Toorak Uniting Church in Toorak, Victoria, Australia | Religious organisation

Toorak Uniting Church

Locality: Toorak, Victoria, Australia

Phone: 98290300

Address: 603 Toorak Rd 3142 Toorak, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.toorakuc.org.au

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24.01.2022 Still Thinking - a message from our minister Rev Dr Christopher Page: I think that one of the results of this pandemic and the resulting lockdowns is that many of us have reached out to those with whom we haven’t had contact with for some time. Recently, I made contact with a friend in Canada, to whom I hadn’t spoke to for thirty years. In the late 1980s we were very good friends, studying together, spending time in the campus pub for long conversations and even travellin...g together with our wives and children. I returned to Australia and my friend became a Chaplain at a Canadian University. In the last few months, I have had the urge to find his address and make contact. With the internet and Facebook, it wasn’t difficult. Last week we spoke on Facebook for an hour, learning we still had a lot in common. During our conversation we spoke about the suffering that had come into our world through Covid 19. After a time, he said, You know there is another pandemic in our world that has been present for many years and that is an epidemic of loneliness. I have heard others say the same thing. In fact, this was something the writer and Catholic priest Henri Nouwen addressed in his book, Reaching Out published in 1975. It was one of the first books I read that truly changed my life. Nouwen suggested that there were only two things that could address, and deliver us, from, loneliness. The first was community and the second was solitude. To begin with solitude and to quote another theological thinker, Paul Tillich, Loneliness is the pain of being alone; solitude is the glory of being alone. Now that should not be said tritely, because there is real pain and suffering in loneliness. Nouwen broadened this in his book the Way of the Heart when he writes, Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self Solitude is the place of great struggle and great encounter an encounter with a loving God who offers himself as the essences of our new self. The second remedy, (if it can be called a remedy), to loneliness is community, a place where we feel we belong. Where others, not only know our name, but also know us, warts and all! But most importantly community is not just about me being cared for. Here is Henri Nouwen again. Community is where humility and glory touch. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not just for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own. The cure to the epidemic of loneliness lies in our own hands as we reach in and discover solitude in ourselves, and as we reach out and discover community with one another.

23.01.2022 This Sunday our 10.15am worship will be followed by an Easter egg hunt

19.01.2022 Feast of St Francis d’Assisi - Worship with Bach segment 10

18.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/events/980460119064169/

18.01.2022 Join us for Sunday worship this Mothers' Day at 10:15am. Rev Wal Baker will be leading the service which will include a children's story, music, prayers and a brief message. Livestreamed on our Youtube channel (click on the image below to access)

18.01.2022 When I played this as postlude in March, many people said they want to hear it again. So I played it again at the postlude on Sunday 10 May, and some people sai...d to me they want to hear it again. So I did about 10 takes after church to record it for you all. Hope you like it. Composer is my friend and he publishes his music, all good. No copyright concern. See more

17.01.2022 Join us for a "Worship with Bach" service this Sunday, 2nd August, livestreamed on our Youtube channel

14.01.2022 Join our TUC director of music, Jennifer Chou and TUC choir soloist Úrsula Paez (mezzo-soprano) for a short lunchtime at 1pm on 1 July. Works by Dvorak, Verdi, Mendelssohn, Da Falla, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar. https://vimeo.com/433046962

13.01.2022 Join us for our 7th Worship with Bach service this Sunday, 5th of July at 10:15am. Livestreamed to our Youtube channel!

12.01.2022 The Rev John Edwards shows us that the message of the prodigal son continues to challenge us today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gUI9CNU92M&t=2s

06.01.2022 Join us for the 6th Worship with Bach service this Sunday, 10:15am live-streamed to our YouTube channel

05.01.2022 A message from our minister ..

05.01.2022 Share in today's worship service, led by Rev Dr Christopher Page, addressing the theme "Welcoming the Stranger"

05.01.2022 The Annual Virginia Davey Memorial Recital this year cannot take place due to the pandemic which artists have been banned from travelling into Australia. This r...eplacement 'Concert Spirituel' is a collage of a selection of material recorded by the Toorak Uniting Church Choir and Soloists for live streamed services shortly before Melbourne was imposed the longest hard lockdown during the pandemic. See more

03.01.2022 We hope to see you at tonight's service!