Festive Season Office Hours

Christmas/New Year Office Hours 2017/18

Please note that the Church Office will be closed from end of the day Thursday 21st of December, 2017 and will re-open on Wednesday 10th of January, 2018.  

If you need to get in contact during the holiday period, you can ring the church office on 57216555 and leave a message.

Coffee, Craft & Childcare Program and Registration Form - August/September 2016

Eileen Dinning's 70th Birthday Celebration

Eileen's 70th birthday was celebrated recently with a party held for family and friends at the Uniting Church Hall.  It was a night to remember!  

Everyone enjoyed the delicious meal provided and the touching speeches given by family and especially the Dinning grandchildren.

It was a wonderful occasion with a standout feature of the evening being the stunningly realistic Singer sewing machine inspired cake created by Eileen's daughter Sally.

 

Coffee, Craft & Childcare Program and Registration Form - May 2016

UCAF 2016 Program

To learn more about the group, please click here.

Welcome Petition - A Walk From Melbourne To Canberra For Refugees

On January 29, Jess Hackett, a young woman who is walking from Melbourne to Canberra to carry a petition to Parliament, arrived in rain in Wangaratta.  Her petition seeks to alert Parliament to the plight of refugees especially in Australia's offshore detention centres and to ask for a more compassionate policy.

Originally Wangaratta's welcome to Jess was meant to be in King George Gardens with a picnic lunch.  Instead, the weather being wet, we retreated to the Uniting Church Hall.  About one hundred people gathered to be with Jess and to sign her petition.  Many others had signed the petition prior to her arrival.  We were delighted that Rural City of Wangaratta Administrator, Irene Grant was able to attend the welcome.

Jess was accommodated for two nights by Uniting Church couple, Adrian and Helen Twitt. The day following her arrival in Wangaratta, Jess had a scheduled "rest" day.  Instead of walking, she visited Shepparton at the invitation of its Ethnic Council.  The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Shepparton greeted Jess and took her on a tour of the Filipino Cultural Centre, the Lutheran Church with its Africa House, one of the three Mosques in Shepparton, and the Sikh Temple.  She was accompanied by several people representing various ethnic backgrounds, and the Inter Faith Chaplain for Shepparton. 

Jess then returned to Wangaratta  for the second night in the city.  She set off in rain the next day, for a 33 km trek by foot to Chiltern, the next leg of her long journey. 

Jess is planning to arrive in Canberra on February 23rd to present her petition.

Jess Hackett 

The welcome group in the Uniting Church Hall

Check out her journey on The Welcome Petition Facebook page - www.facebook.com/thewelcomepetition

Another Textile Yarn by Jim Gregory

As many people know, I spent my working life as a Spinner of Yarns that were either Worsted or Woollen.  Production of yarn began at Wangaratta Woollen Mills in March 1923 and with that anniversary as a trigger, I present the following textile story, gleaned from the Yorkshire Post.

Let me begin by setting the scene.  The story takes place in Swaledale, one of the northernmost dales (valleys) in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and is the dale of the River Swale.

A meeting, held in Muker’s sole pub, the Farmers Arms, in the early 1970s was called to discuss the problem of unemployment.  Muker, with a population of 309, is one of the villages dotting the landscape of Swaledale.  The meeting decided that ladies could try hand-knitting garments in their own homes, capitalising on the dominant local resource; sheep.

The tradition of hand-knitting in Swaledale goes back hundreds of years to the time when Queen Elizabeth I set a new trend by wearing knitted stockings.  In the 19^th century even men used to knit on their way to work in the lead mines.

Sheep had been domesticated in the Yorkshire Dales since the Bronze Age (3 – 200 BC) and knitting, as a cottage industry, began in the 16^th century.  It is thought to hold the record for the longest domestic knitting industry in England.  The Yorkshire Dales is one of the five major regions in the British Isles that has developed its own distinctive traditional designs.

In Muker’s pub it was a David Morris and his wife Grizel, who were driving the proposal of reviving their cottage industry by hand-knitting traditional designs.  David had some garments made and hung on a wall in the main street.  They were bought by walkers passing through and the thing just escalated from there.

A shop was soon needed where visitors from many parts of Europe, along with America and even some from Australia, came to buy.  Prince Charles had visited the shop several times and in 2004 he came on a formal visit.  He bought gloves and placed an order for more.  When Camilla was seen wearing Charles’ gloves, the villagers made her a pair in her own size.  Prince Charles thinks highly of the traditional skills evident in Swaledale Woollens.  Today the 35 knitters use wool mainly from Swaledale sheep, but with some from Wensleydale and Welsh breeds for additional colour and texture.

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Winter woollies now available at the Uniting Church Op Shop!

We now have all our winter stock in comprising coats and winter woollies!  We also have a new section for buttons sold in small, individual bags.  If anyone has any buttons they do not need, please drop them in to the op shop in Vincent Road.  For address and contact number, please click here.

Many thanks, 

Lyn Hammond.

South Camberwell Uniting Church Reunion Story by Robyn Hodder

In April I attended a Reunion at the South Camberwell Uniting Church, which is now the Chinese Uniting Church.  It was for those who had participated in church activities in the sixties and seventies.  I had been involved from age 4 until I married in 1962.  The Chinese allowed us to use the present day hall which was built in the fifties.  It was very pleasing to see that the plaque of the praying hands was still in place.  We had placed it there in memory of one of our friends who had died in a car accident in England in 1964.

