HARDENBERGIA

Hardenbergia is a flowering native climber known as the 'happy wanderer'!

Plant in well drained soil and semi shade.

Photo: Scott Hawkins

(From website "12 Best Winter Flowers")

 

Important Announcement

 

We are getting ready to return to church!

 

Boronia Park Uniting Church has been considering public health advice and the needs of our members and guests.

The Synod of NSW and the ACT has been meeting regularly to discuss the current issues and plan for the gradual relaxing of regulations. As the result, with the state government's guideline, we are now able to create a safe path to reopening some church activities including Sunday worship service.

The Church Council are now aware of it well so this matter will be discussed on Wednesday 10 June.

Please be patient as we are getting back to a new normal.

 

While creating and preparing for reopening, physical distancing is required and all worship resources will be continued online.

Hopefully further information will be given soon.

 

 

Greeting to Members

 

Margaret Treble has a wonderful talent in singing! Let's check this out.

 

 

 

Preparing for Worship

 

THIS WEEK, we worship God, finding out what it means for us to fulfil the meaning of Trinity – One God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as mystery of our Christian belief.

Also we have an opportunity to think about our relationship with the First Peoples as part of 2020 National Reconciliation Week in observance of the week. (27 May – 3 June). 

If you are able, bread and wine/a cup of grape juice may be prepared on your table or your proposed worship space. Today it is ok to share communion at home as we had practiced it at church.

 

Acknowledgement for the First Peoples

 

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, Elders past and present, on which we gather today. We recognize their special relationship with the land and all creation.

Reconciliation begins in the immense love of God, who has continually reached out to reconcile the whole of creation with divine life. That life and that love arouse responses within all of us towards the strengthening of relationships that are healthy and the healing and renewal of relationships that are broken. We acknowledge the urgency for reconciliation between human creatures and the rest of creation, between humans and each other, and between humans and God.

Today we particularly seek God’s way as we pray for the Indigenous and non- Indigenous people of this land, Australia, in all the diversity of cultures and localities. We pray for a building of mutual hope, trust and faith in God and each other – and for a binding together in covenant relationship before God with the first peoples of this country, based in mutual respect and care for the earth.

 

Call to worship

 

Let us say the words of Call to Worship together.

 

Leader: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all;

All: And also with you.

 

Come and worship

the holy and glorious Trinity,

as we pray together:

 

God of the feast,

your Wisdom calls us,

your Word teaches us

and you feed us with your life.

 

Give us grace to welcome one another

as you have welcomed us in Christ Jesus,

in whose name we pray. Amen.

    

 

Hymn    O, let the Son of God enfold you (655)

 

 

O, let the Son of God enfold you

with his Spirit and his love;

let him fill your heart and satisfy your soul;

O, let him have the things that hold you

and his Spirit, like a dove,

will descend upon your life and make you whole.

Refrain

Jesus, O Jesus,

come and fill our lives;

Jesus, O Jesus,

come and fill our lives.

 

O come and sing this song with gladness

as your hearts are filled with joy;

lift your hands in sweet surrender to his name;

O, give him all your tears and sadness,

give him all your years of pain,

and you’ll enter into life in Jesus’ name.

Refrain

 

Words and music by permission CMC Australasia

CCLI # 260394

 

 

Prayer of the Day

 

Let us pray:

 

Praise God, who through the life,

death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

has reconciled us to God and to one another

in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Praise God, whose life-giving love calls us

into relationship with one another, through Christ.

 

We celebrate that unity

which welcomes diversity as the gift of God.

 

Praise God, whose rule of love and justice

may be shared in our lives now, as we are bound together

in God’s covenant relationship with us,

transcending cultural, economic, national and racial boundaries.

 

Please join in responding.

 

Leader:

For times in our lives when we behave selfishly and greedily,

grasping after things and achievements

we think we have secured;

but failing to respect one another or

to pursue the common good,

 

Lord, in your mercy,

All: Forgive and restore us, we pray.

 

For weakly ignoring opportunities

to advance better relationships;

for times when we have nurtured racist attitudes

or feared to rebuke unjust remarks,

 

Lord, in your mercy,

Forgive and restore us, we pray.

 

When we have failed to support

positive action for reconciliation;

or neglected to seek the truth.

For lost opportunities to witness

to your work in the world;

 

Lord, in your mercy,

Forgive and restore us, we pray.

 

When we are sorry for wrong things we have done;

when we grieve at our own inaction,

God forgives our sins and

encourages us to new resolve in faith.

