2 Wolseley Grove Brighton Beach

Victoria 3186 Tel. 9519 1400 Email contact@stleonards.org.au

www.stleonards.org.au

Family Children & Youth Ministry Coordinator: Kaylea Fearn

Church Council Secretary: Moira Doyle

Chair: Wendy Adams

doctors, counsellors and many others

responded to the invitation.

From the cold of the outside weather

there was a warm and enthusiastic

climate in the new centre. In opening

the “Centre for Living and Growing” Tim spoke of the need for group

formation and care in our increasingly

individualistic society. He spoke warmly of this initiative, especially in

that services would be available to all

without cost.

A new dream for a new season

The dream . . . supported by

St Leonard’s

Uniting Church

offering a new service

to Bayside

This is Vivienne Mountain‟s dream. She writes:

Having just concluded six years as Chaplain at Firbank Girls Grammar

School, I was looking for a useful and

creative extension to my life. For

more than 30 years I have enjoyed a

busy career in education, teaching

primary secondary and tertiary levels. Over recent years I have also

completed a Masters course in the

Art Therapy method of counseling. I

have found it to be a very interactive and fun method that engages both

children and adults in discovering

their own hidden strengths. My desire was to combine the wisdom

from both fields of education and

psychology. This desire was met as I renewed my

association with the “Seasons for

G r o w t h ” p r o g r a m

( w w w . g o o d g r i e f . o r g . a u ) .

“Seasons for Growth” is a well

established educational program that

aims to build resilience. It is particularly focused to help people

cope with the change, grief and loss

in life. I had used it in schools, and now found support in my local

church to make this service available

free of cost to the Bayside community.

Members from St Leonard‟s Church have formed a support team of 12

peop le w i t h t h ree t ra i ned

“Companions” to lead the courses. As the demand for the program

grows, more of our team will

undertake the training. So far about 50 people, children and adults, have

completed the course. The

responses have been very positive. We believe this is a useful program.

FROM THE STORM TO THE WARM Rev Tim Costello was blown in

from the stormy evening on 25 August to St Leonard‟s Uniting

Church. He arrived in the wind

and rain to launch a new initiative of care for the Bayside area – “A

Centre for Living and Growing”.

This Centre is part of the refurbishment of the old Church

building in Wolseley Gve Brighton

Beach and is designed as a comfortable space where groups

can meet to discover ways to cope

with change, loss and grief. The

Centre offers secular programs for children and adults based in the

“Seasons for Growth” organization.

Tim spoke of his long involvement

in social justice that formed a link between career and a sense of

vocation. For him a commitment

to social justice were born both in

his Christian world view and the struggle of sharing a bedroom with

his brother for 17 years. Tim is

now the CEO of World Vision A us t r a l i a , a w o r l d w i d e

humanitarian aid organization.

St Leonard‟s welcomed many

leaders of the Bayside area to the launch. Our Mayor Cr James Long,

members of Bayside children‟s

networks, local school Principals,

(Continued on page 4)

2

Billy Elliot Youth Group: At Youth Group re-

cently, we did a bible study called "What the Bi-

ble has to say about Billy Elliot". We watched the

movie and had some great discussion on themes

such as Loyalty, Identity and Creativity. We gave

away some cool Billy Elliot The Musical prize packs!

Escape Tennis: Our Thursday afternoon social

tennis group for Grade 4-6 has been going

smashingly! It's wonderful having the children at

the church enjoying friendship and fun.

Solid Rock: Here's the new promotional photo

of Solid Rock, one of our great worship bands.

It's lovely to have an up-to-date photo of the

band that will feature on our new website.

The Armour of God: In Children's Time, Jack

volunteered to be dressed up in The Armour of

God. We all marvelled at how protected he

looked in his belt of truth, chest plate of

righteousness, shoes of peace, shield of faith,

helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit!

3

Pet blessing day and family BBQ ― for all creatures great

and small. Pets are an important part of our lives. We love them unconditionally just as God loves us.

This year we are celebrating the St Francis of Assisi day by

thanking God for our pets and blessing them with a special prayer. Bring along your pets for a shorter than usual

service. Put puppy on a lead, your moggie in a cat box, your

guinea pig in a basket and your sea monkeys in a bucket

and bring them to church.

After we will lunch together in the tennis court gardens; bring along a picnic lunch or BBQ and your

tennis rackets to have a go. ( Pets can have a run in the

fenced area adjunct to the tennis courts where we have the

animals at Christmas time.) This will be a day of joy, laughter and celebration of God‟s

love for us and our pets .

