Vicar's News - 16 May 2021

Jesus Sending Forth Apostles by Duccio Buoninsegn

Prior to his ascension, Jesus commissioned his disciples to attend to God's mission. How we think of mission has changed over the years. More in this week's sermon.

Next weekend is Pentecost and you may choose to wear something red to mark the occasion. Traditionally member churches among the Brighton Covenant Churches swap their readers for the main Sunday service and this year we will be sending readers to St Finbar's and they to us at 10am.

I am pleased to advise that Brighton Grammar have won their appeal against Heritage Victoria's refusal to approve the new building that will subsume the parish's tennis court site. Of course, conditions have been imposed and these will be considered carefully by the school before proceeding but I expect that work will commence in the second half of 2022.

I will brief Parish Council further on these developments at Tuesday evening's meeting.

It has been suggested that we can use the heating under the church seats in its current configuration if the heaters operate. This will be used sparingly given the high cost of operating such an old system which draws enormous power, and will be monitored by the Churchwardens given that the risk of fire from electrical malfunctions has already caused the earlier church to burn to the ground. Unfortunately those heating elements which do not work cannot be repaired.

Improvements are being made to the external lighting by the installation of sensor lights to the rear of the Parish Centre. Between the church and the toilets visibility has been quite poor even at 6pm now that daylight saving has ceased.

If you haven't already contributed to our Organ restoration Appeal, why not consider sponsoring an organ pipe? You can see the various components awaiting sponsorship here.