Pastoral Letter 218

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I hope you are all doing well and keeping yourselves warm, as we feel the cold of the winter and after few days of sunshine, we are back to torrential rainy days and shivering cold. I hope and wish that the cold would not be a reason not to join others on Sunday for Worship Service.

Last Sunday, we welcomed the new Sydney Central Coast Presbytery Minister of Wellbeing Rev. Punam Bent, who joined us for Sunday Service. She talked about her previous ministries as parish minister, School Chaplain in MLC and PLC, her role as the Presbytery Minister of Wellbeing and preached during the Worship. At Morning Tea we had an excellent fellowship time, as we had a fabulous Morning Tea, rather I would say lunch prepared by Jan Cartwright and displayed Christmas flowers on the tables in the atmosphere of Christmas in July. Thank you, Jan and Brian for all the food prepared and offered to us. Rev. Bent answered all our questions and promised to follow up with the matter and come up with a proposal for the way forward beyond 31 May 2025, when my placement here at St. Andres’s will come to its conclusion.

Tomorrow we will have Combined Service with Lane Cove Uniting Church here at St. Andrew’s, celebrating the 47th Anniversary of the Uniting Church with Communion followed by Morning Tea and fellowship time. Our guest preacher will be Mr. Jim Mien, who was baptised here in our church many years ago. Please make an extra effort to be here with us for worship services, tomorrow.

Our traditional Annual Market Morning is fast approaching, which is on Saturday 3 August from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm and we have only few weeks for preparations. Last week the Church Council/Elders went over the details of the Market Morning, with Dee, as she joined the first part of the meeting. Now it’s time to bring in our donations and let people around us know that we are happy to receive goods for the upcoming Market Morning. I am sure that we will be able to get good results as usual and allocate some money for charitable purposes. Please be available the week commencing on Monday 29 July for setting up the hall. Our aim this year is “everything should go!”.

Please continue to pray for those who are going through difficult and tough times, seeking God’s presence, help and healing and let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.

If you are not able to join us tomorrow for worship, please light a candle, have a small roll of bread and small cup of wine and worship with us following to the attached Order of Service.

Here are some prayer points for this week:

  1. Pray for tomorrow’s Combined UCA Anniversary Service with Lane Cove Uniting and the guest preacher Mr. Jim Mien.
  2. Pray for the Uniting Church, as we celebrate its 47th Anniversary.
  3. Pray for the conflict between Israel and Palestine, hoping for the acceptance of the peace proposal.
  4. Pray for the Artsakh refugees in different parts of Armenia facing many challenges.
  5. Pray for the poor, the sick, the struggling and the stressed.
  6. Continue to pray Virginia and the family as they navigate through this most stormy journey.

Best Regards

In Christ

Krikor