Author Archives: Jan Harper

The winning angel created by Liz Hartland bears the message of God in the form of an underskirt of Every Day with Jesus.

Last weekend our gorgeous display of angels in Swan Hill Anglican Church Foyer flew home after delighting everyone with the variety of styles all through the Christmas Season. Liz’s entry was awarded the winner’s prize. God bless all who got into the spirit of the collection, and to Ron for adding the effective lighting and restoring Evelyn’s singing angels to full voice..

The church still contains real life angels,( translated “messengers”,)  who come together to share their story then take the message of their faith journey out into the community, where Christian faith is always tested.   Story by Joan Mellahn.

I forgot to take a photo of the when it was cooked. It was huge. It rose so much it was no longer a ring. And it was delicious. Here is the photo showing the last quarter left.

The cake is nicely risen, and in the oven ready to bake. I put yellow, purple and green, (the traditional colours) decorative balls on the cake but they didn’t show up well once it was cooked.

We celebrated Epiphany on New Year’s Day – a little bit early as its feast day is next Saturday 6^th of January.  Our Wise Men have travelled from the back of the church and finally arrive at Bethlehem with their gifts for the Christ Child.  Epiphany is the 12^th day of Christmas and traditionally a time to pack up the Christmas decorations.  The day is also called Three Kings Day or the Twelfth Night.  Many cultures have interesting traditions for Epiphany.  Christmas Carols are sung for the last time.  There are regattas, street parades, river swims and diving into the sea to retrieve a cross thrown by the Bishop.  It is also a time to give a yearly blessing of your home with chalk over your front door.  There are also traditional cakes and we will go with the cake tradition. Last year, or was it the one before, I baked the traditional French cake with a marzipan filling.  This time I went for the Louisiana Traditional yeast cake decorated with fruit and purple green and yellow icing. 

Christmas Services at Swan Hill Anglican Church 46 Splatt Street:

Christmas Eve 24th December

5pm Family Service with Christmas Pageant.

11.30pm Midnight Mass

Christmas Day 25th December

9.30 Eucharist

And at Nyah West 43 Monash Avenue Christmas Day:

8am Eucharist

To all our friends and fellow worshipers:

May the joy of the angels who imparted the vision,

the eagerness of the shepherds who saw the vision,

the perseverance of the wise men who followed the vision,

the obedience of  Mary who gave flesh to the vision

and the peace of the Christ Child who is our vision

be yours this Christmas.

From Rev’ds Jan, Denis and Robyn

The photo of Angels is from our angel display in the church foyer.  It lights up between 8pm and 11 pm each evening during the Christmas season.  Many thanks to all who contributed.

On Sunday 4th of December at Christ Church Swan Hill we were treated to a visit from the Kerang Community Choir to present a Choral Evensong. This ancient traditional service is rarely heard in smaller communities, and an almost ‘full house’ showed much appreciation.

Two of our Swan Hill congregation  are part of the Kerang Choir, and helped organise the visit.

Local historian and author Ian Itter gave the address drawing on his research and writing about the early squatter history of Australia.

The photo of Ian is from the Swan Hill Guardian.  Click to see more.)

At Christ Church Swan Hill we have traditionally celebrated our Name day on the feast day of Christ the King.  This year we celebrated with our new banner made by Helen Gell, (Under construction) and a special cake cut by Ron Murray and Rev’d Jan.  The next week Marg Gardner had created our Advent Wreath and as we lit the special candles week by week; first Hope, then Peace, then Joy then Love, we created the words to add to the banner.  The children decorated the words making a wonderfully colourful display.