 

We may, therefore, rejoice

that our sins are forgiven;

we can be glad a new day has begun,

 

Together: All praise and thanks to God

our Redeemer and Sustainer,

now and forever. Amen.

 

 

Hymn    Lord of earth and all creation (672, WESTMINSTER ABBEY)

 

 

Verse 1

Lord of earth and all creation,

let your love possess our land:

wealth, and freedom, far horizons,

mountains, forest, shining sand:

may we share, in faith and friendship,

gifts unmeasured from your hand.

 

Verse 2

People of the ancient Dreamtime,

they who found this country first,

ask with those, the later comers,

will our dream be blessed or cursed?

Grant us, Lord, new birth, new living,

hope for which our children thirst.

 

Verse 3

Lord, life-giving healing Spirit,

on our hurts your mercy shower;

lead us by your inward dwelling,

guiding, guarding, every hour.

Bless and keep our land Australia:

in your will her peace and power.

 

Words © M. R. Thwaites | Music © R. Boughen

CCLI #260394

 

Kids Talk    Gabby Su Young Lyons

 

 

 

 

Scripture Readings     Elaine Wallbank

     

 

Genesis 1:1-10 (The Message)

 

Heaven and Earth

1 ^1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

 

^3-5 God spoke: “Light!”
        And light appeared.
    God saw that light was good
        and separated light from dark.
    God named the light Day,
        he named the dark Night.
    It was evening, it was morning — Day One.

 

^6-8 God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters;
        separate water from water!”
    God made sky.
    He separated the water under sky
        from the water above sky.
    And there it was:
        he named sky the Heavens;
    It was evening, it was morning — Day Two.

 

^9-10 God spoke: “Separate!
        Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
    Land, appear!”
        And there it was.
    God named the land Earth.
        He named the pooled water Ocean.
    God saw that it was good.

 

Hear the word of the Lord,

Thanks be to God.

 

Psalm 8 (The Message)

A David Psalm

8 God, brilliant Lord,
        yours is a household name.

 

² Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
        toddlers shout the songs
  That drown out enemy talk,
        and silence atheist babble.

 

^3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
        your handmade sky-jewelry,
  Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
        Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
  Why do you bother with us?
        Why take a second look our way?

^5-8 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
        bright with Eden’s dawn light.
  You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
        repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
  Made us lords of sheep and cattle,
        even animals out in the wild,
  Birds flying and fish swimming,
        whales singing in the ocean deeps.

 

⁹ God, brilliant Lord,
       your name echoes around the world.

 

2 Corinthians 13:11-14 (The Message)

 

^11-13 And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.

 

¹⁴ The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

 

Hear the word of the Lord,

Thanks be to God.

 

Matthew 28:16-20 (The Message)

 

^16-17 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.

^18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

Reflection on the Scripture      Seung Jae Yeon

 

 

In June 1999, God opened my eye to see this world differently. I was shocked by the fact between the beauty of Sydney Harbour and the reality of an Aboriginal Reserve called Nanima, Wellington NSW. The village seemed to be hidden and its villagers looked a bit different to those I had met in the CBD of Sydney. I praised God for the beauty of city that man built in history, but I muted myself when I was learning about a history of the village and entering under the gate decorated with skulls and words of warning.  I wondered whether I am in the same country Australia that many people wanted to live and study for their future. In Nanima, I couldn’t find any piece of hope for today or tomorrow. It was ruined and hopeless. I was very confused. Since the first encounter with the First Peoples, I have been wondering about God’s call upon me in a certain way that I am still living in this country as home and contributing my gifts and talents in ministry. Sometimes I think to myself that I am faithful to God’s call to work and live with the First Peoples as a Korean migrant and a Christian. Always I come to an answer: Yes, I’m journeying with them in my prayer and thoughts. If God calls me to go, I will go to serve them as I have served God and all of you, Boronia Park Uniting Church!

 

In 2009, The Uniting Church adopted the revised preamble to the Constitution that proclaims that God calls the Church to seek a renewal of a community of First Peoples and of Second Peoples from many lands. In this, you and I are Second Peoples whose history has begun since 1788. The preamble recognises that “the First Peoples had already encountered the Creator God before the arrival of the colonisers. The Spirit was already in the land revealing God to the people through law, custom and ceremony. The same love and grace that was finally fully revealed in Jesus Christ sustained the First Peoples and gave them particular insights into God’s ways.” (The Constitution, 41) The acknowledgement and recognition of the First Peoples and their sovereignty of the land are embedded in the foundation of the Uniting Church. It may also bring us an important attention that we are called by God to pay our respect to their presence amongst us in society and to create peace and harmony for our common good in the future.