The Ripples care group are coordinating Pet blessing day (Amanda Fraser, Karin Strong, Dorriane Clune, and Carolyn

Glover) and the picnic is arranged by the Child and Family

committee ( Millicent and the team ).

For further information or arrangements for unusual pets please contact Amanda Fraser 95920990

Jane and Scruffy Fraser

(Scruffy will be coming to Pet

Blessing day after he has had a bath)

Musical

Morning A special morning tea

and concert was held

after the Liturgical

service on Sunday 23rd

August.

The Social committee provided the morning tea

with sandwiches and fruit

cake and Ingrid Austin

arranged for some of her pupils and Bob Adams to

entertain us with singing

and excellent

performances on the

piano and clarinet .

The audience was delighted with the high

quality and the selection

of the music. We thank

Ingrid and the Social committee for this event.

New Wave 11 October 10.30 - 11.30am

4

This has been given to the church in perpetuity by Geoff & Pat Olsen,

in memory of Eric and Ruth Olsen.

Older members of the congregation

will remember the Olsen family who lived in Cairns Crescent and

had a long association with St

Leonard‟s.

“Flight into Egypt” was painted by

Ruth Olsen‟s brother Geoff Jones. Geoffrey Jones (1909-1993)

studied at the George Bell School

and exhibited in the 1960‟s in Sydney, Paris and Melbourne.

The Australian Galleries Melbourne

held a retrospective of his works in

1989. We are grateful to the Olsen family for enabling us to enjoy this

painting by Geoff Jones.

trees and shrubs were planted at

3,000 sites over that weekend! It

was good to feel part of it, par-ticularly on such a beautiful morn-

ing with the waves lapping at the

shore nearby, and a great experi-

ence for the children too. The event was well organised by

Planet Ark and, locally, by Bayside

Council. So keep an eye out for it next year on the first weekend in

August!

Carolyn Glover

Flight into Egypt

Where? “Seasons for Growth “ groups meet

in the new space called “A Centre

for Living and Growing”. This is a

refurbished part of the original St Leonard‟s Church at 2 Wolseley Gve

Brighton Beach (Just around the

corner from the main Church at 50 New St).

Who can come?

Groups for primary aged children meeting on Monday and Thursday

after school. Each children‟s course

runs for 8 weeks during school time. Adult courses are offered Mondays

and Thursdays, morning and eve-

ning. The adult course is held over

a period of four weeks.

Cost ?

The service is free but we suggest a

donation would help us to cover some costs.

If you would like further information

or make a booking for the next

course please email me or ring the Church Office 95191400.

(Dr) Vivienne Mountain

viv.mtn@bigpond.net.au

New Wave

Plants Trees! To me, coming from central Eng-

land, it is a huge treat to live near

the sea in Bayside. Even after five years, I still get tremendous joy

from it.

One such day was Sunday 2nd Au-gust when a group of us from the

New Wave congregation joined the

local National Tree Day effort down on the foreshore at Half Moon Bay.

It was a lovely, sunny morning and

we had a very rewarding couple of hours planting “trees” with other

church families and local volunteers

including scout and environmental

groups. Together we planted a total of 2000

indigenous plants, ranging from

ground covers and grasses, to shrubs and trees. It will be very sat-

isfying to watch the plants grow and

hopefully flourish as we visit the beach over the years. Across Aus-

tralia as a whole, one million native

I had a ton of fun at Plant a Tree Day. I felt

so excited as I love gardening. I had a great

time. I even met some friends from Netball and School. I planted lots of trees and

everyone got dirty knees. My sister Kez also

had fun. Kez, Sienna and I ate too many

sausages. We met a beautiful dog. It was all types of chocolate colours. It was a great

day and I had a great time. Lois Melvin

(Continued from page 1)

Many people have admired the

original painting “Flight into

Egypt” displayed in the new Rainbow Room.

Church Office Now that our refurbishments

have been completed, there is

a new entrance for the Church Office - through the arched

glass doors in the courtyard.

There is a bell for people to ring and a sensor light has

been installed above the en-

trance for those coming at night. Glenys Melvin, our Office

Administrator, is in the Church

Office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9am

-12 noon. For security reasons

this door is kept closed so

please ring the bell for atten-tion.

People using this refurbished

area are reminded of the im-

portance of turning off the heaters and locking the doors

before leaving.

5

Brighton

Secondary College

Chaplaincy

On Sunday 19 July at the

Combined Service when the Revelation Band played, a

Retiring Offering was taken

to support chaplaincy at Brighton Secondary College.

