Waranga Uniting Churches

Colbinabbin, Murchison, Rushworth, Tatura

FAITH | HOPE | MEANING | GRACE | COMMUNITY

 

Sunday 26th March 2023

Lent 5: the Disruption of Death.

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

This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Church’s Season of Lent, the last Sunday of  our journey with Jesus towards the Cross. The following Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week and our remembering Jesus’ Passion.

This Sunday we hear together the story of the raising of Lazarus, which sets in motion the moves that lead to the arrest, condemnation and execution of Jesus. Going to Judea to give life to one he loves will in the end cost Jesus his own life. The story final in a series of ‘signs’ in John’s Gospel that anticipates and points to what God is doing in and through in the life, death and risen life of Jesus the Christ. The story taps into and addresses the disruption of death, and its associated grief. At the heart of the story we hear the affirmation ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ and we ponder what that means for us in the face of death, our own and that of those we love.

Join us on Sunday as we reflect, worship and share together.  The service led by Tim Angus.

The service will start at 9.30am. 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

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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 

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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I saw the light

I am the youngest of four brothers and grew up on a dairy farm at Yarra Glen. There were six children in our family, but the two girls were spared from farm work. As the youngest brother, I was assigned the most menial tasks. My older brothers on the other hand took...

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Small and Significant

We bought a new fermenter. It was big, and bright, being made of shiny, stainless steel. Three times as large as our existing fermenters, we expected it to significantly increase production. And it almost worked! The brewers were very keen to begin using this new...

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Orphan Lambs

I’ve been hand-rearing a couple of lambs. One of the lambs is an orphan, the other rejected by its mother. They are cute looking little beasts, Merino/Suffolk crosses with black markings on their heads and legs. I’m going to give you the long version of how  I came to...

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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.