| To get to our online services, click here. You can always find them by going to our website: www.cranbourneanglican.org.au/online-service. If you’d like to join us for our LAST EVER virtual morning tea (at least until the next lockdown…) at 11am Sunday the 22nd of November, click here at 11am Sunday. Meeting ID: 291 757 7519 Password: 444240 |
Dear Church family,
It’s been the kind of year in which many people will have thought at some point, what on earth is God doing? Why is this [insert calamity here] happening in my life? The Joseph of Genesis was someone who must have wondered that himself more than once. What was his response? How did he act in those times? At the end of the story Joseph actually explains what on earth God was doing. Tune in on Sunday to hear how the Joseph story tells us more about God’s purposes in his life, what that points to in Jesus’ life, and how that impacts your life today.
See you online!
In Christ,
Sam Bleby
Minister | Parish of Cranbourne
St John’s Cranbourne | Christ Church Tooradin
Re-opening Sundays
We’re re-opening church for in-person Sunday worship! A reminder for those who missed the announcement last week:Christ Church Tooradin
Services will start on Sunday the 29th of November at 9am (limited to 15 people under the Four Square Metre rule);
St John’s Cranbourne
Services will start on Sunday the 6th of December (limited to about 50 people per service) at:
- 8:30am Traditional Prayer Book Service
- 10:30am for families, including kids program; and
- 6pm
Praise God that we are once again able meet together! I’m sure you have many questions! Here’s some answers:
I have friends in other churches that have already started, why aren’t we starting straight away?
The short answer is because our numbers are larger than some churches. At the moment we are allowed 20 people in two separated socially distanced groups of ten. It’s just not practical to run the amount of services we’d need to run to fit everyone in. We could run services outside, but logistically this is challenging, and with the weather so changeable (showers today, 33 degrees tomorrow!) we think it’s better to wait the couple of weeks to meet inside.
I heard the number allowed inside after the 22nd of November are 100 – why are our services limited to about 50?
Government restrictions are easing further on the 23rd of November, but the rules are pretty complex to apply in the church setting. There’s a lot of detail under the headline figures. Although we’re allowed up to 100 on site, we are only allowed to gather in groups of 20 indoors (separated by 5m). We can only get two groups of 20 in the church, but we’ve opened up the back and can get another 10-15 there, giving us about 50 in total.
So why wait until the 6th to get St John’s started?
Often with the government announcements there have been surprises in the details, so we’re starting Tooradin first on the 29th and then St John’s on the 6th to give us time to make any adjustments and to get the large number of volunteers needed at St John’s up and running. It’s also important that I as vicar can be at Tooradin’s re-opening which would be impossible if we start on the same Sunday. I’d like to pay tribute to the leaders at Tooradin for their solidarity with St John’s – as a smaller church they could have started earlier but they wanted to be in this together with the rest of the parish.
The 10:30 service normally has over 100 people – how’s that going to work?
Not everyone who normally goes to the 10:30am will be able to fit, so we’re splitting that congregation into two meeting at 10:30am and 6pm. All our services will need to be booked and we’ll have an online booking service to ensure we don’t get too many people to each service. We’ll be running the kids program at the 10:30am service and so will prioritise that service for those with pre-school and primary school aged kids. If you don’t have kids in that age bracket, would you consider coming at 6pm? Not everyone will be able to come at 10:30am and it would be a great blessing for visitors or families if we could make space for them.
Why is the 9am moving to 8:30am?
We will need to move our usual 9am service half an hour earlier both to allow for COVID-safe cleaning between it and the 10:30am and also to ensure everyone from the early service is gone before the new congregation comes in. We can’t move the 10:30am later as it impinges then on lunch times when children are hungry and not always at their best!
See you soon!
Annual Meeting
Our Annual Meeting is on next Sunday the 29th of November at 11am – meeting online and in person.
IN PERSON:
If you would like to attend in person, please click here to book a seat (we are limited to 50 people). If you know people who are not online but you think would like to attend the Annual Meeting, please let them know – they can simply call Sam on 0406 342 028 to book a spot.
ONLINE:
If you would like to attend from the comfort of your own home, the login details will be sent towards the end of the week.
Annual Meeting papers will be distributed on Monday electronically and some paper copies will be available here at the church from Wednesday.
Thank You
Elaine Cutting would like to thank all those from the church who sent cards and their good wishes following the passing of Beau. Thank you for your kindness and condolences.
Wednesday Service
Our Wednesday service is now open to anyone who would like to come. We can have up to 50 people at this communion service now, and as a mid week service there should be enough room for everyone – we’d love to see you!
Can you help?
We urgently need volunteers to join the lawn mowing team, especially if you happen to be under 70! We have a fantastic band of brothers who put in a wonderful effort, but we need some younger blood to join the team. To outsource this job would cost us $400 a time, a cost we’d much prefer to avoid. We’d even let you loose on the ride on lawnmowers – lots of fun to be had! To join the team, please call Doug Viney on 0400 811 162.
Online Bible Study
Our Wednesday online bible study is at 11:15am on Wednesdays. Whether you’ve logged on before or not, all are welcome – just click on the link below at 11:15am this Wednesday.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2917577519?pwd=VmJMOThNcmFWSHdKUEEwOVFCQVFTUT09
Meeting ID: 291 757 7519
Passcode: 444240
This Week
| Wed | 10am church, and 11:15AM Online Bible Study |
| Fri | 7pm Youth |
| Sun | ONLINE Church service available from 9am 9am Holy Communion Christ Church Tooradin 11am Annual Meeting at online and at St John’s Cranbourne. |