A small group have been meeting for the last month to practice slowing down, noticing and being more present and then sharing how we’re going. We’ve now finished as a group but you can do them anytime. Details here.
As a result of sharing with each other, we’ve decided to do a nightly prayer practice for the next month – anyone is welcome to join us, email me (Cath) and I’ll include you in the sharing.
Baptism
Now that we are an official faith community, people have the opportunity to be baptised into our community if they would like to. For some of our young people family camp is their primary faith community. If this is something you/ your young person might be interested in, we are looking to run a retreat at Philip Island with Rev. Ian David. Let me (Cath) know if there’s interest.
On November 9 Bradon is running an event for UCA young people aged 16-21called Amplify.Uniting Faith and Families can send four delegates – please let me know if your young person is interested.More info – h
As part of our life together, we are committed to gathering for worship, celebration and connection in between our annual camp. At the end of July was our Winter Gathering, hosted by the Sangster-Olsen family at Fairfield Uniting Church.
8 families attended, sharing lunch then moving into some community singing – featuring camp favourites “The Canticle of the Turning”, “Faith, Hope and Love” and “Michael Row the Boat ashore” with improvised lyrics.
Moving quickly!
To “warm us up”, we did an activity called “Here I stand” – which involved moving around the space in various was – looking or not looking at each other, walking quickly or slowly etc. then stopping and stating “Here I stand in….” saying something literal or figurative, depending on how imaginative we were feeling!
Alex then led us through a “Tree Narrative Therapy” process, which invited us to draw and reflect on the people we come from, the things that give us strength in our lives, things that we are doing and becoming, things we have lost, and “bugs” that chew away at our attempts to live a good life.
Using messy pastels to draw our trees – because life is like that!
Once we had drawn our trees, we set up an “exhibition” so that people could wander through the “forest” and learn about what other people’s trees were like. We were invited to ask questions about what people had drawn. This was a sensitive and courageous opportunity for people to share more deeply about what was really happening in life, and it was fascinating to discover many things that children and adults had in common with each other, and to talk about them. It was a wonderfully engaging process!
Wandering through the forest of trees – photo: Scott Findlay
After our tree narratives, Robyn led the group through a kind of visioning activity, where we thought about our families and what kind of faith community we would like to be involved in. Three questions were asked:
What would a thriving faith community look like?
What would make your family want to be part of this faith community?
What are the obstacles to your family being part of a faith community?
People wrote their ideas on post-it notes and placed them with each question.
Thoughtful responses
Obstacles
What we’re looking for
What makes a great faith community
Here’s what people said:
What would a thriving faith community look like?
Music, singing, Music
Eating Together, Sharing meals, Sharing meals together
Looking after each other when they need it most
Sometimes is may be a family video message to the next family to the next…
Being, gathering, relationship, talking and listening
Prayer
Gathering together, Gathering together in person (from an older person)
Rest and inspiration
Exploring stories of our faith and making daily life meaning
Helping us all to be all we can be in God
People who are honest
People spilling into rooms and singing happily together, sharing worries and joys or just being there!
Sharing life at the deep place – vulnerable, strong
Walking/sitting, singing/praying
People who smile when they see each other after a while of no contact
Sharing chocolate
Vibrant fun, good simple food, unconditional acceptance
A nurturing space
An empowering experience
Social justice embodied
Embracing new people into it
Known amongst the wider church
Striving forward
Upholding each other between ‘events’
Standing for social justice and inclusive worship
Sharing faith and life
Friendly
Accepting
Enriching
Being together
Bringing together
What would make your family want to be part of this faith community?
Commitment to each other
Care for all ages
Content for all ages
Opportunities to sing, make music and tell stories
Food and lollies
Acceptance of all
A continued sense of welcome
Chocolate
Music class (building community through learning)
Interesting engaging worship across age groups
Discussion
Putting faith into action
Acceptance and places for all ages
All age community
Music
Engaging worship and conversations
Chances to be creative and discuss thoughts and ideas as a group
Drama
Art
Fun activities
Authentic connection and authentic worship
The chance to go on retreat
Trust, friendship and challenging robust conversation
Holidays together
Tree planting
NVDA
Less words more action
Impromptu times put it on the web
A space to play
Whole of family inclusion
Adult weekends
Music
Life-giving friendships and relationships
The joy of people worship together
Another camp style meeting in the year
What are the obstacles to your family being part of a faith community?
Time
Other Commitments
Distance
Other Commitments
Time
Homework
Already in an existing faith community
Young people
Connection
Ineffective prioritising – but this could change
Feeling of lack of knowledge of how to express faith
The challenge of supporting and leading in our existing faith community
Fear/uncertainty that if we make the time to participate/attend, we will be the only ones
Access – transport
Ties to existing faith community vs preference to be with this one
Recognising it won’t always be all of us as children get older
Busy family life & making a mindset commitment
Time
Time
Busy-ness
Too many different commitments between family members
Sleep
Work/Study/Homework
Alone time
Children getting older
Teens wanting their own space
Homework
No Chocolate
Busy-ness
What would a thriving faith community look like?
What are the obstacles to joining this faith community?
What would make you want to join?
We closed our gathering with a simple arrangement of “Go now in Peace” from Together in Song using tuned and untuned percussion instruments kept at the church.
Photo by Scott Findlay
Through these gatherings we hope to build one another up in love, and experience together engaging, all-age worship. And chocolate.
Our next challenge is to find practises we can do while apart from one another – stay tuned!
Hello! If you’re reading this, you probably have some connection with what’s been known as the Uniting Church Victas Synod Social Justice Family Camp.
We are a group of people who’ve come together for the past 7 years because we have kids, and we want them to have a community experience with other people who treasure our Uniting Church focus on questions of
justice,
inequality
ecology
and a faith that embraces an evolving understanding of who God is and who God is calling us to become.
What you’ll find here are our thoughts, ideas and reflections on what we think might be God calling us to deepen our relationships and formalise our community within the Uniting Church.
We cannot be a “local” congregation because we come from all over the state/country/world. So how can we “belong together” if we aren’t physically together all the time?
This is what we are wanting to explore. The idea of a faith community that exists in many places is not new – think religious orders, or “patrol padres”. But it’s a new way for us.
If you haven’t been involved in Family camp before but this whole idea is lighting little fires of attraction and curiosity, well, come along! Join our email list or come to a gathering, let’s keep in touch and see what happens.
