Posts by Manningham UC

The Community Building Team have implemented a penpal initiative with some of the members of the congregation. Here is a reflection from one partnership: Today is a special day for us. We just found a letter in our letter box from Oliver, our MUC pen pal. We now have three articles on the top of our lounge bookcase that have been sent to us. There is a card with elephants on it, a sand picture of a whale which Oliver…

I was having difficulty reaching my desk through the paper files on the floor. The time for a clean-up had long departed. The urgent need to find a misplaced piece of paper became the motivation to begin. In my clean up, my attention was drawn to a document I found on the floor.  ‘Aerograms from our time in Zambia Africa 1971 to 1973’.      Over 15 years ago, while cleaning out Mum’s house I found tucked away at the bottom…

I asked Mum, “What did you do for a holiday when you were living on the farm”. “Well”, she said, “We never had many holidays. What with draft horses to feed, cows to milk, sheep to check and the chooks to lock up each night, there was always someone needed |at the farm”.  “I do remember one holiday” she said. “I must have been about 12. There was a widespread polio epidemic. Dad packed us all into the Chevy. We…

One evening I noticed a blackbird sitting on the top of our neighbour’s roof. As I looked at the blackbird with its sleek black feathers and golden beak the word relinquishment came to mind. Over the winter months I hadn’t heard it singing and I wondered if it had relinquished its ability to sing because of winter? During our lifetime, we have to relinquish many things ourselves. We’ve had to relinquish babyhood in order to become children. At the other…

Building Bridges Through Story. Today, everywhere we look, everything we listen to or see on TV or read in a newspaper or magazine, is overwhelmingly negative. Will we ever get on top of this virus and be able to keep those we love, safe? With no indication that we will beat this virus some time soon, we had to cancel Building Bridges Through Story for 2020. Well, that’s the disappointing news! How about some good news for a change?  While…

I was sorting through Mum’s old photos when I came across one of the Swan Hill Methodist Church junior choir. There was Mrs Arnott the elderly lady in charge, dressed in her finest outfit, a fox fur draped over her shoulder, hat perched on her head, with matching gloves. And there I was at the end of the front row.  Dad sang tenor in the senior choir. We sang a couple of duets. One, the 23rd Psalm to the tune…

MUC is having a photo competition!  Simply email your happy snaps of God’s glorious creation to communications@manninghamuc.org.  You might even get your picture put on the MUC website! The winners will be announced on the 18th of October and will receive some cool prizes. From the tiniest mustard seed to the biggest mountain you can show off God’s creation in so many ways! We can’t wait to see your photos! More information: Contact Young explorers on 03 03 9846 2012; info@manninghamuc.org

This year our Pet Service was conducted in quite a different way to other years. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic it was conducted online. Initially I thought how can we do this? It was actually a great way to interact with our church family. It was wonderful to see people of all ages bringing their pets online for us to see. Pets included dogs, foster kittens, caterpillars, and chicken. We brought Robbie, our 5-year-old Shetland sheepdog. It is said that…

When one pictures a conference, images of delegates with lanyards around their necks and sandwiches cut into small triangles normally spring to mind. Not so the Climate Pastoral Care Conference, which was 100% online with meals coming from the participants’ own kitchens (and eaten while chatting in front of a screen). Claire and I attended the conference and were able to do so between other commitments while working from home (I actually attended as part of my role with Uniting…