Christmas at St Paul's

Christmas greetings and blessings to all. 

Last night's family service at St Paul's was a happy and beautiful occasion.

It was led by Father Constantine and Father Chris Chataway.

Father Chris is the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral here in Ballarat.

He is also St Paul's next door neighbour - living with his family

on the other side of St Paul's carpark!

The Crucifer is Gabriel Waldron - who doubles as Verger at St Paul's.

Wishing you a happy and beautiful Christmastide

from everyone at Advocacy @ St Paul's. 

Celebrating St Francis - 4 October 2015

St Paul's on historic Bakery Hill in ‪#‎Ballarat‬ 

is celebrating St Francis Day to-morrow. 

Please come along to the 10am service and bring kids and pets.

It is also the first anniversary of Advocacy at St Pauls. We are a social and environmental justice group within the Parish of St Pauls - but you don't have to be part of the Parish or even an Anglican to join. 

If you share our interests, you are welcome. 

You can learn more about us by perusing this blog. And stay tuned to us on Facebook and on Twitter. From now until December we have a very full schedule of events: two celebrations of Eureka events; and an environmental sleep-out referencing homelessness. 

So come and share with us.

Meeting times at the top of this blog.

Eid Mubarak - Happy Eid - to all our Muslim friends

May your plate of life be always full of juicy kebabs & tikkas 

topped with the chutney of happiness. 

With best wishes

Eid Mubarak.

Eid al-Fitr

The Bishop came seeking reassurance ....

On the last Sunday of June each year in the church calendar, we remember the giants of the Christian tradition, Peter and Paul.  There are many churches name for one, other or both men.  As Advocates will understand, we are named for St Paul.  The Editor of this blog picked up this morning the Facebook post from St Peter's, Eastern Hill in Melbourne - one of that city's oldest churches. St Peter's website tells us this about themselves:

St Peter's is a place of soul-stirring liturgy, challenging preaching, fine music,
concern for issues of justice and peace - and it is a place of warm care
and welcome: a community gathered in the name of the Lord.

So The Editor wondered on Facebook if an old friend from St Peter's, West End in Townsville had a comment to make.  She did.  Below is the Facebook post with Jenny's comment.

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh

2 hrs · 

Constantine Osuchukwu should like this. While we were celebrating our Patronal Feast at St Pauls Anglican Church, Bakery Hill in ‪#‎Ballarat‬ yesterday on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul. They were celebrating too at St Peter's Eastern Hill in Melbourne. My friend, Jenny Stirling, might like to update on goings on at St Peter's, West End, Townsville.

St Peter's Eastern Hill added 3 new photos.

Savouring the moments at yesterday's St Peter's Patronal Festival . . .

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  Jenny Stirling Yes we celebrated St Peters patronal feast yesterday- the bishop came seeking reassurance that at least one church understands the importance of children in the congregation. Things are dire in NQ. I cannot but think that new wine needs new wine skins.

  Unlike · Reply · 1 ·

Three things are important from Jenny's comments:

1. The importance of children in the congregation.  The presence of children means younger parents - not merely the presence of the aged and ageing.
2. Things are dire in NQ.  Well, Jenny, I won't contradict you there except to say that you are not alone. There are hosts of locations across this continent where the presence of Anglican Christians can be said to be dire - in churches and in communities.
3. New wines need new wine skins.  All communities - whether of faith or not - need regeneration and refreshing to be alive and survive and continue into new generations.  Christians profess that they have a fresh message to give and to live - but how often do we seem to be trotting out the same old wine skins week after week; trotting out ancient platitudes instead of seeking new ways of speaking to the hearts and minds of the 21 Century. 

As a postscript The Editor takes the liberty of reminding fellow Christians of the famous words attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi ---

Preach the gospel, 

and - if necessary - use words.

Ramadan: what it means, what happens.

Currently, our Muslim friends are celebrating Ramadan.  For all that you ever wanted to know and forgot to ask about this important and impressive fasting and feasting period, please read the document below.

Ramadan begins in Australia on Thursday, June 18 2015

Posted from Ballarat Interfaith Network

on Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Ramadan