The Weekly Service in Thornbury, Victoria | Community organisation

The Weekly Service

Locality: Thornbury, Victoria

Address: 829A High St 3071 Thornbury, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.theweeklyservice.org

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25.01.2022 Join us this Saturday for an exploration of Ritual with the well versed and deeply passionate, Billy Matheson. This poem is an excerpt from the piece our Bard in Residence @renalessandrapoetry has prepared for us this weekend. This one she is particularly fond of, all the more reason to come join us. Tickets in bio! We can’t wait to see you for a truly resonate service #ritual #community #healing #theweeklyservice #spokenwordpoetry #melbournecommunity

22.01.2022 This morning (11am-12.30pm AEDT) we host New Zealand born facilitator and ritual holder, Billy Matheson, who will speak on the power of ritual. Come learn why Billy believes we need to reclaim and remember the power of ritual or what he calls ‘hosting the extra-ordinary’. This Service will be curated by Laura Grant, who is also a brilliant facilitator in her own right and someone who’s given a lot to The Weekly Service over the years. ... You can book tickets to this Service through our link in bio We’ll be recording the event. So if you can’t make it, and want to watch later, please make a donation through the booking link. #ritual #transformation #power #culturalrenewal #thisbigmystery #socialprocess #groupwork

22.01.2022 A wee reminder that tomorrow (11am-12.30pm AEST) we will be trying to remember how to gather in person for the first time in a long time. We’ve got a few beautiful surprises in store - you’re welcome to lie down on a picnic rug and be soothed by Ren’s poetry and Laura’s music. Come reconnect with whatever it is that steers you towards community. Tomorrow will be curated by our team at TWS, who have done an amazing job of carrying off a season of rich storytelling. Everyone welcome! See location point in images above! This event is free, no booking needed.

21.01.2022 Let the gathering, the harvesting, the histories, the ancestries and lineage guide us into alchemy... break down the hierarchy embrace the space embrace the weather, in each moment we are gifted to gather, together Ren Alessandra, our Bard in Residence Hullo there, we are writing to let you know that our plans for this Saturday's Service have changed. Our Service on 'What Truly Allures' with Emily Steele will be rescheduled for next season. We’re excited to bring this story to you when the time is ripe and we’ll be in see touch with those of you who bought tickets. This means, that our final Service for this year will be in person!! We hope you can join. See below for details. The Weekly Service 'Come Gather' 11am 12.30pm, in person by the Merri Creek See map above in images www.facebook.com/events/426187215045473 Come gather. By the banks of the Merri we will create a little portal to rest joyfully and reconnect in a spacious way in person. We will delight in some music, poetry and each other's stories. We look forward to hosting you. This Service will be co-creates by Kirsty, Ren, Sylvia and members of The Weekly Service. #theweeklyservice #curatedgathering #secularritual #connection #IRL

20.01.2022 Join a fellow midlife dater, Anita, as she attempts to unlock the mysteries of midlife (30 - 50 year olds) dating, through real-life stories to give hope and share learning. Anita has recently started a podcast called Piece of the Puzzle. It's a delightful mix of insight, humour and honesty and has explored topics ranging from race, to ghosting, to dating in covid times. Book via this link ... https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dating-in-midlife-tickets-1 #communitythroughstorytelling #midlifedating #hope #learning #honesty #humour #soulmate #everydaystories

20.01.2022 ~ Valerie Albrecht shared our space with TWS member and first time curator Katy Mixter the other Saturday. Valerie spoke from a well of experience of being a bridge builder - as a speech pathologist, a yoga teacher, a writer, and a human who accepts her complexity. She reminded us that when we’re building bridges we need to be aware of who’s on the other side of the bridge, and what they may or may not be open to. Thanks Valerie for showing up and sharing yourself, in all your beautiful complexity .

