for the week of 17 November 2019

Presbytery Information Forum – Wednesday Nov. 20th, 7pm @ BCUC
In preparation for the congregation to decide at the Nov 24th AGM whether we will join Generate Presbytery or remain in the default, regional presbytery (named “Presbytery B”), we will host an information forum with special guests: Rev. Steph Tai (Secretary of Generate) and Rev. Sue Page (Assoc. Gen. Secretary from the presbytery restructuring task group). They will be available for a Q and A.

Netball Christmas Celebration – Sunday 1 December, 6pm @ BCUC
Dinner, drinks, and ice cream. Activities, carols, and a Christmas message.  Free! RSVP for catering purposes to bcucnc@gmail.com or call Cathie.

Christmas Psalm Booklet
Please write your own Psalm to share in our Christmas Psalm Booklet.  Psalms teaches us how to relate to God as God’s beloved children, individually and together. Some poetic styles such as Sonnet, Haiku, Acrostic, Free Verse and others can be used to describe God’s nature, His relationship to the world, His Son, His Spirit, and His relationship with you. “Psalms is a form of storytelling. The key to writing is making the audience feel. Give them something to remember and hold onto. It expresses time with God”.  Send your Psalm to bcucchats@burnsidecityuc.org.au

Elder/Church Councillor Nominees
Profiles of nominees standing for Elders to Church Council have been emailed to the congregation.  Printed copies of this booklet are available today at the reception desk.  Voting for Elders will be held at the AGM on November 24th.    Be guided by the Holy Spirit as you consider your vote.

AGM
Please join us for our AGM on
Sunday November 24 at 2pm. The agenda, budget, Annual Report, and Elder nominee profiles have been emailed to members.  Paper copies are also available at the reception desk.

Mid Week Communion
A communion service will be held Monday November 18th at 2pm in the Chapel.  All are invited.

Unwrapping Joy – Wednesday Study Group
As a follow-on from our recent Alpha event, we are holding a five session study series Wednesday lunch times (12 noon). We are using Benji’s book, “Unwrapping Joy”, which focusses on the joy of Jesus’ arrival here on earth, and the joy that we can experience as believers. We meet at BCUC and bring our own lunch to eat with others in community. This Wednesday will be our second week but please feel free to join in and to invite anyone else to these sessions, as we look forward in joyful anticipation to Christmas time as a celebration of Jesus’ birth.

for the week of 10 November 2019

Presbytery Information Forum – Wednesday Nov. 20th, 7pm @ BCUC
In preparation for the congregation to decide at the Nov 24th AGM whether we will join Generate Presbytery or remain in the default, regional presbytery, we will host an information forum with special guests: Rev. Steph Tai (Secretary of Generate) and Rev. Sue Page (Assoc. Gen. Secretary from the presbytery restructuring task group). They will be available for a Q and A.

BCUC Sat Friendship Club
The Christmas dinner & AGM for the Sat Friendship club will be held on Sat 16th November. Time 6:30pm. The theme is “Bells” & there will be special entertainment. The cost is $35 and pay Peter Foord. Closing date 10th Nov. All church members & friends are invited.

Unwrapping Joy – Wednesday Study Group
As a follow-on from our recent Alpha event, we are holding a five session study series over the next five Wednesday lunch times (12 noon), starting on November 13th. We will use Benji’s book, “Unwrapping Joy”, which focusses on the joy of Jesus’ arrival here on earth, and the joy that we can experience as believers. We will at BCUC and bring our own lunch to eat with others in community. Please feel free to invite anyone else to these sessions, as we look forward in joyful anticipation to Christmas time as a celebration of Jesus’ birth. 

Elder/Church Councillor  Nominees
The nomination period for Elders of Church Council has closed. Names of the nominees (new and renominating) can be seen today on the scrolling notices before service and on the foyer TV screens. Introductory statements from  nominees will be emailed  to the congregation midweek.  Printed copies will be available at service next Sunday.  Voting for Elders will be held at the AGM on November 24th.

AGM
Please join us for our AGM on
Sunday November 24 at 2pm. Reports have been emailed to members and paper copies are now available at the reception desk.

BCUC Cares
Your continued donations of food and toiletries for people in need is greatly appreciated. Please consider donating more toiletries as they are regularly in short supply.

for the week of 3 November 2019

Single Worship Service
Membership Celebration
& Vision Launch

followed by an
International Shared Lunch

10:00am  Sunday November 10

BCUC Youth Group
After a great trial run, we’re having another go. Come along this Friday night 8th November (we plan to run fortnightly). 6pm for worship jam (a combo of band and sports). 7pm bring your friends along for dinner, games, a message, small groups and hangout. Finish between 9-9:30.  All at BCUC. Talk to Tim or Benji.

