Dear St Faith’s family - just when you thought 2020 was almost done.....!!
This weekend…
As you have no doubt heard Northern Beaches residents are being encouraged to remain in their homes over the coming three days due to the unfolding COVID-19 outbreak in this area. As a result of this, along with further advice from NSW Health, we have decided to cancel all of our in-person services at St Faith’s this coming weekend.
Our staff and volunteers are working hard to pull together an online service for this weekend which will be available via our website, www.stfaiths.church at 5pm Saturday, 8:30am, 10:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday (click on ‘Join Now’ to be redirected to the service at those times).
For our 8:30am service, we will have an ‘online version’ of Traditional Lessons & Carols (which was scheduled live for this Sunday) for those who enjoy that style of service at this time of year.
Christmas Eve & Christmas Day…
If you’ve been in church or watching online, you are most likely aware that a decision was made late last month to hold all but one of our Christmas services online (our 8am Christmas Day service will now be held online as well). This has meant that we’ve been able to plan ahead, record Christmas music and content ahead of time, which has us in a good position for delivering an uplifting service for you and your family on Christmas Eve (4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm) and Christmas Day (8am & 9:30am) as we celebrate the coming of our Saviour a little differently this year! We are thankful for God’s provision in this regard. Further information regarding Christmas will be sent early next week.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me or another member of staff.
God bless,
Ben
Hi Everyone,
We want to give you an update on the COVID-19 situation and the impact it is having on our church community, here at St Faith’s. As you are probably aware, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an announcement yesterday that indoor gatherings over one hundred people are now banned and our Archbishop Glenn Davies followed that announcement by declaring that all Sydney Anglican Church services are suspended until further notice. Obviously that impacts what we’re doing as a Church here at St Faith’s, and we wanted to touch base with everyone to let people know what we’re doing so that we might continue church, even if it looks a little bit different.
But, let’s turn to the Bible first.
We want to encourage everyone at this time to be fixing our eyes on Jesus and looking to him before anything else. In Revelation chapter one, Jesus talks with John, the author of Revelation, and he puts his hand on him and says, “Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last.” Jesus there is reminding him that He was there before the beginning of the world and he is going to be there after it ends, and he holds all of those things in his hands. He is in control both now and always. Obviously, at this time, we really need to remember that but Jesus goes on and builds on that. He says ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades’. Jesus reminds us again that he is alive right now, that he is ruling and reigning, and that even though he was nailed to a cross and died, he defeated death and holds it in his hands; just like he holds this current situation in his hands right now as well. We need to be trusting Jesus particularly at this point and putting our faith and all of our hope in him because our world really needs that and we really need that too. And so we’re going to press forward confidently as a church, trusting in Jesus and remembering these truths.
One of the things we’re really excited about is that church is still going to happen, because it’s not a building but a people. We’re going to keep gathering together as God’s people, but it will be done a bit differently. We’ll be gathering together online!! Over the coming days you’ll be able to find all the necessary information on our website. It will have information about Gathering Online, Community Groups, and our Online Resources that we hope will serve to spur us on to keep trusting Jesus during this time. We are the body of Christ and we need to keep meeting together, even online, so we can continue to live for him and serve him in this world. It’s also important that we look out for each other at this time; we already have a bunch of people in self-isolation because they have flown in from overseas. So it is important that together we check in on each other, so that we can care for one another in whatever needs there may be.
So this weekend we’re going to be meeting with our community group leaders, and we’re going to be thinking together about our vision as a church - which hasn’t changed - but the strategies for achieving that vision are changing for a period of time. We’re really excited about what God might do with this time, in growing us individually, growing our Community Groups and growing our church family.
So we want to encourage you to stay connected at church. Stay connected on Facebook, via our website, and if you don’t receive email updates from us click on the “Stay Updated” button on our website. We want to do our best to keep you updated on what’s happening and how you can connect with other Christians at this time. As we said before, keep trusting in Christ - He is in control, He’s sitting on the throne, and we must remember these things and trust his sovereignty at this time.
Reach out to us if you need anything - we want to continue to love and serve you as the leaders of this community.
Take care, and God bless.
St Faith’s Ministry Team
Hi Everyone,
We want to give you an update on the COVID-19 situation and the impact it is having on our church community, here at St Faith’s. As you are probably aware, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an announcement yesterday that indoor gatherings over one hundred people are now banned and our Archbishop Glenn Davies followed that announcement by declaring that all Sydney Anglican Church services are suspended until further notice. Obviously that impacts what we’re doing as a Church here at St Faith’s, and we wanted to touch base with everyone to let people know what we’re doing so that we might continue church, even if it looks a little bit different.
But, let’s turn to the Bible first.
We want to encourage everyone at this time to be fixing our eyes on Jesus and looking to him before anything else. In Revelation chapter one, Jesus talks with John, the author of Revelation, and he puts his hand on him and says, “Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last.” Jesus there is reminding him that He was there before the beginning of the world and he is going to be there after it ends, and he holds all of those things in his hands. He is in control both now and always. Obviously, at this time, we really need to remember that but Jesus goes on and builds on that. He says ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades’. Jesus reminds us again that he is alive right now, that he is ruling and reigning, and that even though he was nailed to a cross and died, he defeated death and holds it in his hands; just like he holds this current situation in his hands right now as well. We need to be trusting Jesus particularly at this point and putting our faith and all of our hope in him because our world really needs that and we really need that too. And so we’re going to press forward confidently as a church, trusting in Jesus and remembering these truths.
One of the things we’re really excited about is that church is still going to happen, because it’s not a building but a people. We’re going to keep gathering together as God’s people, but it will be done a bit differently. We’ll be gathering together online!! Over the coming days you’ll be able to find all the necessary information on our website. It will have information about Gathering Online, Community Groups, and our Online Resources that we hope will serve to spur us on to keep trusting Jesus during this time. We are the body of Christ and we need to keep meeting together, even online, so we can continue to live for him and serve him in this world. It’s also important that we look out for each other at this time; we already have a bunch of people in self-isolation because they have flown in from overseas. So it is important that together we check in on each other, so that we can care for one another in whatever needs there may be.
So this weekend we’re going to be meeting with our community group leaders, and we’re going to be thinking together about our vision as a church - which hasn’t changed - but the strategies for achieving that vision are changing for a period of time. We’re really excited about what God might do with this time, in growing us individually, growing our Community Groups and growing our church family.
So we want to encourage you to stay connected at church. Stay connected on Facebook, via our website, and if you don’t receive email updates from us click on the “Stay Updated” button on our website. We want to do our best to keep you updated on what’s happening and how you can connect with other Christians at this time. As we said before, keep trusting in Christ - He is in control, He’s sitting on the throne, and we must remember these things and trust his sovereignty at this time.
Reach out to us if you need anything - we want to continue to love and serve you as the leaders of this community.
Take care, and God bless.
St Faith’s Ministry Team
Please click here to open October prayer diary
Click here to open September prayer diary
Click here to open August 2019 prayer diary
