community,Compassion,Doubt,Fall,Family,FEELING IT,Fog,happiness,Hope

A true Christian path would lead them into the untidy stables of the poor and oppressed, to shovel shit with the Messiah. Instead they remain spiritually shipwrecked, floundering on the shoals of their own ambitions and indifference, slick and ridiculous in their genuflections to greed.

From B Cockburn: Rumours of Glory: on thoughts of Brennan Manning

Over the past seven weeks I have had time to read and reflect while a fractured ankle healed.

I read, listened to music and watched movies and documentaries.

I was challenged as to how and why I do what i do as i loiter.

I was challenged as to my responsibility in the communities i live and move, so now I’m back on my feet, i need to implement the “KISS’ method…….

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!!!!!

05
Apr 16
0

The Home of the Lost and Found

Category:Cafe,Chocolate,Coffee,Community,Compassion,Darkness,death,Doubt,Family,Fear,Forgiveness,Hope,Hospitality,life

Easter Saturday Vigil

What happens when a few people,with no idea of what they are really doing, don’t seek notoriety or claim success, are aware of their own ‘issues’ and failings, take risks, love people and seek to see where God is and join in??……….. well you get something like this…
children hiding chocolate eggs in the park for other children,whose parents score their ‘stuff’ in this park, where dispossessed people meet, hot chocolate, hot x buns and conversation for those whose backyard this is, a meeting place during the day to converse as together we share life in the simple day to day stuff………….

The Saturday of Light

The In Between Days Liturgy

for

Easter Saturday

Father forgive us, for we know not what we do.

In the Eastern Orthodox Churches, today is known as the Saturday of Light, it is the first celebration of Easter and the first time the “Hallelujah” is used since the beginning of Lent. The sadness of Friday has passed and the faithful wait for the Light to shine in the darkness once more, renewed for the beginning of the liturgical year.

We give thanks for the traditions of the faithful in other places.

The Church has a history of making solemn the celebrations of it’s seasons. We, called to live in hope and joy, more often than not live in the struggle of fear, of doubt and in ignorance. It is only what is appropriate, for on this night long passed, those followers of the Light sat in mourning, in disbelief and in terrible fear. For the Light that shined around them had gone out and they knew not where to find Him. The land had turned to darkness, the veil was rent, the women wept at the foot the cross, His disciples had fled in mortal terror. Only John stayed, to keep comfort His mother and to hear that sinner’s great prayer “truly, this man was the Son of God”.

LORD we are scattered like sheep with no shepherd

Lifeless He hung there, bruised for our transgressions, heavy with the weight of the world. The Jesus of the miracles, of the parables, of the teachings, the Jesus of the highways and the byways, somehow, had become the Jesus of the garden, the Jesus of the trial, the Jesus of the cross. Where should they turn now? He had the words of eternal life, and now, that life was over. Were they condemned because the light had come into the world and that light was the light of men? What now when there was darkness? Where is light in the darkness, where is faith, hope, joy, love? The darkness of this Saturday was darker than any before.

Between dark and light

Between death and life

LORD grant us Faith

and strength to keep searching for the Light

Scripture is filled with stories of darkness, from the creation in Genesis, the barren womb of Sarah, the slavery of Egypt, the time before the Torah, poor Jonah in the belly of the great fish, that time when there were no prophets in Israel and God had taken the light of revelation from the people who would declare His truth. Beside the rivers of Babylon, exile, genocide, the darkness prevailed. Hope was lost, doubt was everything, and in the hearts of men and women, terrible fear.

LORD in your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER

Yet…..God in the darkness is still the God of light, even the darkness of a new tomb, sealed by rock, and guarded by enemies. He clothes Himself in light as a garment, He made two lights in the heavens, He made the stars also. He is the God of Life we are never to forget, those stars are meant to remind us of the glory of the creator of all light.

LORD we seek you in the glory of your creation, light our path we pray

We too are in darkness, sometimes, in despair, loneliness, loss, uncertainty, in the fear that things will never be bright again. We stumble in the darkness of our own faithlessness and arrogance, in the dark night of legalism without grace, judgement without justice, crown without cross, in the darkness of plenty in a land barren of salt and light.