Monday Day Fellowship
The Bus Trip on November 4th is to a very interesting Gallery collection of Royalty Memorabilia from King William to Queen Elizabeth. There will be a talk on the 7 reigns of South Australia followed by afternoon tea. Meeting at the church at 12.50. The cost will be $22. If you are coming make sure you give your name to Ruth Daws and ensure your have it noted in your diary.

BCUC Sat Friendship Club
The Christmas dinner & AGM for the Sat Friendship club will be held on Sat 16th November. Time 6-30pm. The theme is “Bells” & there will be special entertainment. The cost is $35 and pay Peter Foord. Closing date 10th Nov. All church members & friends are invited.

International Lunch – Help Needed
We are hoping to have a great variety of  representative international and Australian dishes for our shared lunch on Nov. 10. Please contact Joy or Gaynor if you have not done so already to let her know what you can contribute or if you are able to help with clean-up afterwards.

Seeking Pastoral Care Worker (aka “School Chaplain”) Glenunga Intl. High School
Closing date:  10am, Monday 11th November. For details go to:  www.smg.asn.au or see the flyer on  our notice board.

Another Book Give-Away– TODAY
In the foyer, from today. Your chance to own a good Christian book for FREE.

AGM
Please join us for our AGM on
Sunday November 24 at 2pm. Reports will be available from Sunday November 10.

Elder/Church Councillor  Nominees Closing Nov 3
Nominations are open for Elders /Church Councillors. If you feel that God is calling you to serve BCUC in this role, please pick up an information sheet and nomination form at the reception desk. Nominations close TODAY.  Note that term limits for serving on Church Council have been removed and the term for newly elected members is now up to 5 years (in accordance with the UCA Constitution).

Made Man

If you were asked :”WHO IS JESUS?” how would you answer…

Christians hold that Jesus is fully GOD and fully MAN, but what does that actually mean ? How does that work, and does it actually matter ?

The author, CRAIG HAMILTON takes us through the incarnation of Jesus, followed by the history of the early church, grappling to understand what it means and why it matters that God becomes man.

Today, we are standing on the shoulders of all the thinking and debating, heresies and conclusions of the Councils of the Church, to affirm the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ being God in the flesh.

“He is, without qualification and without exaggeration the most Impressive Person to have ever existed.”

Take time to read and digest this book ; it is clearly written and without “theological jargon”.

The book will be on display on the Activities Room ’shelf.

Total Truth

Is religion only a private matter, or does God belong in the public arena?

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, in examining this question, follows in the line of, and further develops, Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live and Charles Colson’s How Now Shall We Live. Both these books are in the Library.

Subtitled Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, Total Truth presents a readable and insightful challenge to evangelical Christians to understand all of society and life through a Christian (biblical) worldview rather than a secular one that some Christians have adopted. That secular worldview is limited to our culture and binds Christians, who restrict their faith to only the private sphere, leaving it at Church each Sunday.

As our worldview governs our thinking, Pearcey encourages readers to develop and apply a biblical worldview to all of life, arguing that this gives us “a biblically informed perspective on all reality,” – a Total Truth – which enables us to see things more clearly and which we can take into our daily life and the world in which we live, i.e., the public sphere. In this way, Christianity is able to challenge, redeem and renew culture.

Total Truth comprises 4 parts. Part 1 explains how to build a Christian worldview by starting at the beginning – in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – and the Bible’s teaching that God is the only source of the whole created order, and seeing all of history through Creation, Fall, and Redemption. From here Part 2 examines Creation and science; Part 3 the decline of Christian thought over the ages; and Part 4 how to apply a Christian worldview, and integrate our faith, in all of life and daily living under the Lordship of Christ.

Pearcey shows what this Total Truth means for areas of family, business, public policy, education, arts, science, music, law, politics and Christian involvement in society. She “walk(s) you through practical, workable steps for crafting a Christian worldview in your own life and work” and applying it “to cut through the bewildering maze of ideas and ideologies we encounter in a postmodern world. The purpose …. is nothing less than to liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity, unleashing its power to transform the world.”

Pearcey believes:

“The most effective work …. is done by ordinary Christians fulfilling God’s calling to reform culture within their local spheres of influence – their families, churches, schools, neighbourhoods, workplaces, …. and civic institutions.”

Although written in 2004, Total Truth is a book highly relevant today. The foundation and explanations laid down by Pearcey are most helpful for Christians in the present day to understand that God belongs in the public arena and responds to the push to exclude the Christian faith from the public sphere.

Koorong also has Total Truth available in a Study Guide Edition (paperback and eBook) – https://www.koorong.com – which would be a practical way of reading the book and understanding its message.

