“O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appears and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices“

Adolphe Adam 1803-1856

It goes without saying that our world has been through too many ups and downs over the past couple of years. We found ourselves in situations where everything was constantly changing and uncertainty lurked around every corner. I’m not sure about you, but I am tired. I am exhausted. I am weary.

Even now when we are mostly back to normal, it took me a long time to get back into the swing of meeting up with people again. Now we are at the busy end of the year with breakups and celebrations I don’t feel like I can keep up!

At the first Christmas there was a lot of things going on too; pregnant Mary having to make a cross country journey, giving birth in a stable which mustn’t have been very comfortable, and then the shepherd visitors started arriving! It would have been a far cry from the images on our modern day Christmas cards – dusty, smelly and noisy!

But in all this seeming chaos there lay the longed-for baby, the one that not only Mary and Joseph had been wanting to meet, but the whole world. A Bible verse from Luke chapter 2 verse 11 proclaims “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord”. The Saviour had arrived in the form of a baby and brought a weary world hope for a new future.

This hope was evident throughout all of Jesus life in the way that he was able to show that he was God’s son through his teachings, miracles and love for those who were deemed unlovely by society. There is hope for us now of new life in Jesus when he died on the cross to make us right with God- something that we could never achieve on our own. This is something that I know my weary self can rejoice in!

So in this Christmas season, if things seem overwhelming, turn back to Jesus and rejoice in the hope that his birth brought to our weary world.

By Esther Kerr

We had a very informative and encouraging meeting last night (23/11/22) with Rev Hiralal Solanki and his wife Laxmi, who spoke to us about the ongoing ministry of Indian Reformed Fellowship Australia and updated us on the growth and progress of the gospel throughout the country!

If you would like to know more about IRFA you can visit www.irfa.com.au

Things are s-l-o-w-l-y returning to something like ‘normal’ (whatever that was!) with some of our ministries at St John’s with some small steps in the right direction over the last few weeks…

For a start, we’ve been able to re-establish our own Youth Group that has met once so far this term and is meeting again soon. It was a great start with just under a dozen youth from Grade 6-Year 12 attending, and with the PYV Summer Camp ahead, things are looking up..!

Then, just last week, after too long(!) of not meeting, our Sunday School is up and running again, and we are looking forward to hearing from our Sunday School scholars all that they are learning from Matthew 13 over the next few weeks!

We thank our great God for His blessing in this way!

Well, today was the day! Despite it being a rather cold September morning, we gathered with thankful hearts to celebrate the Lord God’s faithfulness to us over these 150 years.

Like most churches, the story of the St John’s congregation is one of ups and downs, decline and growth, good times and hard times… and yet through it all, our God has proved again and again that He is faithful.

You can listen to the whole service and/or the message by Rev Peter Phillips on the theme of ‘God’s Word for God’s World’. Also, here’s a snap of the congregation on the day (just for posterity’s sake!).

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the formation of the St John’s congregation (you can read about this in our history), we’ll be gathering on Sunday September 11th at 10:30am. The Moderator of the PCV, Rev Peter Phillips will be preaching. Former members and friends are warmly invited to attend! Plus, there’ll be a big morning tea to follow!

Join us as we hear and celebrate what God is doing around the world with His word – especially through Wycliffe and the provision of mother-tongue translators! Details below…

With the federal election on our doorstep, it is important that God’s people continue to be informed about the significance of the Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB) and its benefits. To answer key questions, the Institute for Civil Society* (ICS) has made a three-part explainer video regarding the RDB.

You can see these videos here.

*ICS is a social policy think tank seeking to promote traditional rights and liberties, including the freedoms of association, expression, conscience and religion.