19.01.2022 ~ On this upheaval Mood: melancholic / infused with appreciation Musings: Kirsty Moegerlein ... ‘I will mark my heart with an ‘x’ made of ash that says: the power to restore life resides here. The future of our species will be decided not by facts, but by love and loss.’ Terry Tempest Williams, The Daily Podcast, An obituary for the land. Fires burn and ash covers the sky of our American neighbours. We feel it reverberating, a reminder. But it feels too soon to be thinking about summer here in Australia, as Spring heralds it’s arrival with the return of Darebin, the welcome swallow. We are in the midst of wintoonth wootanbaj-jumbunna - a season that literally means ‘coming to life’. As I type this sirens are sounding out my window. A wail of warning - a reminder perhaps? Before the sirens, I listened to an obituary for the earth, that a friend shared with me. It’s a love letter produced by The Daily (Podcast), with poet Terry Tempest Williams. Like all good love letters it is filled with a keen sense of joy and sadness. For love is not love without grief. How to meet this ongoing upheaval? Annie Bolitho talked to me yesterday about how Joanna Macy’s teachings seem to be increasingly apt for the times. To be able to speak the language of ritual, to know how to hold reservoirs of grief. These are skills we are all being asked to cultivate. Surely conversation within community is part of what sustains us. I think of those who can give up on hope, still believing in life. A friend text me the other day, saying just this and I know the feeling. It’s a hard one to articulate. That ability to not give up on the mystery, while letting go of something else. Thankfully there are many people close to hand, who are able to use language to speak to this reorientation. Language that thwarts our attempts resolve everything and run away from ourselves in the process. That is a gift is these times. ‘Let us cry every day like rain in the desert. Hand on my heart, I pledge an allegiance to the only home I will ever know.’ Terry Tempest Williams Image: @kirstymoegerlein . . . . . #thankyoulife

18.01.2022 This Saturday we have a service on recovery, with three storytellers sharing a combination of song, poetry and stories on journeys of healing. It seems apt that we are delving into this topic in the middle of another (hopefully small) loop of lockdown in Victoria, as we collectively start to recover from this pandemic and its effects on our lives. We’ll be sharing stories about how recovery isn’t linear, and often doesn’t mean going back to where we were before, but learning ...a whole new way of being in the world. Perhaps more like un-covery. There will be a small joys and sorrows ceremony at the end to mark the last service of the season. We'll be gathering in person if possible, otherwise we’ll adapt and take the service online. Booking via link in bio or here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/saturday-service-in-person- . . . . #storytelling #gathering #recovery #community #health #healing #theweeklyservice

18.01.2022 We love slowing down enough to dream in new ways. Join us on Saturday mornings, as we create community for a thriving ecology and resilient future. Beata Mazur

16.01.2022 From The Archives: Longing For Home | Aseel Hamarneh It’s not just the people [I miss] it’s also that easy sense of familiarity and belonging. Like if I’m in Jordan, people will know how to say my name, I don’t have to spell it three times. And if I was in Jordan I’d jump in the car, put the radio on, and I’d hear music that would move me easily. I know the references in jokes that people make, I don’t have to ask people to repeat it three times and then pretend to laugh. ...We’ve been re-listening to Aseel’s beautiful story about longing for her home country of Jordan. During this pandemic, many of us who were born abroad are stuck not knowing when we’ll next be able to visit home. We’re missing birthdays, funerals, new nieces and nephews we’ve never met. In her story Aseel reflects on how having a child in Australia prompted her to explore what home really means to her. She talks about longing for a version of home that no longer exists; how she realised she had internalised a sense that white culture is better, and ways she’s tried to undo this and bring more of her Jordanian identity into her Australian life. Listen to the podcast here: www.soundcloud.com/the-weekly-service/longing-for-home Are you missing home at the moment? What are you longing for?

