Please note the working bee has been deferred from the date given in the Bulletin. It will now be held on Saturday 13 September. Click here to read the Bulletin: Bulletin 080817
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Vulnerable children of Mwandi
17 August, 2008
You may be aware that Ethel’s son-in-law Rev. David Howie is living in a village in Zambia this year. It’s a place called Mwandi, featured in the documentary Seven Days which chronicles the work of an ecumenical project supporting hundreds of ‘AIDS orphans’ and other vulnerable children in the area.
Watch a 5-minute promo for the film here, with the full-length DVD available for loan from the church. Read more about the project and consider ways of getting involved.
Sharing our Space: Multi-faith celebration
15 August, 2008
This International Peace Day, Melbourne’s faith communities are invited to take a step towards reconciliation and understanding with Indigenous Australians. All are welcomed to this free afternoon of ritual ceremony, music, panel discussions, dialogue workshops, celebration and food.
Sunday 21 September
1:30-4:30pm (with vegetarian feast to follow)
Aboriginal Advancement League
2 Watt St, Thornbury
This event is hosted by the Aboriginal Advancement League in Thornbury, the oldest, continuously operating, Aboriginal-run community organisation in Australia. The event has been planned by COMMON (centre of Melbourne multifaith and others network) in consultation with faith community representatives, Aboriginal organisations and traditional Wurundjeri owners.
RSVP jessieeks@hotmail.com or 0411300655
Gospel concert cancelled
13 August, 2008
Regrettably, the Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir concert planned for 29 August has been cancelled.
This popular choir rehearses weekly at the Church of All Nations. Keep an eye on the MMGC website for future concert dates.
Sermon (10 August 2008)
13 August, 2008
by Rev. Dr John Evans
Remember last week – we had all the bread? Bags and bags of it. I suggested that a text for our church be,
‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’
The story of feeding the 5,000 (not counting the women and children) was about how the church responds to “the crowds”, to the sheep without a shepherd. It was about how a small offering, in that instance just five loaves of bread and two fish, could become, like the mustard seed, or the yeast in the flour, food enough to feed a large crowd. Our story dealt with not only the growth and spread of the kingdom of God, but the sort of food that people required – the bread of heaven. In a word, it was miraculous. And yes, it directly addressed us here as we, as the Church of All Nations, endeavour to meet human need around about us.
This week however, the gospel message turns sharply on to us, our faith – and generally how we cope as disciples of Christ, the people called to give others something to eat.
Last week it was feeding the crowds; today it is coping in storms and almost drowning.
By now you will have got a message that there is more …
Sermon (3 August 2008)
7 August, 2008
by Rev. Dr John Evans
Since coming to the Church of All Nations I have thought we need to have a text which guides our thinking, and which could be prominently displayed in the Church – say on the glass as people enter the Church, or even on the front wall.
But what text? Possibly one about all “nations” coming to Jerusalem to be one people - comes to mind – say from Isaiah 2. However, in today’s reading I think we have another candidate.
Jesus addresses his anxious and stressed disciples who have this large and hungry, crowd of people, following and wanting to see and hear Jesus in this deserted place. Jesus says these words:
They need not go away; you give them something to eat. (Mt 14:16)
Could that be our text? Is that the challenge for us here . . . meet the needs of this community. We give them something to eat.
What, however, does it mean?
To answer that question we need first to understand the context of this story in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus has just been told of the death, murder really, of his friend and kinsman John the Baptist at the hands of Herod Antipas. He wants to withdraw – to be by himself. To collect his thoughts. This is not …
The ‘Great Enterprise’ after Iraq
30 July, 2008
John Pace was Chief of the UN Human Rights Office in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, where he was responsible for monitoring the human rights situation and participating in the reconstruction of Iraq. He is in Melbourne next month to give a public lecture entitled, ‘The Great Enterprise After Iraq.’
He will speak about the effects of the invasion of Iraq on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In light of Henri Laugier’s 1946 description of the pioneering work of the UN in human rights as comprising “a great enterprise”, he will present the war in Iraq and its human rights issues within the context of the historic Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
When: 1-2pm, Friday 22 August
Where: Swanston Hall, Ground Level, Melbourne Town Hall, Cnr Swanston and Collins Streets, Melbourne
RSVP castan.centre@law.monash.edu.au or phone 9905 3327
