Cornwall Street Anglican Church, Port Vila

??????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????This morning Judy and I went for a walk and on the way back I saw a shed that seemed to be set up with pews as if it were a church.  I looked inside and I could see an Anglican Mother’s Union banner.  It is less than a block away and I walked for half an hour to get to the Presbyterian Church I went to on Sunday.  Yet I had asked the staff at our hotel about an Anglican Church and they hadn’t seemed to know.  And would they have directed me to this very humble Anglican Church if they had known it was there?  Or was this one considered unacceptable for a Western visitor?  I decided that as our church is open for visitors, I would assume this one was too.  It had no door to keep us out.  This was the very simplest of worship spaces; still looking magnificent with Bird of Paradise and Heliconia flowers in large vases inside and a vine with yellow flowers growing over the roof.  Purple cloth lined the walls.  The dirt  floor was covered in tiny white stones or coral.  We went in and sat for a while in silent prayer.  Children came over and sat with us, but after a little while an adult called them away.  I wish I was still here this Sunday, to worship there.

Nagire Presbyterian Church, Port Vila

???????????????????????????????The Nagire Presbyterian Church in Port Vila, Vanuatu, sends good wishes to Christ Church Anglican Church Swan Hill; I worshipped there this morning.  It was a bit hard trying to track down church addresses and times. The Anglican service was at 7.30 in the morning and I couldn’t get an address.  Though this one that I attended was supposed to start at 10 am but we were singing choruses for half an hour before the actual service started at 10.30.  I took the photo soon after I arrived and the church filled up much more.  The band sits at the front and faces the altar. I think there were two or three guitarists. The women sit on the pews on the right side and the men on the left.  The service finished about 12.30 so 2 and a half hours on wooden pews without backs was quite a commitment.  The women all wore the beautiful colourful traditional dresses, and I wish I had bought one to wear. (I had looked at them but with such a range, it was too hard to decide which one to buy). None of the women wore slacks.  The men do usually wear trousers but there is a short sarong option called a sulu.

I felt very much welcomed although I was the only Westerner there.

The sermon was all about seeking first the Kingdom of God.  This was a Bislama language service, but the leaders seemed to move back and forward from Bislama to English and I found it easy enough to get the general idea, though I missed out on understanding the jokes.

I was particularly looking forward to the singing and I wasn’t dissapointed.  The pronunciation of Bislama follows mostly the same rules as Indonesian, so I was able to sing along.

Here is the Lord’s Prayer in Bislama:

Papa blong mifala, we yu stap long heven,
nem blong yu i tambu.
Mifala i wandem we olgeta man oli ona long yu,
mo we yu yu kam king blong olgeta man,
mo we olgeta man long wol oli mekem olsem we yu yu wandem,
olsem we olgeta long heven oli stap mekem.
Plis yu givim kakae long mifala, i naf blong tede.
Yu fogivim mifala from ol sin blong mifala,
olsem we mifala i stap fogivim ol man
we oli mekem i nogud long mifala.
Yu no letem ol samting oli kam traem mifala tumas,
yu blokem Setan i no kam spolem mifala.
From we yu nomo yu King,
yu nomo yu gat olgeta paoa,
mo ol gudgudfala samting oli blong yu nomo,
gogo i no save finis. Amen

Christ Church Cafe

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??????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????Christ Church Swan Hill’s first Cafe Church was held at 5pm on Sunday 17th August. We turned the foyer of our hall into a cafe for the evening, with real coffee.  The Cafe Team catered for 30 and 50 people turned up.  Luckily we had catered generously.  We told the bible story of Joseph and his brothers.  Jon Roberts was Joseph and Don Baker and the younger people at the cafe were Joseph’s brothers.

???????????????????????????????All ages joined in our activites on the theme of Forgiveness making our hands into hearts and writing things we learned about forgiveness, around the heart.  We looked in newspapers and magazines to remind us of thing to pray for and shared our prayers. It was a wonderful friendly night with everyone joining in and mistakes were part of the fun.

Our next Cafe Church is planned for Sunday 15th November but we plan to have a few other different services in that 5pm Sunday time slot before then.

National Day of Mourning

???????????????????????????????At the close of the Prime Minister’s address at the service for the National Day of Mourning, Rev’d Jan Harper tolled the bell at Christ Church Swan Hill fortyone times, remembering the 38 Australian passengers who died, and three more for the other passengers, the aircrew, and all those affected by this terrible tragedy. Candles had been lit in the Lady Chapel , across the altar and windowsills, and parishioners were invited to spend a time of meditation, reflection, and prayers for peace in the world as quiet music played.

One who attended recalled a similar gathering during the funeral of Princess Diana, when “Pavanne for a Dead Princess” was played as prayers for her family, and especially for her young boys, were offered at the altar.

Joan Mellahn