They Crossed a Continent – Margaret Somerville

Battle of Australia Medal (1991) – (1912-2014) This is the story of a wartime exodus from Crocker Island to Sydney. Crocker Island is situated off the North West Coast of Arnhem Land and was home to 95 mixed Aboriginal and white blood children who were abandoned by both Aboriginal and white parents and so were then gathered from government institutions and taken into the Methodist home. They were mainly girls, who were the responsibility of missionaries Margaret Somerville and two other white women. Boys were under the care of the male Superintendent.

With the Japanese advancing the War towards the Northern Territory the priority from December 1941 was to evacuate civilians. The three white women were ordered to leave the Island but they refused opting to remain to look after the children. Darwin was bombed and eventually in April 1942 the children and the women were transported from the Island on a small ship the Larrpan to the mainland. From there followed a six week journey living off the land with small supplies of mainly flour and rice, travelling by truck and trekking through heavy bushlands. They eventually arrived at the rail link in Pine Creek (150 Km south of Darwin). From there, they travelled by cattle train to Birdum and on to Katherine by military trucks to Alice Springs. More rail journeys were made to Adelaide, Melbourne, Albury and finally arriving at Oxford Homes in Sydney.

After the war Crocker Homes was renamed Somerville Homes after Margaret and many children returned there. The facility relocated to Darwin in December 1968. Margaret had returned to Sydney in 1965 to care for her aging parents.

Footnote. While many in BCUC may likely be conversant with this amazing story of courage commitment, determination and care, for me, not coming from Australia, this epic journey was unfamiliar until I saw the book on the Church Library shelf. Recommended reading.

for the week of 20 October 2019

Membership Sermon Series
October 20, 27 & November 3

Single Worship Service
Membership Celebration & Vision Launch
followed by an International Shared Lunch
10:00am  Sunday November 10

 

AGM
Please join us for our AGM on
Sunday November 24 at 2pm. Reports will be available from Sunday November 10.

International Lunch Contributions
We are hoping to have a great variety of  representative international and Australian dishes for our shared lunch on Nov. 10.  Please see the flyer handed out  last Sunday for details. Copies  available at the reception desk.

Elder/Church Councillor  Nominations
Nominations are open for Elders /Church Councillors. If you feel that God is calling you to serve BCUC in this role, please pick up an information sheet and nomination form at the reception desk. Nominations close on November 3.  Note that term limits for serving on Church Council have been removed and the term for newly elected members is now up to 5 years (in accordance with the UCA Constitution).

Presbytery Information Forum
Wednesday Nov. 20th, 7pm @ BCUC
In preparation for the congregation to decide at the Nov 24th AGM whether we will join Generate Presbytery or remain in the default, regional presbytery, we will host an information forum with special guests: Rev. Steph Tai (Secretary of Generate) and Rev. Sue Page (Assoc. Gen. Secretary from the presbytery restructuring task group). They will be available for a Q and A.

for the week of 13 October 2019

Elder/Church Councillor  Nominations
Nominations are open for Elders /Church Councillors. If you feel that God is calling you to serve BCUC in this role, please pick up an information sheet and nomination form at the reception desk. Nominations close on November 3.

Membership
Starting next week, the whole of BCUC will be having a 3-week membership course as part of the Sunday sermons. We finish on November 10 with a membership celebration service where we will celebrate those who reaffirm, transfer, or become BCUC members. We will also hear about our vision launch as we look into where in God’s name we will be going at BCUC over the next three years. Talk to the ministers or Stuart to find out more.

Pastoral Contact Tea
This is a reminder to the more than 60 BCUC Pastoral Contacts and also an invitation to anyone interesting in finding out more about this important role. You are invited to a “Thank God you’re here!” afternoon tea and Pastoral Contact workshop. Sunday October 20th, 2:30pm at BCUC. Benji will run a workshop on “Confident Caring”. He will use biblical examples in a fun, interactive and informative way to build our confidence to pastorally care for the children of God. We encourage you to attend. Afternoon tea will be provided.  RSVP to Ruth or Di.

Community Outreach – Help Needed
Staff Appreciation Tea, Marryatville HS
BCUC is hosting a Staff Appreciation Morning Tea at Marryatville High School (on behalf of the Burnside Interchurch Council). Are you able to support this event by providing a plate of savoury or sweet items? If so, please deliver your food items to BCUC on Wednesday October 16 between 9:00am and 10:00am. Thank you for your help!

BCUC’s Walk on Country
On Monday twenty five people aged between three and eighty three enjoyed a Walk on Country learning more about the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and visiting sites from Eden Hills to Port Noarlunga. Many thanks BCUC Cares. A memorable day.

Saturday Friendship Club
Saturday October 19th “Quire St Nicolas” will present a mixed music programme.  7-15 for a 7-30pm start. Basket supper. Visitors welcome. Also…an advance notice for the Club Christmas dinner on November 16, 6:30pm. Cost : $35 payable to Peter Foord. Tickets available at October meeting. The theme is Bells.

