Our tree is coming down. The top was dead and with the driveway being moved to makeway for the new Extended Care Unit of the Swan Hill Hospital, it was time to say goodbye.
Only the trunk is left, and soon it will be gone. What should we plant to take its place, a little further along?
Now the trunk is gone, and the site offices are installed. The old rectories are next on the demolition list.
Our second Cafe Church was a beautifully relaxed evening. Our theme was talents and we began with a very entertaining and thought provoking play about Tom, Dick and Harry called ‘A Nice Slice of Talent.’
We used our talents to create some cards and decorations which will be used in our gift shop for people who are hard pressed to find gifts for loved ones this Christmas.
Linda demostrated how to make these beautiful and surprisingly simple decorations.
Some beautiful Christmas cards were created.
Not everyone was into the craft. Some just enjoyed sitting around the cafe table having a yarn.
Our cafe meal was lasagne, salad and chips, served up beautifully by Marg and Douglas.
Our prayers were written and pegged onto the prayer tree, and then read out by a representative from each table. We finished our prayer time with the Lord’s Prayer, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.
Our next cafe will be Christmas Cafe on Sunday December 21st at the usual time of 5pm. At this cafe we will perform the Christmas play as a practice for Christmas Eve.
A particularly lovely photo of our beautiful Joan.
http://www.theguardian.com.au/story/2684888/ladies-discover-incredible-bond/?cs=1522
The old rectory is going, and the building will begin. Sad to see the two nice houses going before thier time but the new Aged Care wing is long overdue. This is at the back of our church, so we will not be able to drive around the church for the next however long it takes to build.
http://www.theguardian.com.au/story/2672126/new-aged-care-facility-underway/?cs=1522
The display board at the Anglican Church on the corner of McCallum and Splatt Streets is about to experience a new life.
The first sign was erected 30 years ago and carried the cryptic message:-
‘CH—CH .. What is missing? UR’ but that first sign has a long and interesting history.
The concept of ‘church promotion’ or ‘wayside pulpit signs’ as they are now referred was the brain-child of Wayne Lewis, a member of the Church of Christ congregation in Mt Waverley. Over a series of years, as his personal contribution to the community, Wayne produced over 80 interchangeable hoarding signs, all 6’ x 4’ in size, spreading the Church’s commentary and a ‘quotation for the day’ initially addressed to the young families of the then recently settled suburbs of Forrest Hill and Mt Waverley
Wayne was not a sign-writer by calling and in some ways his art was ‘naive’, or amateurish, but his messages gained the attention of many. Signs created by Wayne were loaned to congregations throughout Victoria using a library exchange program which he carefully managed.
Not all were as controversial as the black and white sign exhibited in Swam Hill when, over an AFL Grand Final, the Rector of the day, Fr Max Bowers, hung one announcing ‘Collingwood and Jesus Christ – BOTH WINNERS’, but the signs certainly did create a community impact.
As a relatively young man Wayne suffered a massive coronary attack in the mid-1990s and with his passing in 2009, the program lost impetus and gradually the changing messages ceased to be a feature of Church notice boards.
Fortunately for Swan Hill the cachet of those 80 signs has been located by past residents Robin Poole and Jim Mitchell and they will form the nucleus of a new library of ‘quotation for the day’ on the corner of Splatt and McCallum Streets.
Watch this space!
Jim Mitchell