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.

Christmas at Summer Hill Church

Christmas is a very special time for us and so we have some special events. On Christmas Eve (24th) we have Christmas for Kids at 6.30pm, Midnight Christmas at 11pm and Christmas Day (25th) we have our Christmas Celebration at 9.30am. Look forward to seeing you there.

Christmas celebrations at the Christmas Tree in Summer Hill

Tonight we're going done to the Christmas Tree on Lackey St and listening to Sel King play. A few of the kids are going to read the bible and I'm going to say a few words as well. Come down and join us!

Christmas Traditions - all ready to go for tonight (Wed 19th Nov)

The upper meeting room is all set up for the 'Christmas Traditions' evening. Christine Jensen will be speaking about Christmas traditions in family life and the significance of Jesus. It starts at 7pm and looks as though it is going to be a great night.

Transfer your keyboard skills over to the organ!

Brian Leung is organising some classes on the organ where the idea is to help people who can already play piano 'transfer' their skills over to our organ. The teacher of the classes is an excellent organist who is very keen to help people make this transition. If you are interested at all catch up with Brian.

Community Working Bee - Sat 8th Dec

Invite everyone you know to lend at hand at our community working bee. It will be a great day to meet people in the community, hear a little about our church and get some important jobs done around the place.

Click on the picture for a larger version.

Not just new to the area, but new to Australia!

The citizenship ceremony I attended made me ask the question, 'how many new people are there in our area?' I searched around on the latest census data and discovered that in some parts of our area 50% of the people are new in the last five years. Not only new to the area, but new to Australia!

I know that 50% just seems like a nice round statistic, but it is hard to comprehend that as you walk past every house and every flat that half the people you see living there were new to Australia in the last five years.

This is the reality of living in an urban context. The suburbs are not like this at all. Our church has this wonderful opportunity of being a Christian community that can welcome these people to our shores.

Check out the 2006 census data for new arrivals in our area.
...and the data for just down Canterbury Road.

(It would be great to have a name for our church that immediately was welcoming to these new people to Australia, and not be at all seen as holding the banner for a denominational/ethnic allegiance)