Greetings, Earlier in the month I, and some others, were invited to attend the meeting of the Mont Albert North Probus Club who meet in Watson Hall each month. I think the invitation was partly in appreciation of the facilities we offer, but it was also a good chance to get to meet some of…

Greetings, At the last Church Council meeting Peta led devotions and as part of this raised the issue of mental health being something of great concern for many young people. Since then I have been doing some more reading. While mental health issues are not confined to young people, approximately one in three people aged…

Greetings, Late last year, in preparation for this year, I read a book called The Hospitality of God: A Reading of Luke’s Gospel. In this book author Brendan Byrne (professor of New Testament at Jesuit Theological College) “portrays the life and ministry of Jesus as a divine visitation to the world, seeking hospitality”. Jesus, the…

Greetings, One of the big discussion topics at Synod was the response of the Uniting Church to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act which was passed on 29 November 2017. This act allows (from 19 June 2019) Victorians at the end of life who are suffering, and who meet strict eligibility criteria, to request access to…

Greetings, Early next week Tony’s mum celebrates her birthday so she is coming to dinner Sunday night. When people come over for a special celebration meal there is a sense of heightened activity as rooms are cleaned, the table is set and food is prepared. Elizabeth is excited to prepare this meal as a gift…

Greetings, As part of the Synod meeting we participated in Bible Studies each day. These were led by Dr Liz Boase who asked us to consider the following two questions as a church community: – Who are we?, and, Where are we going? Some possible directions were considered … Backwards, Inwards, Upwards and Outwards. Backwards:…

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 Greetings, From Friday 5 to Tuesday 9 July the Synod meeting will take place. As the VicTas website says, Synod is a time…

Greetings, My parents have recently decided to downsize from their home and move into a smaller unit in a retirement village. In some ways this couldn’t have come soon enough, but now we are faced with the monumental task of going through more than 50 years of stuff deciding what needs to be kept and…

Greetings, “The Answer to the Great Question … Of Life, the Universe and Everything … Is … Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” Deep Thought is the name given to a supernatural- computer in the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy written by Douglas Adams. The computer is programmed to calculate…