 

This year, 2020 is a year of significant anniversaries, including the walks for reconciliation in the year 2000, when hundreds of thousands of Australians joined in public expressions of solidarity with First Peoples. This event was and is a historical monument of Australia. We, Boronia Park would have celebrated this if we were able to gather in one place. Maybe some of us had a time to reflect on their own journey like me or our Church’s journey in history. I believe that we have walked together in the move of the Holy Spirit as First and Second Peoples. So now we need to think about how we continue that journey as Church?

 

In those readings, the Triune God – the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer would work together like a team, especially who has fought against the COVID-19 outbreak in harm’s way. In the team, some strive to create safer environment for citizens to live freely daily life. Some people such as nurses and doctors, at the frontline are struggling to cure patients. Some researchers are developing vaccines and anti-virus medication for all humanity facing the pandemic and its danger. Without them and their efforts, we could not have continued our daily life at home, school or work. Their contributions and life-giving actions have made our day more liveable and our future sustainable. The amazing work of those people is with us in these surreal times, so we give thanks to them. What should we learn from them in order to make a better future together, joining in daily expressions of solidarity with First Peoples? I will now give you an action plan that you may participate in this weekend.

 

One, spend time in thoughts and prayer for Reconciliation. No need to say much. Just commit to sit and pray in silence. Let the Holy Spirit lead your prayer being grounded in the move of the Holy Spirit.

 

Two, take action by sharing your story why you follow Jesus and why you support being led by Boronia Park Uniting Church to respond God’s call upon building relationship with the First Peoples? (We have celebrated July every year the NAIDOC Week and one of them we raised money from a music concert to support the ministry of UAICC.)

 

Three, take advocacy action today by writing to the Minister for Corrections or Minister for Police in NSW, encouraging them to take action to stop Aboriginal Deaths in custody. There is a template letter for you to adjust and the details of your local Ministers to write, so please contact me (0413 837 721 or minister.bp.uniting@hotmail.com). [Click to go to the page]

 

I believe that today we are called to take another step further to fulfil God’s call upon us in relationship with the First Peoples. Although we are unlikely to see the First Peoples everyday life, do not forget that we live our home built on their land, worship God in time and space where God encountered with their ancestors, and will continue our journey with their emerging generation and leaders like our young people and their future. We are today laying another stepping stone in a huge gap between First and Second Peoples. God the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer be with us all now and forever. In the mystery of the Trinity from the Beginning to the end of the ages, God may reveal his love and hope to all who seek to find and respond God’s call in making reconciliation.

 

May you and I be God’s blessings to each other and especially this week for the First Peoples, our Aboriginal brothers and sisters in the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sustainer.

 

Amen.

  

 

Prayers of the people (suggested by Minister to join)

 

Phrases from the 1994 Covenant Statement of the Uniting Church in Australia National Assembly and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress Response (Congress) will be used to introduce passages of prayer.

 

Voice of UCA (1994):

Long before my people came to this land your people were here. You were nurtured by your traditions, by the land, and by the Mystery that surrounds us all and binds all creation together.

 

Voice of Congress (1994):

Your ancestors came to us in different ways and we saw little of our caring God in them. They did not come to us as God’s will would dictate but to dispossess us ...As a direct result of this violent dispossession Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people have lived as strangers and outcasts in their own land.

 

Leader: We pray for healing and reconciliation for past and continuing hurts and resentments between our peoples. May the recent gestures of governments and churches extend into new and courageous actions for justice in this land.

 

God, we thank you for the wonder of creation and

for those whose lives rejoice

in the many gifts and sustenance that it provides.

 

We thank you for the original peoples of this land

and ask that all Australians may come to acknowledge

and value their continuing contribution

to the life and uniqueness of this island continent.

 

Leader: Our hope is in God

All: From this day and forever

 

Voice of UCA (1994):

My people did not hear you when you shared your understanding and your Dreaming. In our zeal to share with you the Good News of Jesus Christ, we were closed to your spirituality and your wisdom.

 

Voice of Congress (1994):

Whilst the church attempted to stem the decimation of our people and culture by providing missions and sanctuaries, in very many instances it did not attempt to understand our ways, our laws or social and economic structures.