There were about one hundred people there with some coming from Adelaide, Tasmania,

Queensland New South Wales, Country Victoria and Melbourne.  We had a large youth group with many romances and marriages.

During the afternoon a list of fifteen names of people who had died, was read out and we joined in a minutes silence in memory of these friends.

There was much talking and catching up took place during a delicious afternoon tea. I met up with some friends who I had not seen for over fifty years, with friends like this you talk as though you had seen them recently.

There were a couple of computers running non-stop with photos taken during those years.

We all looked quite fit for our ages with very few with walking sticks and frames. Must have been the healthy diets, not many cars (walked to most places) and no junk food.

It is a small world. Our minister Rev Christine Thomson was at South Camberwell Uniting Church from 1989 and knew my Mother who was still able to attend Church.  The Chinese took over the Church in 1995.

I also met Ellie Black in Melbourne. We were both District Chief Rays for different areas in Melbourne.  Rays were girls aged between 9 and 15.

Rev Goldsmith was the minister here when I came to the North East and I had been at many services that he had taken at South Camberwell.

It seemed fitting to have our reunion at this time as the Church is 150 years old this year.

- Robyn Hodder

Milawa ‘St. Andrews’ Uniting Church Decommissioning Service - Sunday March 22nd, 2015

A closing Service of Thanksgiving  and Decommissioning  for the Milawa Uniting Church after 148 years of continuous service to Milawa and district was held on March 22^nd, 2015.  This decision was not an easy one but we were down to six regulars of which only two were truly local.

This lovely old mud and brick church served its community well over many generations.  The Milawa Uniting Church celebrated new life through baptism, love celebrated in marriage and as a place to say farewell to loved ones at the end of their lives.  It brought comfort and solace to those  who were sorrowing, fellowship and hope for those who came and an opportunity to support and embrace the Christian faith. This enabled us to be challenged and supported to care for the wider community as Jesus would have us do as we looked to God, the Holy spirit, for guidance and reassurance.

The special service prepared by Rev. Christine Thomson was moving and sensitive to the needs of the congregation as we grieved for this sacred space, but we were thrilled to have so many people join us.  The church overflowed with visitors from across the parish and from Presbytery which also helped us celebrate the life of this church.  Following the service a sumptuous morning tea was held.

Special thanks to Rev. Christine and Fred Jungwirth for the time and effort you put in to make this a very special occasion for the dwindling Milawa Congregation and for all the visitors who came and sang like angels which contributed greatly to the atmosphere on the day.

- by Joan Cochrane

Article from the Wangaratta Chronicle reporting on the closure of St. Andrew's -

The Milawa Congregation –  Back Row:  Joy Johnson, Isabel Foote, Merilyn Stephens, JennyShearer Stephen Shearer, Shirley Carter and Arthur Meyers.  Front Row: Marg Gibb, Melva Lynes and Ruby Mickan 

The Johnson Family

Joy Johnson and Shirley Johnson

Robert and Eve Kerr

Lyn and David Turner & Ian and Julie Hempel

Jenny and Steve Shearer

Arthur Meyers

Melva Lynes and her sister Tim Raison

Colin and Rev Christine Thomson

Shirley Carter, Jenny Shearer and Marg Gibb 

Arthur Meyers and Joan Cochrane-Meyers 

Stuart McAliece and Rex Allen

Verna Nugent, Kay Gamze
and John Nugent

Jan Hooper, Valda Watson, Kath Finger and Heather Newth

Carl and Myra Clayden & Lyn Finger 

Gladys and Graeme Wilson & Fran Doig

Melva Lynes and Helen Twitt

Rosie Bennett and Jan Morris

Jim and Mary Gregory

Elizabeth Hildebrand and Joan Hilderbrand

Eve Kerr, Lyn Turner & Enid Yelland

Joan Martin

Wyn Airey 

Allan Raison and Arthur Meyers

Enid Yelland and Alan Wood

Merilyn Stephens and Colin Thomson

Ian and Mary Simpson

Melva Lynes and Merilyn Stephens

Heather Newth, John Yelland & Lyn Hammond

UCAF Report - Trip to Corowa

Our UCAF members visited the Corowa church group recently. On our arrival at Corowa  we were taken into their lovely church which contained an inspiring stained glass window entitled “The Living Tree”.

A short devotion on living things was led by Rev. David Sloane, husband of Val Sloane whom we all know. Then the co-ordinator of the Community Garden, Joan Palmer, spoke to us on the way in which this program got started. The church community gave the group the disused tennis court for the project, but it took some 2 years to get it to where it is today. With donations from the public, local businesses and Council, it became operational. It is still in the process of extending the surroundings.

In the middle of the garden is a sculpture made from recycled metal from the local Council depot. The sculpture contains a bee hive made of wood with a hole drilled for bees, and our group were very taken with the overall idea of the whole project.

The garden has been named the “Corowa Community Living Tree Garden” after the stained glass window in the church. After we inspected the garden afternoon tea was served and members were invited to take any of the produce that had been grown, for just a gold coin donation.

A very inspiring afternoon was had by all – many thanks to all our Corowa friends.