This is my Uniting Church
All Saints Floreat Uniting Church
June 12, 2024

"First and foremost we see God at work through each and every one of us"
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Share a little bit about your church community.
All Saints Floreat Uniting Church is about 8km west of Perth’s CBD. In 1995 two uniting church congregations, Forum Uniting Church and All Saints’ Uniting Church, amalgamated to form the current congregation. This new congregation was larger than either church could accommodate so a new worship sanctuary was built and opened in 1995 to allow this new congregation to all worship together.
Our congregation embraces a traditional worship style and is ministered to by a wonderful group of musicians who play the organ, piano, or violin. While the rhythm of our worship is traditional, we seek to ensure our worship is contextual and speaks to the challenges we face in our modern world today.
We are an affirming congregation and welcome all LGBTIQ+ folk who join our community. We hope to become more affirming with the support of our new minister, Rev Reuben Edmonds.
We are active on a range of justice issues with a particular focus in the last 20 years on the First Peoples of Australia and the people of West Papua in Indonesia.
We are also a large family, who works hard to care deeply for each and every member. We also have Friendship Groups. Each year members are invited to participate in a friendship group with about 10 others. Throughout the year the groups organise activities for their group so that by the end, we hope the group have become friends and gotten to know each other better. Then a new year brings new opportunities to be in a group with new people to become friends with. This ensures we have a tight knit community of friends who come together to worship.
What are some of the things happening there that are really exciting for people?
Rev Reuben is passionate about the liturgical calendar and its colours. This has seen an increase in new decorations being made for the church along with new activities and services. We celebrated a wonderful Pancake Tuesday as a congregation and followed the next day with an Ash Wednesday service, a first for many in our congregation. We also had a Maundy Thursday service for the first time in many years.
We continue to be excited by some of our existing projects. The Boab network which works alongside the Mowanjum community near Derby is really exciting as it continues to evolve. Initially the network devoted a lot of time to summer school programs for the young people living in Mowanjum. As those young folk have gotten older and now run some of these programs themselves, we are transforming our role into new areas such as grant writing support. We are also excited by the Black Pearl network which works with the people of West Papua. It is also evolving with new water projects and a brand-new curriculum for our teachers who are equipping the next generation of West Papuans to be able to make the most of their education.
We also have exciting local projects. We are actively engaged with our local primary school through the KidsHope program and engage with our local YouthCARE committee. Many of our members volunteer to support those doing it tough through an organisation called Uniting Aid. We organise a playgroup and many more small but important initiatives.
A new exciting project has been the beginning of All Saints Sing Along. A community singing event held monthly that’s invites congregation and community members alike to come along and enjoy community singing. It is wonderful to see people coming together to laugh and smile as we sing, some better than others, our favourite songs.
Finally, we are excitedly looking forward to mission planning this year. It will be a great opportunity to reflect on the great work we have done in the past, where we are at now and what the future could look like for our congregation and pour community.
What energises the faith of this community?
This is tricky to answer and it can be very different for different members of All Saints. For some members they actively nourish their faith by attending Bible studies. We have a ladies Know Your Bible (KYB) Group that runs weekly and recently we have begun a Lectionary Bible Study for those who wish to explore with the minister the themes in the readings for the week.
Many of our members energise their faith through the work of the church. A particularly important ministry is our pastoral care. We have a wonderful group of carers who work to ensure each member of the congregation is cared for. We also have a Keeping In Touch group who work to care for those members who can no longer attend worship regularly due to ill health or other circumstances. This care is enriching for both the carers and those they care for.
Our faith is also energised through the justice movement the church passionately supports. Whether it is working with First Peoples in Australia or West Papua, speaking up about climate change, or highlighting the plight of refugees around the world; many of our members are passionate about changing the world we live in to better reflect the love of God.
Where do you see God at work at the moment?
First and foremost we see God at work through each and every one of us. As part of our church we seek to allow God to work through us, during worship, when we share communion, during pastoral care, and when we stand up for justice. All of us all called in our own way to demonstrate the love of God through the work of our hands, the words we speak, or the stillness of our presence.
We also see God working through our new minister. He is a young (relative to all of us!) minister who is in his first placement. He is bringing new ideas to our congregation and is helping us to see parts of our congregation that we have taken for granted for many years. It is exciting to have this new energy and daunting as well. But we are grateful for the way God is working in our new minister and our congregation.
Are there any challenges you're facing there?
Like many (but not all) Uniting Church congregations, we are challenged with an aging membership. This is making it more challenging to complete the same type and amount of volunteering we did in the past. However, we believe there are many ways we can continue to contribute to the ministry of our church, both locally and at wider levels. We are looking forward to our mission planning process that may enable us to discover new ways we can be the Church.
What can the rest of the Church pray for there?
We would appreciate any prayers for our community and congregation. In particular, we ask for prayer that with the Holy Spirit, we can discern the way forward for our congregation through our mission planning process.