You LORD, only you, be our light in the darkness

For the Jews, the new day starts at the sunset of the old, a new beginning in the darkness of the day before. Night before light, blackness before the morning, the waning moon before the rising sun. The Rising Son.

LORD the Son rises.

Life must overcome, the life that is the light of women and men, of girls and boys, of lost and found, is rising. This is the story of tomorrow, and the story of tonight. For what went on in that tomb was life besting death, which now will have no sting. Mourning has been soothed with the oil of joy. Beauty for the ashes of despair. This is the Good News of the light and of life. The Son is rising anew, for the first time, forever.

LORD we pray

for those trapped in darkness, LORD we pray

for those who prefer the darkness, LORD we pray

for those in the darkness of addiction, LORD we pray

for those who suffer abuse, LORD we pray

for those who abuse, LORD we pray

for the wealthy, LORD we pray

for the poor, LORD we pray

for those in war, LORD we pray

for the soldier, LORD we pray

for the child soldier, LORD we pray

for those without a safe home, LORD we pray

CBD

for those seeking refuge, LORD we pray

for those without clean water, LORD we pray

for those stricken with illness, LORD we pray

for those who minister to them, LORD we pray

for those without power or voice, LORD we pray

for those in power, LORD we pray

for us, LORD we pray

for the weak, the weary, the sad, the broken, the fearful, the despairing, the grieving, the hungry, the ignorant, the doubting

LORD hear our prayer.

It is the custom of Christians to wait until the new night of tomorrow, to kindle the candles that brighten the new year. We of faith, gathered here now, in faith, knowing that tomorrow is already history, light these candles, because for us, tomorrow is here, tomorrow has already come. Life and light are ours, the new light of tomorrows miracle shines in our hearts, darkness is no more. The life is the light of women, and men, and we prefer the light.

Let us light these candles, and go forward, bearing the light into the all our tomorrows.

LORD, in your goodness, hear our prayer

POPUP

broken people in a broken world
working on mending together
offering hope where it would appear
there is none to be found
light where often there is only darkness
love where love is often lost

21
Mar 16
0

heaven don’t miss it for the world

Category:#God,Bubba,Cafe,Chocolate,Clone,Coffee,Community,Compassion,Doubt,Family,Fear,Forgiveness,Hope,Hospitality

heaven don’t miss it for the world….
so said the sign on the road side…..

It appears like we think Heaven is somehow going to be better than The World????

When we pray for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, what are we asking or expecting??

Its seems we are just biding time, or waiting for ‘pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye rather than steak on the plate while we wait’?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m eager for things to be ‘put right’, whatever that looks like.

All new things or all things renewed??

Its Easter, perhaps its time to get on with God’s will being done on earth, rather that waiting for your insurance policy to be invoked.

Don’t hide Jesus this Easter, get out there where its happening and be part of things being renewed…….if your looking for Jesus this is where Jesus will be…..

22
Feb 16
0

Australia: What are we doing???

Category:Church sign of the week,Compassion,go the extra mile,Love,Mercy,Neighbour,Peace,rant,respect,Stranger

Australia: Where the Government will try and put a sick baby on a plane but won’t do the same for a sick Cardinal.

This blog is inspired by a twitter post I read over the week end.

I’d like to continue the re-working of Bible verse this week with a look at Matthew 25 40 & 45

40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me.’
and
45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

What would Jesus say to the idea of the government (working for the people of this country) sending a sick baby, who was born here by the way, to a detention camp? I think he would say something like, “Just as you did it to baby Asha, you did it to me.”

I don’t care what your politics are, which side of the line you sit, if you can tell me it’s right to send a sick baby to a detention camp I don’t think we’re going to agree on our views of Jesus (among other things).

For once this isn’t about Cardinal Pell or the Roman Catholic church.* This is about doing what is right – is it right for the government to try and deport a sick baby and yet not ask a sick Cardinal to come back and answer questions that he has to answer? Is it right that, in our name, the government are denying human rights to one group of people and yet defending (or at least not infringing them) in others? Are we seeing a double standard here? Foreigners are less important than Australians living overseas? Somehow Cardinals are worth more than Refugees?

