Prayer Points

Ministry Team
Ian offering supply ministry in East Gippsland
Palm Sunday virtual video walk
Preparations for Holy Week
Church Council
Olive Way program
Pastoral Care Committee
Justice & Mission Committee
Sunday Morning Program
Roster participants
Non-Violent Direct Action
FUNdraising Committee
Presbytery of Port Philip West
Creatures of the land

BUC News

Daylight Savings
Just a note that daylight savings concludes this weekend.

Palm Sunday – Virtual Rally
Be part of the Love Makes a Way video for virtual Palm Sunday Walk.  Make a personal sign starting ‘My Palm Sunday prayer is …’, with #JusticeforRefugees and #LoveMakesAWay.  See all details for what to do next here.  Deadline for participation is Friday 3rd April.

Worship on Sundays
Following the announcement of new restrictions on gatherings all parts of the liturgy for Palm Sunday, 5th April, onwards (and until further notice) will be pre-recorded.  The videos will be compiled and then available for worship.  The worship committee will meet to discuss this format on 22nd April.  You can access the service by searching Brunswick Uniting Church on YouTube or access it directly via this link.

Praying through and preparing for Holy Week
We invite you to join us for prayer during Holy Week.  To prepare we invite you to set aside a sacred space for the week.  This might be a corner, by a window, a table, inside or outside.   Place a Bible and a cross in the space – if you don’t have a cross available you might like to make one.  Decorate the space with the liturgical colour for each day:

  • Palm Sunday – purple or red
  • Monday through to Maundy Thursday – purple
  • Good Friday & Holy Saturday – black
  • Easter Day – white

If you have big pieces of cloth in these colours you might also like to hang them from a window or fence that faces the street, letting your neighbourhood know that this is a sacred time.

Prayer will be offered at 10am from Monday to Wednesday and Holy Saturday, posted to the BUC Facebook group and our YouTube channel.

Worship service details are available as listed below together with information about what your need to gather to prepare for each service – these posts will be updated as required closer to the day of the service.  We invite yo to have a Bible in your space for worship.  The full order of service for each service will uploaded to support engagement with the streamed service.

BUC News

Good Friday lunch
One of the much loved BUC traditions is gathering after worship for soup and hot cross buns.  In the absence of this community gathering the Pastoral Care Community Team invites you to share lunch in your homes and share the experience virtually with our community.  Make a pot of your favourite soup in preparation.  Take a photo or two (of your soup and maybe even you and/or your family enjoying it) and post it/them on Facebook with the name of the soup.  If you are not yet a member of our Facebook Group please consider requesting membership or simply email the photo to saide.cameron@bigpond.com

Pastoral Care
In this time of physical isolation pastoral care is a high priority.  The Pastoral Care Committee encourages us all to play our part.  Here are some ways that we can support each other:

  • members of committees and existing programs are encouraged to contact each regularly
  • we are delivering food to vulnerable people and families, if you can help out please let us know
  • for people are self isolating you might like to offer do shopping for them
  • you can call people who are not part of programs and groups just to have a chat
  • offer to connect with people who live alone
  • find out how you can support the Olive Way Ministry

If you are interested in being involved in any of the above please contact Gwen Arnold, 0413 047 938‬ or Peter Blair for the Olive Way, 0431 193 810‬.

Finance News

As you might imagine, the coronavirus safety measures are having a significant impact on our finances. We’re currently losing over $1000 per week in cash/envelope giving. Income from other sources (like hall hire and interest on investments) is also dropping fast. Meanwhile, most of our expenses continue as normal.
Please give directly to BUC, whether it’s a regular automated amount or a one-time payment that you set up each week. You can easily set up either approach through your online or mobile banking, using these details for our bank account:
BSB: 013-236, Account: 0086-87863. Please write “Gift” or “Offering” in the reference line, so we can distinguish it from other kinds of deposits.
Contact any member of Finance Committee for more information or assistance. Thank you for continuing to support BUC’s worship and mission in these challenging times!
Shawn Whelan, Treasurer