Waranga Uniting Churches

Colbinabbin, Murchison, Rushworth, Tatura

FAITH | HOPE | MEANING | GRACE | COMMUNITY

Our minister Brian Spencer is on leave for a couple of weeks.

Sunday 24th September 2023

Service led by Joan McRae

Streaming from Murchison 9.30am and via Zoom at Colbinabbin, Tatura, Rushworth, and for folk at home.

Sunday 1st October 2023

Service led by Richard Speedy

Streaming from Colbinabbin 9.30am and via Zoom at Murchison, Tatura, Rushworth, and for folk at home.

Join us as we reflect, worship and share together.   The live Zoom “room” will be open for you to log-in to from 9.00am.  Log-in, chat to others, be the church!

Click on the link below to join the Waranga Cluster Zoom Church Service or watch it on Facebook.
Click the link to join Zoom Meeting
The link above should work without the need for a password, but if it doesn’t you can use the meeting id and password below.
Meeting ID: 932 9667 8964
Password: 491339
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Watch on Facebook Live Streaming

Watch the service here on Facebook

Watch on Facebook

Watch the recorded service later

Facebook records the service and it will be available to watch later or share with others in your family and friendship circle.

 

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

Our church needs your support.

Please consider donating your offering online via the button below
or by direct bank transfer:

Account name:
Waranga Uniting Churches.

Bendigo Bank:
BSB 633-000
Account No:162 446 371.


About us

The Waranga Uniting Churches comprise congregations from the towns of Colbinabbin, Murchison, Rushworth, and Tatura.
You are welcome to join us at any of our worship services or activities.

Many faces… Many places… Many forms
Our congregations throughout the district are caring communities to which all people can belong.
Some of our congregations may be a tiny community of a dozen people, but they are warm vibrant and alive.
They have many faces. There are older people and young, families and single people, people of one culture or many.

While our congregations can be different, each aims to embrace all people… to unite them with each other and with God. This is expressed in part by our having an open table for Holy Communion, to which all baptised people are invited, welcoming children for baptism and being willing to marry those who are divorced.

We are by no means perfect, but we know that God loves us as we are and as we grow. Our congregations are communities in which people seek to follow Jesus, learn about God, share their faith, care for each other, serve the local community, and seek to live faithfully and with real joy. This is the kind of engaging church to which we belong.

Quixote Thinking Blog

Quixote Thinking “sees things different” I live my life by it 

A puzzle for our times

I’ve been drawn into the word-game ‘Wordle’, which is a simple five-letter puzzle. Each day players  have the chance to attempt to guess a mystery word. The twist is that there are ‘no clues’ and players have to guess the word in just six tries. After each guess, the...

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Tightening the belt

I’ve been losing weight. A fair bit of weight actually. So much so that people who haven’t seen me for a while often don’t recognise me at first. Some people are reluctant to mention it, fearing that my weight loss might be caused by severe illness. Others cautiously...

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Something Fishy

Through a combination of prior planning and neglect I’ve discovered that I have fish in my dam. Not just fish but many, sizable Silver Perch. It must have been about 4 years ago I bought a bag of 100 fingerlings at the Epsom Field Days. I released them into the...

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All that is gold does not glitter

“I feel very rich.” So wrote my sister Beth when relating the story of her “new” second-hand fridge. Beth is a writer and poet. I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you that in Australia that is a euphemism for being poor. Beth could have been anything. She was Dux of...

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An Obsession with Mountains and Plains

I’ve spent a week following the footsteps of Major Thomas Mitchell when he explored Victoria in 1836. The Major Mitchell trail was a Bi-Centennial project. I’ve seen the signs to it for over 30 years, but the signs always seem to point at right angles to the way I’m...

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Celebrating Weeds

I’ve been reflecting a lot on weeds for the past couple of weeks as I’ve been out on my morning walk. I stay on the backtracks so the roadsides have been left pretty much to themselves for many years. I’ve been struck by the wide variety of weeds that survive and...

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Quixote Thinking

Don Quixote is a character in a novel by Miguel de Cervantes, first published in 1605. In the “real world” of La Mancha, Spain, Quixote is known as Alonso Quijano, a thin country gentleman, familiar to all as kind and friendly. He lives with his daughter and two servants. As a gentleman, he spends time studying medieval romance stories, full of knights, chivalry, castles, and jousts. This all goes to his head to the point where he goes crazy and actually starts outfitting himself as a knight. He believes that he has been called by voices to change the world and right all wrongs.

At this point in the story, art imitates life and life imitates art as the innkeeper doubles as a duke of a castle who dubs Don Quixote officially as “knight,” and a peasant girl at the inn becomes the princess and lady love for our knight errant. Don Quixote then goes out to fight perceived foes, both real and imagined in the name of his ladylove who stands for purity and perfection. Don Quixote has selective vision of the real world. Windmills are giant brutes, sheep are attacking armies, and slaves are oppressed gentlemen. Quixote is an idealist seeing things through rose-colored glasses at times. He fights impossible symbolic battles while the rest of the world says it can’t be done and mocks him for trying. It is ironic that a crazy man is showing humanity the “right way” to live. This character has survived the centuries demonstrating his universal appeal to all. Don Quixote is something of a Jesus figure, who saw meaning and purpose beyond the surface but endured mockery and humiliation from the crowd. This “fight for the right without question”, having moments of clarity in a sea of confusion and a belief in the transformative power of a crazy vision is what the essence of Quixote Thinking.