NEWS

A little shy of forty of us, including several friends of the congregation gathered after the service last week to enjoy an afternoon of pizza, soup and Seekers’ songs. The generous proceeds from the luncheon, including several ‘lucky number’ hampers, provided much needed support to the tireless work of Frontier Services. 

Our musical entertainment was provided by Ali and her string band “The Fun Seekers” who played all the great hits from Australia’s most popular ‘soft’ band, the Seekers. All of the members of the band came from Ali’s famous Ukulele group – LUKES (Longbeach Ukulele Club). 

Special thanks to all the pizza cooks, those who prepared the soups and those who made the yummy sweets for us to enjoy. And a massive thank you to Wendy who organised it all. Thanks to those who helped to set up the hall on Saturday evening and thanks to everyone who helped to pack it all up again after the lunch and who washed the dishes.  Where would we be without the Websters, the Hindes, Marg Thorburn, Suzy Toovey, Barbara Cohen and Ali on these occasions. 

*On a personal note, Ali’s husband John needed to be hospitalised following a heart event during the afternoon. His daughter Carlie went with him to hospital in the ambulance. Forever the trooper, Ali and her band played on despite their obvious concern for John. He remains in our prayers and best wishes during his recovery.

Following the successful and well-attended AGM last Sunday, Faye Green was re-elected an Elder and Graeme Keys was elected for five years in a unanimous vote. Congratulations to them both and also to the current Executive and Church Council members who agreed to continue in their important roles. 

Nick Toovey continues as Chair, Graeme and Janet Webster continue as Secretary and assistant Secretary and Helen Hutchison continues as Treasurer. They make up the Church Executive. Completing the Church Council with the Executive are Wendy and Geoff Hinde and Suzy Toovey. The church is in excellent hands with this faithful, hard-working and dedicated team. 

At the AGM, it was also agreed by popular acclaim that Nick and Carol Parker are our Presbytery representatives and Alison Davies will continue as our Safe Church officer. 

Enjoy these images from our powerful Good Friday and Easter Sunday services, including the magnificent Easter Garden. Thank you to Rev Chris Cohen for leading our services on two of the most  significant occasions in the Christian calendar. 

It was particularly pleasing to welcome back Philip Stewart with daughter Bronwen, Faye Greene’s  five granddaughters and Sherene Devanesen’s son Amaresh and family in attendance at the Easter Sunday service.  We had large numbers attend our services and we enjoyed hot cross buns with a cuppa on Good Friday and everyone was treated to an egg on Easter Sunday.

Our choir: led by Geoff Hinde with George Charters on the grand piano, sang some moving anthems in keeping with Holy Week. We were so grateful that George came up from Mt Eliza to fill in for Rhonda. His classical interludes were a wonderful time for reflection.

The heat of recent days may have deterred a few, but the quality of the pancakes and the great entertainment made up for the smaller than expected gathering for our Uniting Care Pancake brunch after church last week. Proceeds from the sales went to the work of Uniting Care in the wider community. 

We also ran a Lucky Numbers competition for Uniting Care 

A big thank you to the kitchen staff (Wendy, Geoff, Janet and Suzy) who laboured through the morning /early afternoon to load up our groaning paper plates with yummy pancakes laden with fruits of many kinds and ice cream. 

Ali and John Davies and David Scott also provided the musical entertainment. 

None of this would have happened without the energy, enthusiasm and organisation of Wendy who convinced the church calendar to delay Shrove Tuesday especially for us! We hope St Patrick didn’t mind sharing March 17th with us! 

Enjoy the photos from our happy gathering. 

Please join us straight after the 9:30am service on Sunday 17th March for pancakes and a hot or cold drink in lieu of our usual morning tea. Wendy Hinde would be grateful to any volunteers to flip for a good cause in the kitchen and also for donations of pancake mixes and toppings. All funds raised will be donated to UnitingCare. We apologise for delaying this much awaited event on our church social calendar but our main organiser was away.

PLEASE BRING CASH!!!

Live music will accompany the serving of food.

We had some special guests at our Christmas Day service in the form of a ‘live’ Nativity scene. Shepherds Jack and Ben McDonald were joined by angels Annabelle McDonald and twin three year olds Gaia and Arya. They were attending the birth of baby Jesus with his parents Joseph (Scotty Webster) and Mary (Katie Barnes- the twins’ parents). It was quite a family affair.
It was also lovely to see several members of the congregation whom we haven’t seen in a while to catch up on their family news.
It was also great to see life Elder Philip Stewart attended church on Christmas Day after spending a week or two in Kingston Hospital with a nasty chest infection. We pray for Philip’s speedy recovery.

Following the lighting of the Advent Candles by the Webster twins, we were treated to a beautiful Carols Service last Sunday 24th December, featuring an enlarged St Martins Choir led by Geoff Hinde which led us in singing our favourite Christmas Carols. We thanked our very generous pianist Rhonda who provided the accompaniment during rehearsals as well as playing for us during the service.

We were also pleased to welcome Katrina Pezzimenti (Wendy and Geoff’s daughter) as a soloist during the Carols Service. Her contribution added another string to the Choir’s bow of traditional Christmas carolling that St Martins has become well known for over the past four or five decades in the Bayside Community.

We also had some visitors from Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, and from Germany and Sydney at the Carols Service. News of the event has travelled across the world!

During the morning church service on Sunday 10th December , we placed under the “Empty Christmas Tree” generous donations of unwrapped children’s toys or gift vouchers or gifts for the families supported by Family Life.   We also brought forward a mountain of non-perishable grocery food items for these vulnerable families. Many thanks to all members of our congregation who brought along these much needed donations.