Combined Churches Hurstbridge | Good Friday Outdoor Service 10am 3rd of April 2026

 

Coming to the City Nearest You

Palm Sunday, 29th of March 2026!

Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you.
Jesus comes to the gate, to the synagogue,
to houses prepared for wedding parties,
to the pools where people wait to be healed,
to the temple where lambs are sold,
to gardens, beautiful in the moonlight.
He comes to the governor’s palace.

Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you,
to new subdivisions and trailer parks,
to penthouses and basement apartments,
to the factory, the hospital and the Cineplex,
to the big box outlet centre and to churches,
with the same old same old message,
unchanged from the beginning of time.

Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the city nearest you
with his Good News and…
Hope erupts! Joy springs forth!
The very stones cry out,
“Hosanna in the highest,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The crowds jostle and push,
they can’t get close enough!
People running alongside 
flinging down their coats before him!
Jesus, the parade marshal, waving, smiling.
The paparazzi elbow for room,
looking for that perfect picture for the headline,
“The Man Who Would Be King”.

🍁 Autumn 2026 Newsletter 🍁

Greetings friends,

I can’t believe it’s Easter in just a couple of weeks!

Watching the news each day, so much has already happened in just the first few months of this year that is disquieting! We live in interesting times! Values we thought were nailed down have come loose. Institutions that were trusted are no longer trusted.  

The economic and political and religious systems we kind of assumed would also be the scaffolding for our lives are looking  shaky. There are so many disruptive forces at play, and we do not know what the landscape will look like when the dust settles.

The hope of Easter is the foundational belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which signifies victory over death, sin, and despair. For Christians, it is this "living hope” (1 Peter 1:3) that provides the assurance of new life and the power for transformation in the present, regardless of the turmoil that we see. 

The Easter message is as fresh and pertinent as it ever was!

We’ve attached a short news-letter to give you bit of an update: HERE

We want to say a huge thankyou to the many who encourage, support and pray for us and for Haven — You are SO appreciated! 

Sincerely,

M & E

Dona Nobis Pacem | Grant Us Peace

 

Lenten Prayer

Revise our taking

You, You giver!
You have given light and life to the world;
You have given freedom from Pharaoh to your people Israel;
You have given your only Son for the sake of the world;
You have given yourself to us;
You have given and forgiven,
and you remember our sins no more.

And we, in response, are takers:
We take eagerly what you give us;
we take from our neighbors near at hand as is acceptable;
we take from our unseen neighbors greedily and acquisitively;
we take from our weak neighbors thoughtlessly;
we take all that we can lay our hands on.

It dawns on us that our taking does not match your giving.
In this Lenten season revise our taking,
that it may be grateful and disciplined
even as you give in was generous and overwhelming.
Amen

Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven Rooted in Earth (153-154).

Lent: The Writing’s On The Wall | Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier

"It’s the cliché that means everybody else knows but you, you’ve been blind to the bleeding obvious. The phrase originates from an episode in the Old Testament, Book of Daniel, where the Babylonian King Belshazzar was entertaining his courtiers on the eve of battle, getting drunk from cups stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem, instead of being with his troops."

"The hand of G-d appeared and proceeded to write on the wall, words of judgement about not measuring up to expectations. Belshazzar was dead by dawn. He never saw it coming. 

None of us see it coming..." (Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier).

What are the certainties that weigh us down? What are the illusions and assumptions that immobilise and paralyse us until too late?

Marcel Proust said: "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes."  

   (Click pic to play song...)

Hannah Arendt quote

Written in 1951, and reflecting on the rise of Nazi Germany andStalinist Russia:

"...  In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... 

Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. 

The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” 

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Published in 1951, The Origins of Totalitarianism is Hannah Arendt's landmark analysis of the conditions that birthed Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Arendt argues that totalitarianism is a "novel form of government" distinct from traditional dictatorships because it seeks total domination over every aspect of human life—including the inner thoughts of its subjects

T. S. Eliot's "Journey of The Magi"

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

May we dream of a world made new

May we dream of a world made new,

Where together we shout for justice,

And as one we fight against oppression.

May we dream of a world made new,

Where together we seek God’s righteousness

And as one we sing God’s praise.

 

May we dream of a world made new,

Where together we climb God’s mountain,

And as one we enter the promised land.

May we dream of a world made new,

Where together we proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom,

And as one we enjoy its peace, and abundance and love.

Source: Christine Sine’s God-space website

Dear Vascoe, Leunig

How an infant in a cow shed overturns the brute force of Caesar.

By the time Jesus was born, Augustus had already been monarch for a quarter of a century. King of kings, he ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea. He had done what no one had done for two hundred years before him: he had brought peace to the wider, Roman world—peace at a price. A price paid in cash by subjects in far-off lands.

Augustus "gave peace, as long as it was consistent with the interests of the Empire and the myth of his own glory," wrote Arnaldo Momigliano. There you have it in a nutshell: the whole ambiguous structure of human empire, a kingdom of absolute power, bringing glory to the man at the top, and peace to those on whom his favor rested.

Yes, says Luke, and watch what happens now. This man, this king, this absolute monarch, lifts his little finger in Rome, and fifteen hundred miles away, in an obscure province, a young couple undertakes a hazardous journey, resulting in the birth of a child in a little town that just happens to be the one mentioned in the ancient Hebrew prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. And it is at this birth that the angels sing of glory and peace. Which is the reality, and which the parody?