 

We pray for a growing depth of respect

for Indigenous people in Australia,

past and present.

 

Help us to be more open to building relationships

with Indigenous people and

Indigenous sisters and brothers in the Church.

 

May we strengthen their work with our support and

encourage their efforts in the name of Christ.

 

Leader: Our hope is in God

All: From this day and forever

 

Voice of UCA (1994):

Your people were prevented from caring for this land as you believe God required of you, and our failure to care for the land appropriately has brought many problems for all of us. We seek to journey together in the true spirit of Christ as we discover what it means to be bound to one another in a covenant. Christ has bound us each to himself, giving himself for us, and he has bound us to each other with his commandment ‘Love one another as I have loved you’.

 

Voice of Congress (1994):

We agree with you that the church, which had a responsibility to be the conscience of the invaders, in many instances relinquished this responsibility and joined with the invaders in a great many atrocities by smoothing the pillow for what was believed to be a dying race.

 

We give thanks for signs of hope

as some people of goodwill in the fields

of agriculture, science and government

seek to understand how to work with this land and

how to consult with its people.

 

We give thanks for the many stories of hope

as individuals and congregations,

schools and agencies,

give concrete expression to the Church’s Covenant

with Indigenous people.

 

May more people join them

in practical action and meaningful cooperation.

 

Leader: Our hope is in God

All: From this day and forever

 

Voice of UCA (1994):

It is our desire to work in solidarity with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress for the advancement of God’s kingdom of justice and righteousness in this land, and we reaffirm the commitment made at the 1985 Assembly to do so. We want to bring discrimination to an end, so that your people are no longer gaoled in disproportionate numbers, and so that equal housing, health, education and employment opportunities are available for your people as for ours.

 

Voice of Congress (1994):

Your commitment to be practical in seeking to be united in a new relationship will be assessed by your decisions to resource the Congress ministry and to be actively involved in ministry alongside and with Aboriginal and Islander people to change the present disadvantage.

 

We pray for the Congress and our relationship with it.

 

We acknowledge a long-term commitment

that deserves greater energy to “close the gap”

between the living, health and education standards

of the majority of Australians,

and those of our Indigenous people.

 

Help us to deepen awareness and a sense of urgency

in church and nation.

 

May the voices of people in our churches, schools and agencies

join with all people of goodwill in this country

to make a concerted impact on those areas of inequity and suffering

that have held sway far too many years.

 

Leader: Our hope is in God

All: From this day and forever

 

 

 

THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

 

 

The Peace

 

Christ has reconciled us to God

in one body by the cross.

We meet in his name and share his peace.

 

The peace of the Lord

be always with you.

And also with you.

 

 

Hymn    Feed us now (538)

 

 

Verse 1

Feed us now, Bread of life,

in this holy meal;

let us know your love anew:

we hunger for you.

Feed us now, Bread of life,

come and live within;

let your peace be ours today,

Lord Jesus, we pray. 

 

Verse 2

Piece of bread, cup of wine:

Lord, this food is good:

love and mercy come to us

your promise we trust.

Piece of bread, cup of wine:

who can understand

how his mercy works in these?

Yet, Lord, we believe.

 

Verse 3

God is here, O so near,

nearer than our thoughts.

Stay with us where’er we go;

Lord, help us to grow.

God is here, O so near,

in this heaven’s meal.

May we always feed on you –

on the bread that is true.

 

 

Words and music © R. Mann

CCLI #260394

 

Great prayer of thanksgiving

 

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

 

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

 

God of holy dreaming,

Great Creator Spirit,

from the dawn of creation

you have given your children

the good things of Mother Earth.

 

You spoke and the gum tree grew.

 

In the vast desert and dense forest,

and in cities at the water’s edge,

creation sings your praise.

 

Your presence endures

as the rock at the heart of our Land.

 

When Jesus hung on the tree

you heard the cries of all your people and

became one with the wounded ones:

the convicts, the hunted, and the dispossessed.

 

The sunrise of your Son coloured the earth anew,

and bathed it in glorious hope.

 

In Jesus we have been reconciled to you,

to each other and to your whole creation.

Lead us on, Great Spirit,

as we gather from the four corners of the earth;

enable us to walk together in trust

from the hurt and shame of the past

into the full day which has dawned in Jesus Christ.

