The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTERLink to > CouncilAgenda20241114 > CouncilAgenda20241114
Ministry Team report November 2024
1. Ian
1.1. Recommendation
that church Council approves two weeks holiday for Ian from 6th to 19th January 2025.
1.2. An Update on my Health
I have been suffering significant side effects from my arthritis medication (disturbed sleep, nausea, brain fog) which have been interfering with my work.
My rheumatologist is moving me to a new medication which will hopefully take away the afternoon exhaustion and memory failures!
Had an excellent long weekend camping with my family in Wilson’s Promontory where I got to play with my new birding lens (see https://adobe.ly/4elVXHD).
I am planning two weeks holiday in January (6-19).
1.3. Worship
Met with the new Worship Oversight Group (see separate report).
Helped celebrate BillMorgan’s 109th Birthday.
Attended the Australian Church Women Community Day Service
Advent planning is in full swing.
1.4. Pastoral Care and Community
(excluding confidential conversations and pastoral visits)
I conducted two funerals (Betty Andreola and DonnaVanclay) and attended a third (MikePatterson).
Attended Tabletop Games evening
1.5. Missional Church
Experienced and photographed my first Fete.
Attended a Discourse on Social Cohesion run by the Bahai Community.
Attended lunch with The Hub group.
Attended Hub Seniors Morning Tea
Participated in the Hub Small Group planning meeting for 2025 and facilitated the Hub volunteers morning tea conversation.
1.6. Wider Church
Met with my ministry supervisor.
1.7. Other Tasks Undertaken
Committee Meetings in the past month: Worship Oversight, Finance
2. Di
The year seems to be galloping along and we are almost half way through November and Christmas just around the corner. It is a busy time at both Churches with folk in hospital, rehab, transitional care and respite. We have had a few funerals at GWUC and one at Charman. I was honoured to preside at the funeral in Black Rock and one of the funerals at GWUC
The renovations at Cheltenham are moving slowly and we hope to be in the new building sometime in June 2025. We had a photo shoot at the site for an article for Crosslight.
Attended a morning information session at WD Rose East Brighton, which was very helpful and it was good to meet some of the Ministry Agents in the area. The biggest effort for all the Church members at GWUC was the annual fete. There was a busy time setting up, a busy time on the day and a busy time packing up. I had to leave before I could do much packing up as it was a celebration for my 99-year-old Mother-in-Law’s birthday.
The Bayside area Church reps met at the Presbytery Office to share where we are at and what the future looks like for ministry and mission in the area. We will meet again this month to further discuss some next steps.
The HUB put on another successful Senior’s morning tea to raise money for Motor Neuron.
GWUC hosted World Fellowship Service where we collected Least Coin donations for the year from many of the Churches in the area. I was the guest speaker at the service.
Charman met with Sandringham Church for a short worship followed by 2 sessions with Karina Kreminski a minister from Surrey Hills in Sydney who a mission catalyst. The sessions were excellent and we are looking forward to having her speak at Presbytery next year.
I have done my Safe Church Training and am awaiting my certificate. I have had supervision, MLDC meeting, Strathdon, ministry support group, team meetings, visiting and an enjoyable day in the garden on Cup Day, thank you all.
Coatesville Church are waiting for the next step.
I am taking some leave to visit my brother who is unwell, I will be away from 22nd November to 26th November.
- Pastoral Care.
3. Chris Waddell
We are rapidly approaching Advent and the end of the year. Since our last meeting I have had my one year anniversary at GWUC and I took part in my second fete. The fete didn’t disappoint, last year I was a bit like a deer in the headlights but this year I was able to immerse myself in the fete. It is not just a day but a fortnight of activity. The community (inside and out) rallying together to put on a great event. A lot of prayer, sweat, energy and everything else goes into the event. It is great to see so many people from all generations working together. I love to see the outside community come and embrace the event and the church. I love that we are bold in declaring where the profits go to. I am still smiling when I think about the day and the impact that it has.
Our Friday night youth group continues to be a highlight for our youth. I was reflecting over the year and we have found some small growth since the start of the year. We have now added 4 regulars over the last few months and we are getting more numbers weekly than we did at the start of the year. We are averaging about 10 per night. Which is great for term 4 as this when numbers start to decline because of exams. While we have had some youth stay home because of other commitments, the introduction of the new people have kept numbers constant. Again in an perfect world if all our youth came at once we would have over 20 youth come but it has been encouraging to see the small growth within the group. Also we have reintroduced a small devotional in the middle of the night. It has been great to have the group discuss topics and themes relevant to them from a Christian perspective. This was something that happened a few years back but it hasn’t happened for the year or so leading up to my appointment. The youth have really embraced the topics and themes and learning more about each other and the love that God has for them.
Finally with youth group we have a couple of youth that are graduating from the schooling. After finishing year 12, some youth groups would not them come any more and they would move into other areas of the church. we have decided that if the youth want to stay on at youth group that they are welcome to be part of the Friday night youth group. for this group of youth we feel that this cohort is a close bunch of friends, Which help each other grow in their faith. While we will be exploring more options for these young adults to grow in their faith we have extended youth group to allow them to come to Friday nights. We will also be giving them some leadership responsibilities.
We had our 2 board game nights over the last couple of months. We tried 2 different time slots. We had over 10 to the first afternoon session and then just under 10 for the evening session. What was interesting to note was that we had different people at each session. There was a great mix of ages and different people from each of the different church services. it was a great time of fellowship and I got to learn a few new games. I think this was a good success and we will look to having some more events like this in the future.
You may have noticed that I wasn’t around at church on Sunday morning, some of you were aware that I had one of my allocated quarter Sundays off. It was refreshing to have no duties on Sunday. I didn’t realise how much headspace a Sunday takes up until you don’t have to do anything it. I was reflecting this with Ian and we both realised that we need to do this more often. We both didn’t use our allocated time this year. We are going to discuss how we can fit this into our schedules going forward. I also need to ask the council if I can take some annual leave in January. I realised that I haven’t taken much annual leave since my time at GWUC. I aim to take two weeks in January from January 6th to January 19th. We have discussed it as a ministry team and we have discussed how to cover my absence.