Monday Day Fellowship
On Monday October 14th at 1.30p.m Wendy Perkins from Synod will speak on “Disaster Relief within the Uniting Church”. Fellowship and congregation members, join us for this informative meeting. Afternoon tea will be supplied.

for the week of 6 October 2019

Community Outreach – Help Needed
Staff Appreciation Tea, Marryatville HS
BCUC is hosting a Staff Appreciation Morning Tea at Marryatville High School (on behalf of the Burnside Interchurch Council). Are you able to support this event by providing a plate of savoury or sweet items? If so, please deliver your food items to BCUC on Wednesday October 16 between 9:00am and 10:00am. Thank you for your help!

BCUC’s Walk on Country
On Monday twenty five people aged between three and eighty three enjoyed a Walk on Country learning more about the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and visiting sites from Eden Hills to Port Noarlunga. Many thanks BCUC Cares. A memorable day.

Monday Day Fellowship
Our next meeting focuses on “Disaster Relief within the Uniting Church”. Wendy Perkins from Synod has been invited to speak on this subject. The meeting is on Monday October 14th at 1.30pm. Fellowship and congregation members, do join us for this informative meeting. Afternoon tea will be supplied.

Membership
In November the whole of BCUC will be having a 3-week membership course as part of the Sunday sermons. We finish with a membership celebration service where we will celebrate those who reaffirm, transfer, or become  BCUC members. We will also hear about our vision launch as we look into where in God’s name we will be going at BCUC over the next three years. Talk to the ministers or Stuart to find out more.

Money Raised for Frontier Services
Thank you to everybody who supported the Frontier Services fund raiser on Sunday 29th September. As a result of the retiring offering and the sausage sizzle a total of $1.070.30 has been forwarded to Frontier Services.

Saturday Friendship Club
The next club meeting will be on Sat October 19th. It will be a very good choir called “Quire St Nicolas”. They will present a mixed music programme. The club is subsiding the event, so it will be the normal $3. 7-15 for a 7-30pm start. As usual provide a basket supper. Visitors welcome.Also… an advance notice for the Club Christmas dinner on November 16, 6:30pm. Cost : $35 payable to Peter Foord. Tickets available at October meeting. The theme is Bells.

SURRENDER : Interwoven
This conference focuses on Christian discipleship as Gospel focused social justice.  Join Benji and others in attending October 11 + 12.  Details in Foyer.

for the week of 29 September 2019

ALPHA
On Wednesday we finished our lunchtime Alpha. Nearly 30 people participated and it has been a transformation event for many. The joy of seeing others develop a deeper relationship with Jesus is breathtaking! Thanks to all those who helped organise, pray for and supply lunches. It has been a significant event for raising children of God. On Wednesday October 16th we will have a final celebration lunch together as people share stories about what God has been doing in their lives.

Operation Christmas Child
Tomorrow, Monday Sept 30th at 9.30am in the Hall, we will pack our shoeboxes of gifts to go to children in developing countries.  Please feel free to join us and help pack or just to see the program in action. Alison Elliss, our Area Coordinator, will be joining us. Children are most welcome. Morning tea will follow. Enquiries to Di Croft.

SAYCO presents : Lost / Found Youth Festival
Lost/Found is a 1 day festival of games, art, food trucks, 3-on-3 basketball, worship, live music, a marketplace and a message about being found from Pastor Mike Wardrop of Encounter Church.  12 October, 3-9pm, Adelaide West Uniting Church. Cost: $20 per person. Tickets at https://sa.uca.org.au/sayco.

Membership
In November the whole of BCUC will be having a 3-week membership course as part of the Sunday sermons. We finish with a membership celebration service where we will celebrate those who reaffirm, transfer, or become  BCUC members. We will also hear about our vision launch as we look into where in God’s name we will be going at BCUC over the next three years. Talk to the ministers or Stuart to find out more.

BCUC’s Walk on Country #1
If you would like to learn about the traditions and experiences of the original inhabitants of the Adelaide Plains, the Kaurna people, join us on Monday 7th October (Labour Day Public Holiday) for a bus and walking tour of five significant sites south of Adelaide, led by Uncle Frank Wanganeen, a Christian Kaurna man. For further information about the tour, or to register your interest, see the information sheets and registration forms in the foyer, or speak to Gaynor Strapp (0450310591) or Peter Shackleford (0403160741).

SURRENDER : Interwoven
The accelerating polarization of the globe, our society, and even the church is at odds with Jesus’ identity as the Prince of Peace for all the world, and his command for us to love each other. Yet the work of His Kingdom continues unceasingly, as God continues to weave the torn parts of our universe back together, thread by thread. Details for this event are available in the foyer.  October 11 + 12.