We welcome Bruce Ballantine-Jones

This week, starting the 24th of February, we welcome Bruce Ballantine-Jones as Acting Rector to our Parish. Our former Rector, Nigel Fortescue, will be taking up his new role in St Ives in the same week. Nigel’s commencement service is scheduled for 7:30pm on Tuesday the 25th of February in St Ives.

Bruce lives with his wife, Heather, north of Wollongong and has a great history in the Sydney Diocese. Rector for many years in Jannali (in The Shire), Bruce has written about the history of our Diocese from an insider’s perspective.

Please pray for Bruce and the rest of the office staff as we journey together in these coming months. 

Praying for James and others

James Massey has been a member of our church for many years, attending the Sunday@6 service and married to Erin (who are currently our poster couple in our ‘Marriage’ booklet which is handed to couples planning to wed at St Peter’s).

In January this year James took on the role of Children’s and Youth Worker at St Peter’s Campbelltown. You may remember that we were seeking funds in 2019 to employ a Youth and Children’s Minister to oversee the important ministry to people under 18. With staffing changes occurring late in 2019, we modified our requirement temporarily. James, who was already serving voluntarily at Friday Night Youth and managing our SRE program in two schools, has taken up a lot more responsibilities in the Youth and Children’s area for this year. He is employed to a higher responsibility in a few key areas of our Youth and Children’s program.

Please pray for James as he juggles work here as well as 2 days at a local school as Chaplin and one day a week finalising his studies in theology. I want to also mention Carol Dwalibi, Caitlin Rudder, Grace Dwalibi, Siva Solofoni and Kat Bullen for their leadership in children’s ministry each week.

A Grand Month (AGM)

The month of March is a grand one this year. We begin on the 1st of March with former Archbishop Peter Jensen coming to preach at our 8am and 10am services. 

On the 15th we have our combined Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 12:30 in the church. The AGM is a time to report on the year that has been with thanks and praise to God and to make decisions for the year ahead. Wardens and Parish Council members will be elected or re-elected. We shall look at our financial position and set direction for 2020/21.

Our Big Day In is on the 21st of March. Kanishka Raffel will be speaking to us from 2 Peter over three talks and we will be enjoying a grand day of fun, fellowship and food. See below for details and a link to register. This is a whole church event with activities for all ages.

The day after, Simon Manchester will be preaching in our St Peter’s church services. This will be a big weekend! It will be a grand month.

See you in church,

Simon Twist
Assistant Minister