National Day of Mourning

On Sunday we will be observing the National Day of Mourning for the Bushfire victims as part of our normal Sunday church meeting. It is an opportunity to 'honour those who have lost their lives, support those who have suffered and recognise the work of our emergency services.' There will be an opportunity to write in the national Bushfire Message Book and we will be ringing the bells for two minutes at 11am like churches across the nation. Our prayers will be particularly focussed on the issues to do with the bushfire situation. Chris.

Archbishop's address at the Connect 09 "Big day in"

Big Day in was great!

If you were at church on Sunday you would have noticed that things were a little different. Instead of our usual service, we joined over 200 Anglican churches around Sydney who tuned into the TV broadcast of the "Big Day in" as part of the connect 09 initiative.

We had interviews with other churches, a kids spot with Colin Buchanan, the band Garage Hymnal played 2 songs, as well as a sermon from Peter Jensen comparing Jonah's experience of Ninevah to Sydney.

It was a great day, and a fantastic way to launch the Connect 09 initiative. If you missed the sermon, you can watch it below:

The Big Day In Sermon from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.

Pot-Luck Lunch

After church today (8 Feb) we will be sharing lunch together in the hall. Brings some food for yourself and also to share.

Help needed in office

Andy Hobbs and I are being delayed getting onto our ministry responsibilities because we are needing to set up the office. Any help you can give early this week would be greatly appreciated (painting, sorting files, cleaning etc.). Talk to myself (Chris) or Andy.

NEXT STEP team meeting at 5pm instead of 4 (Sun 8th Feb)

The last of our 'Next Step' team meetings is on this Sunday at 5pm in the lower meeting room. I will be sharing some ideas I've had about keeping focussed on what it means to 'make disciples'. I want to come away from the meeting having discussed and come up with a good way of talking about this together. (If you haven't come to one of these meetings and would like to come to this one, touch base with me first.)

Connect 09 - Big Day In

Yesterday Orion was able to get the Australian Christian Channel up and running for the Connect09 'Big Day In'. Church will start at the normal time of 9.30am and along with thousands of others across the city we will watch the live broadcast from 10.50am.

Office refurbishment on Friday

Tomorrow (Fri, 6 Feb) we will be painting the two offices and moving new furniture in. It would be great if you could help out. We will be there from a bit before 9am.

Looking for an Anglicare Parish Link Person

Anglicare are making big efforts to partner with local parishes and I've been asked to appoint a 'Parish Link Person'. Catch me sometime if you are interested in this role.