Author Archives: CraigT
Called to Holiness: Lenten Studies 2016
Our ecumenical Lenten studies for 2016 wi
ll consider a recent publication coming out of the Australian Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue, Called to Holiness in Australia.
The document is available here, or copies can be collected from the church after worship closer to the commencement of the study series. You are invited to have read the relevant chapter prior to each session of the study group.
At least two groups will meet for the studies:
Wednesday nights (in conjunction with St Mary’s Anglican Church), February 17-March 9, 7.00pm at St Mary’s Anglican Church, 428 Queensberry St, North Melbourne. This will be proceeded by a light soup and bread meal from 6.30pm. [Note Change of times!]
Friday mornings (in conjunction with Habitat Uniting Church), February 19-March 11, 10.30am at Habitat Uniting Church, 2 Minona St, Hawthorn.
There will also be a Lenten retreat at Habitat on Friday March 18
Please let Craig know if you are interested in one of these study groups, preferably via our registration form; if you’re keen and can’t make one of these, let me know and we might be able to convene another in those weeks. (Contact: Craig Thompson, minister at Mark the Evangelist).
If you would like us to keep you informed about other reading groups like this one, add your email address to our Reading Groups list in the box below. This list is only used to send emails about our reading groups and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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These discussion groups are organised by the Congregation of Mark the Evangelist, (Uniting Church, North Melbourne), in conjunction with Habitat Uniting Church, Canterbury and Hawthorn and St Mary’s Anglican Church, North Melbourne.
December 2015 Crosslight now available online
The October 2015 issue of Crosslight is now available online. Click here to access it.
December 2015 Synod Newsletter
Advent Taize events in Melbourne
Taize CBD Advent Prayer
Where: Wesley Uniting Church, 48 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
When: Monday 21st December
Time: Music practice from 6pm, service commences at 6.30pm; Supper will follow 🙂
Join us for an evening of prayer and reflection during this busy Christmas period!
There is also another Taize advent prayer happening in Box Hill for those who are local:
Advent Taizé Liturgy on Thursday 17th December, 8.00 pm @
St Peter’s Anglican Church 1038 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill.
Volunteers needed!
Keen to help out with the Taize prayers? We are looking for enthusiastic helpers to help with music (instruments and singing!), welcome, set up and pack up and prayer organisation. If you’re keen to be involved, send us an email!
Keen to visit Taize?
A group from Monbulk will be visiting the Taize community in January 2016.
They will be flying from Melbourne to Paris on January 1st, spending some time in Paris, staying at the Catholic hostel, Adveniat, and then proceeding to the Taize community around the 9th January to spend about 9 days.
Anyone who would like to join them is welcome. Please contact Libby Fensham: 0439 756 655
Looking forward to seeing you all at the CBD Taize Advent prayer!
Email: taize.melbourne@gmail.com
Check out our Facebook group:
The Christmas Bowl 2015
Each year Mark the Evangelist encourages its members and others to contribute to the Christmas Bowl, an annual appeal run by Act for Peace which raises funds for various national and international relief projects.
For an introduction to the focus of the appeal this year, click on the video below. The Christmas Bowl’s own home page is here. To contribute to the appeal, go directly to the appeal’s donation page.
Introduction to the Christmas Bowl Appeal 2015
LitBit Commentary – Rowan Williams on grace 1
“The gospel will not ever tell us we are innocent, but it will tell us we are loved; and in asking us to receive and consent to that love, it asks us to identify with, and make our own, love’s comprehensive vision of all we are and have been. That is the transformation of desire as it affects our attitude to our own selves – to accept what we have been, so that all of it can be transformed. It is a more authentic desire because more comprehensive, turning away from the illusory attraction of an innocence that cannot be recovered unless the world is unmade. Grace will remake but not undo.”
Rowan Williams, Resurrection, p.89
Christmas 2015 at Mark the Evangelist
Your are most welcome to join us at our Christmas celebrations this year!
Sunday December 20: a service of Advent carols and readings with Eucharist, 10am.
Christmas Eve: (we have no service at Mark the Evangelist, but commend the Christmas Eve services at St Mary’s Anglican Church – the 4pm “Kids’ Christmas” and the 11.30pm Christmas Eve Midnight Mass)
Christmas Day: Worship with Eucharist, 9.30am
Normal services will continue, 10am, on December 27 and throughout January
Mark the Evangelist Update – November 26 2015
Friends,
the latest MtE news update:
- Advent begins this Sunday! The lectionary readings for the new liturgical year can be found via the link on our worship page.
- There will be a special meeting of the congregation following morning tea on Sunday 6 December to adopt the 2016 Budget and to appoint the auditor for the year ended 31 December 2015. Copies of the Agenda and recommended Budget are available in the narthex on Sunday.
- The most recent update on the Synod’s Major Strategic Review is here.
- St George’s Anglican Church in Travancore has a concert series coming up in 2016 which some MtE folk might be interested in; the details are here.
- You might be interested in an Advent Service at Auburn Uniting Church this coming Sunday.
- AND, see the image below for details of the fundraising concert following worship this coming Sunday November 29!
Craig
LitBit Commentary – Rowan Williams on the Eucharist 13
“Celebrating the Eucharist not only reminds us that we are invited to be guests; it also reminds us that we are given the freedom to invite others to be guests as well. We have experienced the hospitality of God in Christ; our lives are therefore set free to be hospitable… Being in the neighbourhood of Jesus is sharing Jesus’ freedom to invite – to make our lives and our communities places of welcome for those most deeply in need of solidarity, of fellowship.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian, p.46f