St John's Prebyterian Church
35-41 Forest Street, BENDIGO
(corner of Forest & Mackenzie Streets)
Minister: Rev. Phillip Burns
Website: http://bendigopc.org.au/
I always try
to make a habit of visiting churches in places where I travel because
it can be encouraging meeting like minded people and being
welcome even though you are a stranger. However, the difficulties
with going to a church you don't know is that it can be a bit hit or
miss in regards to hospitality and teaching. Despite that I am finding that this is not really the case with Presbyterian Churches
here in Australia (though so far I have only been to four).
To be honest, I am always a little
apprehensive going to a church that I have never been to before,
namely because I am quite shy. In fact I was almost was
going to head straight back to Melbourne, though I swallowed my nerves and
instead decided to pay a visit to St John's.
All I can say is that I am glad I did.
Not only did I run into a couple who I had not seen for years, I also received an incredibly warm welcome. In fact the pastor even
arranged a lift to the railway station so I could catch the train
back to Melbourne in time to attend one of my regular churches.
While I have not had the privilege of
seeing this church grow in the same way that I have seen other
churches grow over the time I have attended them, it was still great to
speak with the regulars and learn about how the church works in their
community. This particular church appears to have an annual service
dedicated to the Naval Cadets (which is a little odd considering that
Bendigo is nowhere near the ocean). It seems that they use
this as an opportunity to meet with the cadets and to have
conversations beyond what the weather is like and whether the stories
about the ritual of crossing the equator are true.
While one can learn a bit about what
the church does by glancing through the weekly newsletter, it is
always good to speak to the people involved. St Johns
clearly has a strong relationship with the AFES group at the Bendigo Campus
of La-Trobe University because not only were there are a
number of university students in attendance, they also have an
evening service dedicated to the university crowd.
No doubt the make
up of the church has changed significantly over the years as Bendigo
has grown from a gold mining town to a regional centre, and I suspect
that initially the church would have been full of miners and local
farmers. However as the of the city has grown into a major regional centre, the younger
crowd who have moved here to escape the city lifestyle have brought
new life into the church. No doubt that these foundations are going to
continue to be built upon in years to come.
A copy of this post also appears on my travel blog.
A copy of this post also appears on my travel blog.
If you wish to use this work commercially please feel free to contact me.
Nice one David. It was lovely to see you again after all this time. Thanks for visiting. Julie T
ReplyDelete