Jesus never made that distinction. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me.”

I, for one, do not wish to stand before God with the deportation of baby Asha (or any of the asylum seekers) on the list of things I have done wrong – that list is long enough without adding to it.

Australia – we are better than this! Far better. We live in the lucky country not the cruel country. Let’s tell those who have the power to make decisions that some things are just plain wrong and shouldn’t be done – not in our name.

just as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me!

* I have been accused of being anti-catholic and that is not true. Let me make it very clear here that I am not anti-catholic. I am anti-cover up; I don’t agree (and that’s putting it mildly) with the way some of the leaders of the Roman Catholic church seem to have covered up the systematic abuse of children in their care. If that is the case then they should have to answer for any crimes (and covering it up is every bit as bad as actually doing it in my book). I think that Cardinal Pell has a duty to answer, in person, the questions from the Royal Commission. I am not making any statement about his guilt or innocence, I don’t know anything about that – under law he is innocent until proven guilty but I think he should front up and not have the relative safety of a video link to hide behind.

If it would encourage him I point him again to Matthew 25 v. 40 and, in light of him not testifying yet, verse 45.

But like I say – this isn’t about him. He will face the Royal Commission and also a far higher judge soon enough.

12
Jan 16
0

BUT FIRST COFFEE

Category:Coffee,Community,Compassion,Fear,Hospitality,Mercy,Neighbour

Ok Ive had my coffee now and Im ready!!

After returning from a two week holiday it has been a rude shock getting back into work and the ‘normal’ routine.

Just five days after returning I along with my partner (The Ruth), officiated at a wedding, it was a little over an hours drive, so we decided rather than come home after the practice run we would stay with friends and drink coffee.

It has been 4years since we last spent time with them, so it was a great time of eating and talking, oh and coffee !!

As we chatted about what events both personally and globally had taken place since we last spoke it wasn’t long until wefound ourselves in familiar territory, as we drank coffee.

sorry this is really bad!!

Issues of strained or broken relationships, conflicts in work environments along with confronting family matters, all part of the challenges we face and we deal with the stuff of life, as we drank coffee.

It is so good to have people who are able to share the stuff of life, both difficult and joyful with us, more importantly, having been entrusted with this stuff we need to be trustworthy.

As we face the challenges and joys of 2016, may we in the positions of trust and support, honour and respect this trust, so together we share the journey of life, over coffee.

10
Nov 15
0

life is like a cup of hot chocolate

Category:Being,Bubba,Cafe,Chocolate,Community,Family,happiness,Hero,Hope,Hospitality,Mercy,Neighbour,nobody,Peace

Its 645 am on an overcast Tuesday morning, people are out, running, riding, exercising or rowing along the yarra river. People every where are rushing to work or going about their daily business,
not me I’m loitering, with a thermos of hot chocolate blended from several ingredients in my hands.

The homes under the bridge are silent as residents sleep, stirring occasional, unaware of the activity, seagulls wait impatiently for them to stir as they await the crumbs of their food.

I sit quietly, waiting, watching and contemplating, as the residents continue their slumber.

After some time I leave the thermos and cups at the entry to the home under the bridge and go about the day, wondering who will i meet today, whose story will i hear and what will become of the hot chocolate??

21
Oct 15
0

life is never dull

Category:#Jesus,be excellent to each other,Being,Coffee,Compassion,content,Darkness,death,Doubt,Family,happiness,Hope,Hospitality,Mercy,Neighbour,Peace

sitting around a fire recently having enjoyed a meal and conversation with friends old and new, i was reminded we are not all privileged to enjoy such times.

just a few days later i was asked if i would pick up a person I had known for around fourteen years who was just being released from jail. i was honoured to reconnect with this person as we begin to journey together to connect in with community.

The picture called Jesus in the breadline, says it all really, Jesus is not far from anyone of us.

Category Archives: catch up

Feb 17

Aug 16

Aug 16

Jun 16

Apr 16

Mar 16

heaven don’t miss it for the world….so said the sign on the road side…..

It appears like we think Heaven is somehow going to be better than The World????

Feb 16

Jan 16

Nov 15

Oct 15

heaven don’t miss it for the world….
so said the sign on the road side…..