 

With all your people of every time and place

we shout out songs of praise:

 

Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power and might.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is the One

who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

 

On the night before he died,

Jesus gathered with his friends

to share a meal and wash their feet,

teaching one more lesson of love.

He took bread

and blessed you

and broke it.

 

He gave it to them and said:

“Take this and eat it.

 This is my body.”

 

He took a cup of wine

and blessed you

and gave it to them.

 

He said: 

“Take this and drink it.

This is my blood,

sealing God’s promise to forgive your sins.

Whenever you do this,

do it in memory of me.”

 

As we share these holy gifts,

we remember the Lord Jesus.

 

For the love you taught us,

the sacrifice you made for us and

the hope you give us, we acclaim you, O Christ:

Dying you destroyed our death.

Rising, you restored our life.

Christ Jesus, come in glory.

 

And now, faithful God,

send us your Spirit

to feed us with the body and the blood

of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

Make us one body in Christ.

 

Send us as your messengers in the world and

fill us with energy, courage and love.

 

Now to you, most holy God,

through Christ your Son and in the Spirit’s power,

we bring our worship and our songs of praise:

 

Blessing and honour and

glory and power are yours

for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

The Breaking of Bread and The Communion

 

Followed by saying the words below, you may eat bread and drink from your cup to join in the Life in Jesus Christ.

 

We who are many are one body.

For we all share in the one bread and one cup.

 

 

The Lord’s Prayer

 

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

 

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

 

Save us from the time of trial

and deliver us from evil.

 

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours now and forever.

 

Amen.

 

 

Song      Brother sister let me serve you (650)

 

 

 

Verse 1

Brother, sister, let me serve you,

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

 

Verse 2

We are pilgrims on a journey

and companions on the road;

we are here to help each other

walk the mile and bear the load.

 

Verse 3

I will hold the Christ-light for you

in the night-time of your fear;

I will hold my hand out to you,

speak the peace you long to hear.

 

Verse 4

I will weep when you are weeping;

when you laugh I’ll laugh with you;

I will share your joy and sorrow

till we’ve seen this journey through.

 

Verse 5

When we sing to God in heaven

we shall find such harmony,

born of all we’ve know together

of Christ’s love and agony.

 

Verse 6

Brother, sister, let me serve you,

let me be as Christ to you;

pray that I may have the grace to

let you be my servant too.

 

Richard Gilard

CCLI # 260394

 

 

Offering

 

Let us pray:

 

Blessed are you,

O Lord our God,

Creator and Redeemer of the whole world;

from you we receive the gift of life,

and by your grace we have gifts to offer you.

 

 

Accept our offerings and our lives

in praise and thanksgiving,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who brings us again from death to life,

and holds forward the promise

of your everlasting kingdom.

 

Amen.

 

 

The offering will be used for the congregation’s continuing mission and ministry in these changing times. Please make your offering through a Bank Deposit or a personal cheque whichever is convenient to you.

 

Account Name: Boronia Park Uniting Church

BSB: 634-634               

Account: 100023784

Reference: Offering      

 

Please contact Robyn Harvey, Treasurer on 0418 783 290 or robyn.49@bigpond.net.au for more information about how to make Direct Debit.

 

If you are in a position to help others, Sydney Community Services, where we have donated foods and goods to support the need in our local community, may ask us to donate ANY pasta sauce or chunk soup cans. SCS has passed their appreciation for our donation. If needed to pick up donations from your home, let Robyn or Seung Jae know.

 

And many thank those who have donated for your sharing love and generosity.

 

 

Word of mission: My Blessing (Uncle Vince Ross)

 

Let us pray:

 

May the God of creation

warm your heart like the campfires of old.

 

Bring wisdom and peace

as shown to the first peoples of this land.

 

Shake off the dust from the desert plains

by the refreshing rains.

 

Followed by the glow

and warmth of the sun.

 

Let the light of God show us the right path

and stand tall like the big.

 

River gums drawing life

from the ever-flowing waters.

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

This liturgy is based on Building Partnerships in a booklet subtitled, A guide to covenant renewal with Indigenous people throughout the Uniting Church in Australia (2007) and the Second Order for Holy Communion in a Prayer Book for Australia (APBA), Broughton Books, 1995. Opening Prayer and Thanksgiving Prayer is sourced from the Anglican Church of Australia Liturgy Commission, “An Order for Holy Communion 2009”. Blessing provided by Uncle Vince Ross from 2020 National Reconciliation Week resources.

 

KidsLife Episode 4

 

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