Artistic church
Tuesday, 11 January, 2005
On Sunday Ben and I thought we ought to show our faces at Petersham Evening Church, given we're going to be working with them this year. We showed up quite unexpectedly—didn't even think to warn Malcolm. The church meets in the hall of All Saint's Anglican in Petersham. Well, now that the council has declared the actual church building unsafe (even though it's been standing for almost a hundred years), all church happens in the hall. The hall is rather old-looking and churchy itself and you have to poke around a little to find it. It has those old windows that you tilt to let the air in and dark wooden floorboards. Church was set up a bit like Christians in the Media—a dais halfway along one of the sides and the chairs fanned out around it. They also had a data projector and another one of those clear perspex boxes that Deb doesn't like very much.
There was a little trolley where you could get coffee, tea or nibblies before the service began. We sang your standard repertoire of evangelical EMU hits (sorry, I know I shouldn't be so sarcastic about it) with a bit of Ruth Buchanan thrown in for good measure. There was a break in which one could get more tea/coffee/nibblies (I guess in an Anglican church they'd call this the “greeting time”). There was also a Powerpoint slideshow set to music which raised the issues of that night's talk (Anthony Barraclough speaking on the topic of holy war in relation to Joshua 5-6).
One entire side of the bulletin (which was quite professionally printed) was devoted to the talk outline with plenty of space to write notes (I like that!) Anthony's talk was great. I especially liked how he took the time to look at the systematic theology of holy war—from the Old Testament, to the cross, to answering the question of “What does this mean for us?” and then drawing us neatly to Ephesians 6 (that holy war is the war we fight against sin but God has clothed us with his armour and given us the great weapon of his word). After the sermon there was some more singing and a time of open prayer. I was struck by the way that people didn't wait but just jumped in and prayed one after the other about all sorts of things.
After the service I caught up with Emma whom I knew from UNSW who also happened to be visiting that evening with a friend (she might stay—how cool is that!). As is the custom at PEC, we all ate dinner together and then helped with the washing up and setting up of chairs. I ended up chatting to the mother of Jono's girlfriend who is a missionary with her husband in India with Interserve. We also met a guy who will be starting at Moore this year too whose name is also Ben (well, that's easy!) We finally took our leave and drove home at 9 pm.
It's weird to think that we're no longer at St. Michael's anymore and, in a sense, we're starting again with a new church (with respect to the whole building relationships process). We already know some people at PEC already which helps ... I guess I wish I could skip the adjustment phase and move straight into the “I'm comfortable here now” phase. (Don't we all ...)
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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Yeah Baz (Anthony) is the best, he was my Bible study leader for a year, say Hi from Phil from St Clements Mosman. He very rarely says anything I disagree with and - thats sweeeeet-as.
Will do, Philip!