A total of $340.50 was

collected and will be forwarded to the Chaplaincy

fund for the work of the

chaplain Peter Mangold. School chaplaincy has been

recognised as one of the

most significant youth-focused ministries for young

people in Australian schools.

Unfortunately it is often not

until a crisis that a chaplain‟s

role is acknowledged. Yet

their role is assisted greatly if they have been in a school

already and have established

relationships with students, staff and families. Chaplains

are active in promoting

s t u d e n t w e l l b e i n g , particularly through the

provision of pastoral care,

and work to facilitate the connection of students into

the school network and wider

community.

In the Bayside area, where

there is a high rate of

teenage suicide, it is even more critical to address the

need for young people to

develop skills and values that encourage resilience and a

sense of purpose. If you

missed the opportunity to contribute and would like to

make a donation, please

place your donation in an envelope in the Offering

plate, clearly labelled Chaplaincy fund.

A new Chaplain for St

Leonard’s College

On Monday 7 September Rev John Donnell, Kaylea Fearn and Wendy Adams

represented St Leonard‟s Church at the Commissioning as a Pastor of Mr Gordon Lingard, Chaplain of St Leonard‟s College.

The relationship between the church and the school dates back to 1908 when Rev Hume Robertson granted Miss Lavinia Wallace permission to rent the

vestry of the church to hold classes in.

In 1910 Miss Wallace rented the “platform room” of the hall for the school but

it wasn‟t until 1916 that the school was officially named after the church by

Miss Rebecca Cullen, the then Principal of the school. The school boarders

worshiped at the church until 1975 when boarding ceased at St Leonard‟s College.

6

If Sunday mornings are a tug

o’war then find a church that pulls the right strings for your family.

A new brochure entitled You’ve moved; are your kids

feeling warm and fuzzy about it yet? has been

produced encouraging people new to the area to visit St Leonard‟s Church. Designed the brochure by Susan

Parker, it includes testimonials from 3 of our

International families telling of their impressions of St

Leonard‟s as a church.

Key places where new people go for information have

been targeted to receive the brochures. If you know of a family new to the area please collect a brochure from

Wendy Adams to give to them.

Over the last 12 months the

Communications team has met

regularly.

In addition to promoting

events and looking at ways to

encourage people to come to

church, a new logo has been designed by Susan Parker

based on the symbol of the

dove used by the Uniting

Church.

A short, catchy phrase was

wanted for a tag line that would encapsulate our feelings

about the church as a positive

place where things happen.

Add more to life was chosen based on Jesus‟ words in John

10:10 – “I have come in order

that you might have life – life in all its fullness”. Watch out

for these updated images.

Covenant Churches On 19 September the Covenant

Churches organised a

Spirituality Day faciliated by the

Campion Centre of Ignatian

Spirituality Outreach Team.

Four members from St

Leonard‟s attended together

with representatives from the

Catholic parishes of St James

and St Joan of Arc, St Andrews

Anglican, St Peters Anglican,

Trinity Uniting and Brighton

Church of Christ. The morning

began with a time of listening

and prayer followed by an

introduction to the journaling of

prayer. In the afternoon

participants were introduced to

a method of prayer which

makes use of guided imagery

and active imagination within

the framework of a Gospel

passage of Jesus‟ life. At the

end of the day all agreed that

the day had highlighted the

strength of ecumenism in

Brighton.

Website

H a v e y o u c h e c k e d

w w w . s t l e on a r d s . o r g . a u

recently?

Our website is being given a

facelift by Tamara Whalley, a

web designer.

The last site has served us

well for nearly ten years but

we need to keep abreast of

current trends and present a

forward looking and dynamic image. Many of our newer

families have heard about our

church from our website and

increasingly the web is the first port of call for any

information.

Thank you to all those who have updated material

recently for our web pages.

We would like the website to

be representative of all the

happenings at the church and would welcome further

contributions.

OUTREACH Monday 28 September 1.30pm

in the Meeting Room.

Jill Hoskin (daughter of Dot and

Lance Dimsey) will tell us of her

experiences as a celebrant. Hostesses Barbara Bruce and

Bronwyn Hay.

Monday 26 October 1.30 in the Meeting Room. More details

later.

ALL MOST WELCOME

Items for the next issue of the ‘Message’ should be handed to Daphne Alcorn by Sunday November 15th, or Phone 9592 2306.

Copy clearly marked ‘For Message’ can also be sent by email to contact@stleonards.org.au

7

PEOPLE FOR FAIR TRADE NEWS UPDATE

St Leonard‟s continues to support small growers in poorer

countries by buying and serving fairtrade tea and coffee at all

church functions.