15.01.2022 Our storyteller Valerie Albrecht, is running two writing workshops ‘From a Dream to a Book’ on July 15 & 17 in Warrandyte. She invites you to join and explore the book that lives within you! Share your writing dream and believe to begin, to write your truth your truth is unique and no-one can write it as you will. In this workshop:... * exploration and clarification of your writing dream and book * practical and inspiring writing tools to broaden, explore and increase confidence in the writer self, in writing and in writing your book * writing techniques and practice * information on all aspects of out into the world publishing and marketing 9.30am - 3.30pm, Thursday July 15 or Saturday July 17. Email Valerie to book your place | [email protected]

15.01.2022 Here’s a taster of this week’s poem from our Bard, Ren, responding to ‘Kinship.’ Come and join us this Saturday as we hear from our storyteller, Jackson, whose experience of family and friendship will set wheels in motion to explore what it truly means for all of us - the rainbow in between . .... #theweeklyservice #ritual #communitygathering #community #melbournecommunity #kinship #family #rainbowfamily #spokenword #spokenwordpoetry #artistinresidency See more

13.01.2022 Bookings for our next Service are now open (Link in bio) // October 3, 11am - 12.30pm (AEST) ‘Bridging the Landscapes’ with Petrine McCrohan, curated by Jarrah Storey. Petrine has spent 17 years working with Indigenous communities in the Kimberleys. The starting point for Petrine, as a non-indigenous woman, is recognising that Aboriginal people hold the solutions to their own wellbeing within their own cultural framework. Her work invites both empowerment and healing through... a model that pairs social enterprise with her background in psychoanalysis. And it works! Petrine's work reflects her own personal journey of healing. She acknowledges that we are all suffering the consequences of what wehave inherited in this colonial system. Intergenerational healing is about all of us.She sees that to bridge the chasm in our national psyche, we need to heal the wound of intergenerational trauma. Come meet Petrine and get ready for a warm and empowering Service. https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/bridging-the-landscapes-tic

11.01.2022 Thank you all for the joy you brought to our screens yesterday, during our service on kinship. What a heart-warming and intimate story Jackson shared. Thank you Jackson for your thoughtful weaving of many threads. It will be one to treasure. It was also so beautiful to hear so many stories from you all on the different ways you experience kinship. We heard of finding fourth cousins, and lullaby’s, jam sessions, vomit sessions, ancient trees becoming tattoos, and the sound o...f a little niece saying big boobs. And then, a spontaneous poem from Selena, with Ren, our Bard, generously finishing the Service with three poems of her own - what a treat! As Ben said, it was almost as though we were back in Nest. Touched by you all and the way you showed up in zoom land. Ren will be posting her poems on our insta / and theweeklyservice.org. We’ve also got a little zine idea in the works, so you can have some poetry to read at home , stay tuned. #theweeklyservice #community #kinship #allwelcome #thankyou Image: @kirstymoegerlein

10.01.2022 Billy Matheson is our storyteller this week. Come and hear more of his grounded insights about how ritual can help us move in the world. Follow the link below to book for The Power of Ritual, this Saturday at 11am, via zoom. https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-power-of-ritual-tickets

10.01.2022 Tomorrow we close out the season with a service online. I’m starting to think of it as a care package service. A hamper of song, poetry, story and ceremony. It’s a service that’s in service of the need to come together and find the threads, tie the threads. Our stories will be on Recovery and the theme seems very apt for this moment. We will also have a small ceremony at the end. You are most welcome to join us. Just book via this link: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/satur...day-service-online-tic Members, you don't need to book :) We'll email you the link.

09.01.2022 Read how Kirsty met Petrine (our storyteller for Saturday) up in Broome, through her friend @antonrivette, and why she’s excited to introduce her to The Weekly Service space. Bookings are now open for this Saturday’s Service with Petrine curated by Jarrah Storey, ‘Bridging the Landscapes’, 11am - 12.30pm (AEST) // BOOKING LINK below! https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/bridging-the-landscapes-tic

09.01.2022 This is my last post as your Bard in Residence. Yesterday evening I was exhausted with a heart full of real joy, appreciation and overwhelm at the response to my art. To be able to share my soul with you, to be seen as the woman I am and to be thanked for my vulnerability is an honour beyond words. Thank you for supporting my art, for welcoming me into this community without question and for being the first group of people to sign my first book. It was a day I will never forg...et and I can not wait for the future I have with you as a member of this rare and important community. If you want to purchase a copy of my first chapbook, printed by you, please get in contact and let us know. Sally’s essays from last Season are also available, what a joy Until next Season x photos by @somalisoothsayer and a shameless selfie with a book I wrote. @renalessandrapoetry #gratitude #ritual #community #theweeklyservice #spokenwordartist @renalessandrapoetry