Advent Week 4

 

Ave Maria | Bono & Pavarotti

Ave Maria

Where is the justice in this world?
The wicked make so much noise mother
The righteous stay oddly still
With no wisdom
All of the riches in the world
Leaves us poor tonight

And strength is not without humility
It's weakness and untreatable disease
And war is always the choice
Of the chosen
Who will not have to fight
Ave Maria

Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria gratia plena
Maria gratia plena
Ave ave Dominus
Te cum

And strength is not without humility
It's weakness and untreatable disease
And war is always the choice
Of the chosen
Who will not have to fight
Ave Maria

Advent Week 3

 

Advent week 2

Advent

Welcome to the start of Advent! There are many homes and many churches across
the world which are going to light that first candle and open the first door of that Advent calendar and remember that the coming of Jesus is not too far off. The anticipation and the joy are building day by day! 

Advent is a season of waiting, expecting, and hoping. Beginning four Sundays prior to Christmas and ending on Christmas Eve, Advent helps us prepare for the coming, or “advent” of the Christ child at Christmas. (The word “advent” comes from the Latin word that means “coming.”)

For hundreds of years, Christians have used an Advent wreath to inspire their hopes for the coming of Christ. By lighting candles and reading Bible verses, we are reminded about the meaning of "Emmanuel’s" birth and become more excited about his coming in the past, in the future, and in our own lives. 

Emmanuel means: "God is with us." 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

1 O come, O come, Immanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,

who ordered all things mightily;

to us the path of knowledge show

and teach us in its ways to go. 

3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,

who to your tribes on Sinai's height

in ancient times did give the law

in cloud and majesty and awe.  

4 O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,

unto your own and rescue them!

From depths of hell your people save,

and give them victory o'er the grave.  

5 O come, O Key of David, come

and open wide our heavenly home.

Make safe for us the heavenward road

and bar the way to death's abode.  

6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star,

and bring us comfort from afar!

Dispel the shadows of the night

and turn our darkness into light.  

7 O come, O King of nations, bind

in one the hearts of all mankind.

Bid all our sad divisions cease

and be yourself our King of Peace.  

🎄🎄Christmas 2025 Newsletter 🎄🎄

Greetings friends,

I can’t believe it’s just a few short weeks till Christmas!

In an anxious and troubled world let us affirm that the Spirit of God is indeed at work in our world!  The Good News of Jesus Christ is as fresh and pertinent as it ever was!

To the shepherds in the fields the angels sang: “Peace on earth!” Shalom means wholeness — that deep sense of wholeness felt by the lonely and harried traveller who finally comes home from the pain and the ache of war; home to where they belong and are held and known and loved.

Our lives should echo the angels' refrain. We proclaim the shalom of God amongst us, “Thy Kingdom come.”

We embody God’s community of hope and compassion where the weary and broken are held and healed and made whole.

We’ve attached a short News-letter to give you bit of an update. Click HERE for the link.

We want to say a huge thankyou to the many who have encouraged, supported and prayed for us and for Haven this year— You are SO appreciated!

We wish each and every one of you a joy-filled Christmas season, and a God-blessed 2026!

Sincerely,

Martin & Esmae

All Saints Day

Lord, today,

We thank you for the Saints now gone before us whose faith defined their living and their dying; those who loved you more than their own lives; those who are still mirrors of your love.

We celebrate the saints who walk among us rejoicing while they walk in your footsteps, making your name known in a fractured world, against injustice, prejudice, hatred, evil.

We stand with those who sacrifice themselves to bring about your kingdom here on earth.

Lord, your grace shines in the lives of Saints.

We thank you for their example, their holy words. Your Spirit inspired them. Come Holy Spirit inspire us to be saints in your Church now. 

Source

WHO BY FIRE | LEONARD COHEN

“Who by fire” is Leonard Cohen’s version of the Hebrew prayer "Unetanneh Tokef", chanted on Yom Kippur. It was released in the 1974 album “New Skin for the Old Ceremony.” This is one of the main songs of the album and one of Cohen’s best known songs.

The prayer Cohen heard as a child in the synagogue describes God reviewing the Book of Life and deciding the fate of every soul for the year to come – who will live, who will die and how. The line: “And who shall I say is calling?” can be understood as a break from faith in God. According to Cohen that element of doubt is what made the song into a personal prayer for him.

And who by fire, who by water 
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time 
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial 
Who in your merry merry month of May 
Who by very slow decay 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate 
Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt 
And who by avalanche, who by powder 
Who for his greed, who for his hunger 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by brave assent, who by accident 
Who in solitude, who in this mirror 
Who by his lady's command, who by his own hand 
Who in mortal chains, who in power 
And who shall I say is calling? 
And who shall I say is calling?

And who by fire who by water 
Who in the sunshine, who in the night time 
Who by high ordeal, who by common trial 
Who in your merry merry month of May 
Who by very slow decay 
And who shall I say is calling? 
And who shall I say is calling?

Rosh Hashanah | Book of Life | Deborah Conway & Willy Zygier

From the Album: 'Stories of Ghosts' (2013) by Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier

'Book Of Life' is track:3, from the album notes:

"... The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah is a time to blow the Shofar, a ram’s horn, and celebrate with apple and honey for a sweet New Year. Ten days later the sombre day of atonement, Yom Kippur, is a day of fasting and repenting for your sins of the previous year. 

On Rosh Hashanah you will be inscribed in the book of life and on Yom Kippur you
will be sealed. Your fate for the next 12 months is written. “... who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by upheaval, who by plague, who by strangling, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.”

We tried a number of versions of this song, James Black played a beautiful piano part, but ultimately the song needed to sound like a solitary prayer.

May you be written into the book of life.