We buy our supplies through a small but significant organisation called People For Fair Trade (PFFT) – a

Christian based, fully volunteer-run group. In their latest newsletter, PFFT reported on their continued support to East Timor coffee farmers and their communities:

„The $12,000 PFFT contributed last year to the East Timor Coffee Academy has helped them to establish a

nursery for coffee seedlings that will allow renewal of trees in coffee growing areas. Our contact in Ermera tells us

“. . . over 40,000 plants were propagated and distributed and next year, with the expansion of the

shade houses, over 120,000.” Tradewinds and PFFT continue to work towards helping a local group to roast and package their coffee, so

more of the economic benefit stays in East Timor – it‟s moving ahead slowly, but we‟re getting there!‟

This is just one part of the world that People For Fair Trade helps to support. New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Colombia are other parts of the world where projects supported by our purchases are underway.

When you buy fairtrade products, remember that you are contributing to trade justice for poorer producers. There are a number of places you can purchase these products. Most mainstream supermarkets now stock

some certified fairtrade products and goods can also be purchased through Oxfam shops and other overseas

aid and fairtrade organisations.

But don‟t forget that you also have the opportunity to buy fairtrade products (from PFFT) here at St Leonard‟s

after each service on the 2nd Sunday of every month! We have a range of products – tea leaves, tea bags, earl grey, instant coffee, coffee grounds and decaf coffee from different parts of the world. So don‟t forget to

bring your purses and stock up on delicious tea and coffee products on the 2nd Sunday of each month. You

will be satisfied by the products themselves and also the knowledge that you are contributing to trade justice and developmental projects.

GUESS WHO’S

COMING TO LUNCH SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER The Social Committee is planning to organize the ever popular “Guess Who‟s coming to Lunch” on Sunday 22 November.

Please mark this date in your diaries now. Enjoy a simple lunch with a small group in private homes - a chance to get to know

other members of the St Leonard‟s.

Elizabeth Stamp would love to hear from anyone who would

like to host one of these groups.

Please add your names to the list available in the church from

mid October or phone Elizabeth Stamp 95922174.

Many thanks to M & D for donation for Message postage.

LITURGICAL SERVICE ROSTERS

St. Leonard’s Uniting Church 2 Wolseley Grove Brighton Beach Victoria 3186

Tel.: 9519 1400 Email:

contact@stleonards.org.au www.stleonards.org.au

COMMUNION ROSTER October 11th (Intinction) Margot & Bruce Abbott prepare and serve. Jim Pfeiffer serve and wash up. November 8th (In pews) Margot & Bruce Abbott prepare and serve.Danielle & Michael Wood serve and wash up. Elizabeth Stamp serve choir. DOOR ROSTER Oct Bob Adams Nov George Alcorn Wendy Adams Joyce Kaye Val Houston Ron Kaye Bev Harvey Don Kennedy Hazel Wilson Michael Wood FLOWER ROSTER Oct 4 Mel Hunt Nov 1 Meral Barton

11 Mary Snowball 8 Meral Barton 18 Jean Garrow 15 Daphne Alcorn 25 Jean Garrow 22 Stella McDonald 29 Danielle Wood MORNING TEA Oct 4 Gwen and Bob Barham, Hazel Wilson 11 Jan and Norm Brasch, Gillian Taylor 18 Helen and David Bryce, Beryl Nixon 25 Julie and George Hadwen, Sal Joyce Nov 1 Barbara Bruce and Jean Garrow 8 Margot and Bruce Abbot, Mary Snowball 15 Dorothy and David Stannard, Bronwyn Hay 22 Elizabeth and David Stamp, Marian Hobbs 29 Wendy and Bob Adams, Barbara Bruce

WANTED:

Librarian for the “Centre for

Living And Growing” Library.

Small time commitment of an hour or so a week.

Great way of joining our “Living

and Growing” team in a quiet way.

If you think you may enjoy this ministry,

speak to Viv Mountain on 9592 9031.

STOP PRESS At the time of this Message going to print

the JNC (Joint Nominating Committee) is

waiting on the outcome of the meeting of

the Pastoral Relations Committee of the Port Phillip East Presbytery on 29 Septem-

ber. At this stage it is our intention to hold

a special Congregational meeting on

Sunday 18 October at 10.15am with the

single Agenda item being to receive a Recommendation from the JNC.

Following the building works at the Manse,

we now need to tidy the garden. A Working

Bee will be held on Saturday 17 October

and will include spreading mulch, weeding

and pruning. All help will be very much ap-

preciated. Richard Forbes is coordinating

the Working Bee; please let him know in

what way you can assist.