08.01.2022 Bookings for our next Service are now open & first timers come for free (link in bio) // September 26, 11am-12.30pm (AEST) ‘Complex Kin’ with Jackson C. Payne, curated by Kirsty Moegerlein. https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/complex-kin-tickets-1182494 Jackson C. Payne explores the idea of kinship by telling us a little of his own, reaching all the way back to bombed out World War II London, his father's literary success in New Zealand in the 1980s, and how these threads came t...ogether during a motorcycle accident in Melbourne that led to him decide to become the donor for his friends' children. Told through a series of vignettes, he will discuss his understanding of kinship and story, and how the two are indissoluble to him. Come and join us for an insightful discussion on kinship and ponder how this relates to your own unique relationships. We hope to see you all on Saturday

08.01.2022 From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel ‘Americanah’ through the voice of the main character Ifemelu. This sprung to mind when musing on our upcoming story: Dating in Midlife. Anita, a woman of colour, will share some of her reflections about race and dating, and why diversity of stories is important in her podcast. ... Dating is a pretty fascinating space to observe our inclinations and bias. From what I’m hearing in Anita’s podcast, our racial biases might foreclose the transformative love Adichie describes in this passage. Let’s see. You can book via this link https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dating-in-midlife-tickets-1

07.01.2022 Hurray, our podcast is now on iTunes, Spotify and most other podcasting apps: Stories from the Heart uncovers the unique tales we all have to tell about this human life, and how we might grow towards a truly thriving society - from a refugee's reflections on gratitude, to a mother's rejection of her ancestors' codes of secrecy, to a sperm donor's explorations of the many shapes and colours of family. These stories were originally told at The Weekly Service, a Melbourne-based ...community bringing connection, ritual, meaning, purpose & awe back into our lives. Search 'Stories from the Heart - the Weekly Service' wherever you get your podcasts (and let us know if you have any trouble finding it). #storytelling #theweeklyservice #podcast #ritual #connection

06.01.2022 A crowd sourced poem titled - Nourishment A blossoming from your insides peonies, petals bright spreading into your seams... Let them flutter as you dance, bodies moving in time as one with those you love and those who you are yet to love Break that bread in half, pass it to those eager hands, groan in satisfaction of something shared Be together, breathe in time with the trees, our symbiotic melody, as we shimmer in the moment and feel it. Painting by @jengineeredart, poem by @renalessandrapoetry for In Mamma’s Kitchen - something short and sweet this week. #spokenword #foodpoem #nourishment #theweeklyservice

06.01.2022 This is amazing! If only we knew two days ago when posting out Aretha Brown's Decolonise Yo'self resource. Just one more reason to send love letters, hey?

05.01.2022 Here lies some bodily wisdom. Resmaa Menakem has a way of talking about intergenerational trauma and the construction of race, that gets under your skin. He approaches from a sideways angle through the body, just enough to undermine the analytical desire to distance, or make haste by making quick amends. He reminds us that we are all bodies with histories and he offers practices that help you to get to know the body that you are, and how being a body shapes our relationship ...with other bodies of culture. It begins with a clip of Krista Tippett flustered and lost for words. A nice way to begin :) We recommend this poddy in the lead up to our Service this week, where we will be exploring empowerment and intergenerational trauma, by listening to Petrine McCrohan share a few stories with us about her own journey and work in the Kimberleys. The Service will be curated by Jarrah Storey.

