Waranga Churches are Online and Returning to Face-to-Face

Back in  March, following the closure of all church buildings in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Waranga Uniting Churches moved all our Sunday gatherings online.

With the easing of restrictions, we are carefully and incrementally returning to meeting face-to-face as well. We are still restricted in how many people can gather (currently 20) and we are observing social distancing and non-contact practices.

Our Colbinabbin and our Rushworth congregations are meeting each week. It’s pretty much a full house at Colbinabbin which under the social distancing rules has a maximum capacity of 16 people. Rushworth has a much larger space and can cope with the full 20 people permitted at present. Our congregations at Murchison and Tatura will continue to meet on Zoom for a little while longer.

Not a return to normal

This isn’t a return to “normal”, as many people were quarantining and self-isolating before government restrictions came into effect. That won’t change for some people just because the  government says it’s safe to emerge from our homes. We can’t just flip the lights back on and resume church like before.

Online Services to Continue

We have been delighted with the response to our online services and believe that this is a way we wish to continue to reach out to our community, to shut-ins and to people further afield with a message of hope, faith and grace.

Please do not feel pressured to take risks that you are not comfortable with and want to remain quarantined for a little longer.  We will continue to minister to those who feel safer at home and will still stream our service online through Zoom and Facebook.

But wherever you are from, and whatever your tradition, you are welcome to join us.

THIS SUNDAY 12th JULY- LIVE AND REAL: FACE-TO-FACE, ON ZOOM AND ON FACEBOOK

Divided we fall – Sower, Seed, Soil – and Us!

In the last few days the divisive climate of our world has become even more divisive.  The echoes of No More Black Deaths in Custody remind us of the deep divisions in this land between First and Second Peoples – and more recent comers.  We’ve confidently blamed China for coronavirus – but scientific voices now suggest it may have been lurking, dormant, in many lands, until the right conditions prevailed.

We have been saddened by the sudden lockdown in towers and hotspots, then the wider restrictions, reaching Seymour, and closing of the borders not far from us.  Our concern is for the wellbeing of all affected so harshly by lack of food and medication, by threats to livelihoods, by separation from loved ones. It’s little wonder that that other divisiveness, domestic violence, has escalated during Coronavirus.

What have our readings to say to us this week?

Two readings actually focus on division.  We think of twins as having a special bond, but Esau and Jacob, the twins born to Rebekah and Isaac, have strong personal and physical differences, leading to conflict – which begins in the womb. The family is divided, seriously.  This story from Genesis (Gen 25:19-34) is  paired with the well-known agricultural story Jesus tells of the man sowing seed (Matt 13) and focuses not only on the differences but also evokes widely varying responses.  And the Letter (Romans 8) pictures two very different ways of living.

Yet out of these divisions, the problems caused by people, come words of hope and encouragement.  These words speak as clearly to us as to those church communities in the first century.

Join us this Sunday at 9.30 am as we explore them together, as we consider the Sower, Seed, Soil – and Us!

Rather stay anonymous?

We understand that you may prefer to remain anonymous.  It may have been a while since you went to church, maybe you’ve never been to church and are just curious. We understand that you don’t want to be hassled just because you were curious.

If you want to remain anonymous there are four ways you can do it.

• Choose the “Join without video” option. You will be able to see, hear (and talk if you want to)
• Your name also appears in the bottom left of their picture in Zoom. This name will be the one you entered at sign-up. At any time in the meeting you can right-mouse click on your name and change or delete it.
• You can choose to attend via the Livestream option.
• You can watch the recorded service later on the website