The Blackwood Uniting Church is a beautiful little church which sits on the hill overlooking the village of Blackwood. As part of the Highlands Cluster, Blackwood Uniting Church is doing things differently by offering fortnightly meditation which draws from ancient Christian practice. As we offer this we are also exploring how best to ‘be church’ in this area. If you live in the region and have views about issues of spirituality, faith and church we would like to hear from you. Surveys have been distributed through the General Store in Blackwood, but if you missed out please download a survey below, complete it and send it in to the Highlands Cluster office.
It would be appreciated if completed surveys were returned by June 9.
There will be an opportunity as a community to discuss survey findings and ways forward at the:
Follow up Forum
Date: June 15th 2008
Time: 4:30 pm
Location: Blackwood Uniting Church
All very welcome
With any enquiries please call Rev. Sally Douglas
Highlands Cluster Uniting Church Office
5348 2119 or 0419 559 842
Blackwood Uniting Church Survey (PDF Document, 348 kilobytes)
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
On Sunday March 30th the Highlands Cluster will be exploring a question which touches to the core of our being; what is Spirituality, and in particular, what is Christian Spirituality?
With Rev Joan Wright Howie, the Spiritual Formation Advisor for the Centre of Theology and Ministry, we will be exploring this question together in worship and in an afternoon workshop. If you would like to explore these issues in a non threatening space please join us.
10:30am Cluster Worship at Daylesford Uniting Church
In which we will commission our new elders - the vision keepers.
This service will be followed by a shared lunch.
1:00pm-3:00pm Spirituality Workshop at Daylesford Uniting Church
You are welcome to join us for as much or as little of this day as you would like to.
Enquiries, please call Rev Sally Douglas tel: 5348 2119
Sunday 16th December
Combined Church Carols at Daylesford Uniting Church 7:30pm
Friday 21st December
Little Hampton Uniting Church Carols and Supper 7:00pm
Sunday 23rd December
Blackwood Uniting Church BBQ and Carols 5:30pm
Trentham Uniting Church Carols 7:00pm
Christmas Day 25th December
Trentham Uniting Church 9:00am
Daylesford Uniting Church 9:00am
Ballan Uniting Church 11:00am
All welcome
For all enquiries call the Highlands Cluster Uniting Church Office 5348 2119
The Highlands Cluster is made up of 6 congregations. Settings are diverse; ranging from farming communities and tree-change towns, to the café latte set.
Whilst worship and community service vary across these settings, in each of these places we seek to create authentic space to encounter the Divine, an open place of welcome and the inclusion of all, and freedom for the questions at the heart of life and spirituality.
As a Christian community, made up of ordinary people, we seek to follow in the way of Jesus, whom we believe is the Wisdom of God.
