The Holy Spirit & Pentecost
Pentecost is celebrated on the 7th Sunday after Easter to commemorate the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the 12 Apostles and many other followers of Jesus while they were praying together in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. This saw the birth of the Christian church as the apostles were empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread the good news about Jesus and perform signs and wonders in his name. You can read all about this in the book of Acts and see how these ordinary people were transformed by the Spirit to become bold followers of Christ who truly cared for one another with Christ’s love.
This Sunday, we are really looking forward to joining with you all to celebrate Pentecost and experience the Holy Spirit’s guiding! In order to come together humbly as one before God, we are praying together non-stop for 24 hours starting tomorrow at 9am. You can read more about this Pray all Day event here. Thank you to everyone for signing up for this, we now have someone in each spot, so we will indeed be praying for the whole 24 hours! Our Senior and Junior Youth Groups are also completing the Alpha Course, which will culminate in a few weeks in a special weekend dedicated to the Holy Spirit. Our worship this Sunday will feature songs, a kid’s talk, a sermon, and other videos all about the Spirit. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to understand who the Spirit is and how he works, so please do get in touch if you have any questions about this. Let’s keep praying that we remain sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance as he transforms us and leads us into deeper relationship with God.
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
This Sunday
9.30 am 31 May
Bible Reading:
Acts 2:1-13
Songs:
Holy Spirit (in C, key change to D)
Enough (in D)
Your Grace is Abundant
(Garry Jennings original)
Consuming Fire (in G)
Invisible Threads
The care and interaction across our congregation has been AMAZING over the past two months. Our prayers have been invisible threads crossing between the distances between us, and many Zoom conversations and telephone calls have filled some of our days. Thank you to everyone who has reached out or offered support in any manner to others during this time. Since early March this year there have been Zoom ‘meetings’ on a Wednesday morning and a Friday afternoon to catch up with others in the congregation. As our various communities and public spaces gradually open up, there will be more face to face gatherings and times for ‘real coffee’ catchups and thus we are concluding the Wednesday morning Catchup@TUC.
Friday at Five Catchup@TUC
The good news is we are continuing the Friday afternoon at Five Zoom Catchups. Please use these details to join us:
Every Friday, 5.00 pm
Zoom link
Meeting ID: 785 485 928
Password: at5pm
Community Morning Tea Catchup@TUC
The best news is that instead of the previous Wednesday Catchup we will be gathering on Zoom starting 17 June, with a Community Morning Tea Catchup@TUC. As you know these morning teas are normally held in the TUC hall on the third Wednesday of the month. The virtual Community Morning Tea Catchup will ensue every month until our morning teas are able to be reconvened with delectable food, stunning company and excellent speakers.
Please contact Wendy Geldenhuys for any further details and you may use these details to join us on Zoom:
Wednesday, Jun 17, 9:30 am
Zoom link
Meeting ID: 727 2440 7870
Password: CMTea
Dianne Hubbard
on behalf of the Care and Connect teams
TUC Manse for Rent
TUC’s manse located at 16 Grove Street Toowong has been occupied by Outback Futures for the last two years. They are soon moving to larger premises and will be vacating the house on 10 July 2020. The manse will therefore be available for an initial 6 month lease from 11 July 2020. Should any member of the congregation wish to rent this property then please contact Matt Smith or Will Stewart before 10 June 2020 after which it will be listed on the open rental market.
Bring a Friend to Church
We’ve heard from a few of you that you’ve found the Sunday live-stream to be a great way to invite people to come along to church. This is really great to hear! While we certainly hope people always feel safe and comfortable to come along and worship with us in person, and this is something we try to facilitate when we do gather together in person, online church provides a novel way for people to “check out” what church is about from the comfort and safety of their homes. Is there anyone that you would like to invite? Maybe you could even invite a few people to come to your home on Sunday morning? Please feel free to share this invitation with your friends and family. And let’s keep praying that anyone who does check out the live-stream will be able to experience who God is and that we can eventually meet in person and welcome them into the community.
Check out the kid’s talk from last Sunday from the Guyatt Family Studios, inspired by the bible passage 1 Peter 1:13-23 and what it means to be holy. Thank you to writer/director Sheri and actors Mitch, Mackenzie, Riley and Penny the dog!