Archive for the 'Featured' Category

Words in Winter

Published on August 8, 2010 in Events, Featured, Highlands Cluster and Trentham. Closed

The Sacred within the Ordinary

I wonder what your general life view is?  The way in which we view life has a tremendous impact on how we actually experience it.  If we come to the conclusion that life is boring then there is every chance that this is how it will be.

In a world in which chasing the dollar and accumulating more stuff are often held up as the right lens in which to see reality Celtic Spirituality offers rich insights about another way of seeing the world.

From Celtic perspective all of the earth is seen as good and permeated with the presence of the Divine.  Seeing life through this lens changes things.

Rather than this ancient world-view being primitive, this perspective can awaken our souls to the authentic beauty of the earth, one another and ourselves.

As part of ‘Words in Winter’ there will be an opportunity to explore this Celtic way.

Esteemed photographers Kate Baker and David Roberts will be exhibiting their work and speaking about it.  Renowned singer Maria Forde will delight with Celtic song and I will share some insights about this Celtic perspective.

Through music, poetry and visual art you are invited to join us in dipping into this ancient way.

For those inspired, there will be an opportunity to be part of a future photographic project by Kate and David exploring personal sacred space.

Blessings on your journey,

Rev Sally Douglas

Words in Winter
Red Beard Bakery
Saturday 21st August
4:00pm-5:00pm
No need to book
Gold Coin Donation
Everyone is invited

MINGLING AT THE MITCHELL BEGINS

Published on March 15, 2010 in Daylesford, Events, Featured, Highlands Cluster and Uncategorized. Closed

The Daylesford Uniting Church has been involved in a deep discerning process over many months about what it is being called to do and be as a church by the Divine.

Through sharing in hopes and dreams, in speaking honestly about failings in the past and our strengths, in sharing over meals, in silence, in brainstorming and in prayer and in ongoing discussion, the congregation has now adopted its vision

Embracing Difference - Sharing the Hospitality of Jesus

This vision will be lived out in many ways, but one of the first was launched last Friday with ‘Mingle at the Mitchell’.

Each Friday morning between 10:00am and 11:30am, members of the congregation are creating a ‘cafe space’ at the little hall at church.  Here there is good fair trade coffee and tea all for only a gold coin donation. 

Magazines and newspapers are available to flick through, music is in the background and here is the opportunity to get to know other locals - to meet others and maybe even make new friends. This aims to be a non threatening space in which all are welcome.

Last Friday’s ‘Mingle at the Mitchell’ was full of laughter and the sharing of hospitality.  It was great to be part of. All are very welcome to pop by… come for as long or as little as you like.

Mitchell Hall, 56 Central Springs Road, Daylesford.

Rev. Sally Douglas

So this is Christmas

Published on December 10, 2008 in Featured. Closed

“Well I hope you don’t get sent to the stables!” a wise woman recently said to me. Those around us looked at her in confusion as well as some horror. The comment had come out of nowhere.

However I knew what she was referring to. Bearing twins, and seemingly getting more heavily pregnant by the day, I knew that she was pointing to the ancient Christian story of the Jesus being born in the sheep shed.

I laughed with her, and agreed that I too hoped that this wouldn’t happen to me. Yet, it will unfold as it unfolds. Probably not with sheep and outcasts being the first to welcome the babies. However as women who have been pregnant through the ages know, with any pregnancy there are risks and fears and always the great unknown.

It takes time for new life in the womb to be knitted together: as limbs take shape and lungs grow.  It also takes time in each of our own lives for new life to be born.

I think Jesus the Holy One is always calling each of us into new life, life in which we are more truly ourselves, more deeply healed, and more set free for love. 

Just as it takes energy and commitment and a lot of waiting to bring babies into this world, so too it takes energy and commitment and a lot of waiting for new life to be born within us. And both are risky enterprises.

Yet Christ will not force new life upon us. This is always invitation and gift.

If we are prepared to take time, to make room for the new possibilities that Christ desires to birth within our lives and if we are prepared to wait, then, like the everyday yet startling miracle of babies being born, the miracle of new beginnings and different stories can be birthed in our own lives.

If only we have the courage to stop seeking to control our lives and futures, and instead surrender in the face of the reality of the great unknown.

Doing so not alone, but from the arms of the Holy One who certainly does not promise easy deliveries and fairy tale endings, but who does promise authentic life and love, and intimate Divine presence along the whole mysterious way. 

Yearning for authenticity

Published on April 26, 2008 in Blackwood, Daylesford, Featured, Highlands Cluster and Uncategorized. Closed

In the quest for technological answers in the West: the quickest, the fastest, the most… it seems that we have lost something along the way and many of us ache for that elusive something more. We yearn for connection with that something which is deeper, wider, more ancient than ourselves. Yet the question is how to find it.

It may come as no surprise that as a Christian community we hold the faith that this something more has to do with God. However, the distance between knowing this at a level of intellectual conviction and experiencing this at a deeper level of being can be quite enormous.

Richard Rohr, a contemplative priest with a heart for justice, writes about this difficult distance and offers awakening insight. Rohr states:

“We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness. Little do we realise that God is maintaining us in existence with every breath we take. As we take another it means that God is choosing us now and now and now. We have nothing to attain or even learn. We do, however, need to unlearn some things.” Richard Rohr Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, p. 29.

In this quest for something more I think we all need to unlearn some things about the nature of God, ourselves and reality.Across the Highlands Cluster Uniting Church through a variety of ways we are seeking to create space to seriously engage with this unlearning together in:Meditation at BlackwoodContemplation at DaylesfordCluster Faith Exploration GroupsCluster Prayer Exploration Group Regular Sunday Worship across the ClusterIf you would like to find out more about getting involved in any of these things please call the Highlands Cluster Uniting Church Office tel: 5348 2119.Blessings on your quest for the authentic,Rev. Sally Douglas