05.01.2022 As we move this week, from the theme of ‘decolonising yo’self’ to ‘the power of ritual’ we thought it might be appropriate to share this podcast - The Ritual Justice Podcast. You are all intelligent folks - so you might appreciate the nuanced discussion around power and privilege from a cultural somatic perspective. It’s a pretty great resource for educating oneself, in a very embodied way. Here’s a few gems: ‘If you go to a protest - go with the intention: ‘I am here for ...MY ancestors’. If you’re just going for others, then you’re missing out on the ritual juice.’ ‘When we ‘perform’ allyship - it’s a form of projection and dissociation. We’re disallowing ourselves from saying: I need this too!’ Ep 1 / Play & Transgression Ep 2 / Protest & the Sacred Ep 3 / Attachment & Allyship https://ritualasjustice.school/podcast/ #doingthework #ritualjustice #somatichealing

04.01.2022 ‘Wildflowers will not grow where the bone powder lies.’ - Ali Coby Eckermann This week, I’ll be sharing an original and a selection of pieces by Indigenous writers. Come and join us this Saturday 3rd October to witness Petrine’s wisdom as she shares her work which invited both ‘empowerment and healing.’ ... Her work practice reflecting her own journey of healing, she sees that ‘to bridge the chasm in our national psyche, we need to heal the wound of intergenerational trauma.’ Come and join us to learn from her 17 years of service in the Indigenous communities in the Kimberleys. The link is in our bio! . . #theweeklyservice #ritual #healing #community #melbournecommunity #reconiliation #wisdom

01.01.2022 Hullo there! We thought we’d take a moment to share with those of you who are new to The Weekly Service, what it is that we do and a note on how we started. Like many good things, The Weekly Service emerged over a bbq when Cam Elliott and Henry Churchill first got chatting about their shared interest in creating a secular style church. Neither of them subscribed to the organised religions, but they both harboured a yearning to gather in a ritualised way, to talk, connect an...d muse on stories that honour the spirit and move the heart. All the thinggggs, ya know?! After 6 months of deliberation in 2015, they started The Weekly Service. As Henry notes, ‘we made a commitment that we would be there every week. Like even if no one shows up. That was our commitment. We’re just going to be there. Quite often people wouldn’t show up! But then over time people started to connect with what it was we were doing. We developed more of a vernacular, more of an understanding of the work, and it evolved, always coming from that place of yearning.' Along the way The Weekly Service has been a home away from home, for many people, as we attempt to gather differently, and create space for conversations that help us find our way in the world and this moment of transition. We’d love you to be a part of co-creating this space with us. Our program and stories are crowd sourced and community driven. And if you’d like to be more involved in our community, you can choose to become a member. For most of 2020 we’ve been online. We’re looking forward to gathering in the flesh next year, when we resume Services in March. But don’t forget, there’s still three amazing events lined up for November. Check the link in our bio. Thanks for being here! Image 1 - A Service we hosted at the White House (home of our friends Dumbo Feather magazine) Image 2 - Our yearly rhythm. Here’s to rest! Image 3-5 - Our foundational principles #wegrewthis #theweeklyservice #communityritual #secularchurch #melbourne

01.01.2022 ‘It only took 99 years!’ said Vincent Namatjira after he was awarded the Archibald Prize last Friday. Vincent is the first indigenous Australian to win the Archibald. His painting titled, ‘Stand Strong for Who You Are’, portrays the artist alongside Goodesy. Vincent’s message to all young indigenous kids is: be proud of who you are. Take a look at some of Vincent’s previous works, many of which poke fun at colonisers and the richest people in an irreverent way. Let’s share... the love for this milestone. . . . . #archibald2020 #milestone #vincentnamatjira #goyougoodthing

01.01.2022 From The Bard: A new playlist! 'For Transitioning from Sleep to Wakefulness' as requested by Suzanne. Link in bio or below. Dosage instructions: press play upon waking, take once daily as needed. I've been playing this one when I wake each morning. It's a mostly instrumental mix with the occasional dreamy vocal and a few upbeat moments later on. It'll gently meets you in the sleepy liminal and carries you on an upwards arc through the first 90 minutes of the day. It was a pl...easure to make and I'd love you to let me know how you find it to listen to Thank you to all who requested playlists. I've got a few more on the go and will share them in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to see if yours is in there! Matt @mattwicking https://open.spotify.com//mattwicking/playlist/22NRNf2Qns9 #music #playlists #sleep #wake #morning