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A Contemplative Prayer Gathering for those who wish to meet the
Beloved in their home sacred space.
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Each week on Wednesdays at 6pm we invite you to light a candle, sit in your sacred space, and meditate with us via Facebook.
If our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, this means that sacred breath already fills our lungs. What would it be like to pause and really notice this, taking it in as actual nourishment for our being?
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To access this week's meditation (and those from previous weeks) please click the link below.
If you would like to be emailed the guided meditation, in advance, to accompany your contemplative practice, email Debbie at office@mruca.org.au Meditations from previous weeks can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Click the button below for access.
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If you would like to receive a pastoral visit, please contact with the Debbie in the church office via phone 3358 6945 or email office@mruca.org.au
In cases of an emergency, please get in touch with Murray directly, 0421 234 541.
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Giving to the work of the church
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If you would like to give to the work of the church, you are encouraged to give via a direct credit. This can be set up through your internet banking. If you need any help to set this up, please speak with Anne Copeland.
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The account details are:
BSB: 034-065
Account Number: 264-563
Account Name: Merthyr Road Uniting Church
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On-line church resources for children
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In our transition to online services there has been one really important thing that has been missing... age appropriate content for our children. Children are just as much a part of our community as any of us. Here are some resources generously offered by Saddleback Church in California called Saddleback Kids. Click on the links below to access these resources.
Each week Saddleback Kids uploads new videos to their youtube channel. There are videos for early childhood and primary aged children. These resources are a tool for the whole family and can be a starting point for some great conversations. We recommend watching them together with your children, encouraging them to ask questions and to talk about what they have learnt. If there are parts of these resources that approach Christianity differently to you and your family take that as an opportunity to discuss with your children why you believe different.
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Please pray for Amber, Anne W, Claire, Daphne K, Eugenie, Lisa Neill, Lindsay, Luke, Margaret G, Mervyn Thomas, Richard, Robyn, Rosemary Hillman, Sean and Vonda.
We continue to pray for our parishioners each week. This week we pray for Terry L, Atu, Helen R, Beth & Thea.
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If you, or anyone you know, would appreciate our prayers or pastoral care, please contact
Murray on 0421 234 541 or Debbie in the church office on 3358 6945 or office@mruca.org.au
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To read the Uniting Church Qld Synod newsletter and the Moreton Rivers Presbytery newsletter, click on the buttons below.
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Reading
John 15:9-17
9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
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Reflection
‘Friend’ has become a bit of a hackneyed word in the age of social media - lots of people have hundreds of friends, celebrities can have thousands. So, what does Jesus mean when he calls the disciples friends? What does this mean for us?
The theologian William Loader thinks this turning of slaves into friends is a ‘little correction’ that deserves more attention. He writes, ‘Could we say: God does not want slaves; God wants companions?’ If we see this passage as one that enables us to enter into a direct companionship with God, we cannot defend a reductionist vision of the realm of God that says a chosen few can impose their will and have power over others with orders and rules that diminish and demean - that is not friendship. It is an opening up into the bold possibility of love that includes everyone and finds itself manifest in joy.
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