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To be loved is to be fully known and to fully belong!

This thought has been an abiding theme of mine for the last few months. Some of you will recognise this theme in what you have heard me say, particularly in my preaching. In the past couple of weeks, it has also carried me through the death of my father. After being affected by Vascular dementia for some years, my father died on the 13 August. We were blessed to be able to farewell him as family and friends in St John's Cathedral on Wednesday 19 August.

Thank you for your generous expressions of love and support towards my family and me at this time. We have received many expressions of condolence through phone calls, cards and flowers. I was grateful to those who were able to join us at the funeral as well. I am deeply blessed to be a part of a church in which I experience God's love through others. Through this period, I have had a tangible sense of what we sometimes described as "The peace of God that passes all understanding."

Following the funeral, I have been able to take some time off. There was such busyness before and around the funeral that it was clear that I would need some time to stop before returning to work. I told the wardens "I would listen to my body" to see what I needed to support my well being before returning to work. It appears that my body has spoken and I am going to take a little more personal leave before returning to duties. At this stage, this means that I will not be taking services this Sunday. I remain grateful to The Rev'd Sarah Plowman for stepping in once more. I am also blessed by the support of the administrative and ministry team at St David's to keep things moving along at this time.

When I return in the next week, I am keen to listen carefully to the body, which is our church. We have spent much of the last year just doing what was needed in uncertain circumstances. With so much uncertainty choosing what to do is not much more than gut instinct. I think it is time that we listen deeply to God and each other as we wonder how God might be leading us in the months and years ahead; this includes helping each other to be fully known and to belong fully. In this way, we can move closer to God and each other for an abundant life.

God's Peace

Michael

We have spent the last two weeks transitioning to a hybrid model of worship at St David’s. Much preparation has taken place that has enabled us to comply with the Queensland Health directives as well as moving to live-streaming our worship each week. We are on a steep learning curve, and there have been a few bumps on the way. We continue preparations for the sale of two lots of land next to the hall and the planned maintenance and refurbishment inside the church.

Church Development

If you pass the memorial hall, you will see a new “For Sale” sign in front of Lots 48 and 50 Chelmer Street East. You can see the online advertisement at this link.

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-qld-chelmer-202738458

There is still some work to be completed before any sale can be finalised. We are expecting construction work to begin in mid-August and last about six weeks. This work should not impact on the use of the church hall although there may be increased noise at times. As part of this work an Arborist has been engaged to ensure the well being of the Hoop Pine during construction.

With the excellent progress, we are now making we hope that we will be in a place to proceed with the vital work to care and develop our church building in the latter part of this year.

Live-streaming

As part of our return to gathered worship, we have begun live-streaming our Sunday and Wednesday services. It has not always been smooth as we learn to use this technology. I am particularly grateful to the families from our community who are committing to learn and run the equipment during our services. You can access the Live-stream from several different places that include –

https://www.stdavidschelmer.com.au/online-worship

https://vimeo.com/stdavidschelmer

https://www.facebook.com/stdavidschelmergraceville

Please remember if you would like to attend one of our gathered services we ask that you register thought the parish website or contact the office. These services are at 9.30 am on Sunday and Wednesday.