Paddington Anglican

Something New at the Winter Festival – June 19th

This month, Something New joins the Five Ways Festival marking the Winter Soltice (June 19th 2-5pm) when we turn back to the light* from 2pm to 5pm with Fair Stalls in the courtyard!
*Jesus said “I am the light of the world”.

We will have a range of kid-friendly activities for the afternoon:

  • solstice trivia,
  • mural planning and painting
  • a reflective bonfire
  • and JUMPING CASTLE

If you’d like to volunteer at the event, get in touch with Jaimie or Jess. Otherwise, turn up for an afternoon of fun and local connections! Find out more here: https://paddington.church/five-ways-festival/

About SOMETHING NEW:

SOMETHING NEW is a monthly gathering of adults & children together exploring what it means to live the good life in God’s beautiful broken world. We’d love you to come along and be part of our monthly community. This is an intergenerational community and any one is welcome whatever your age, we regularly have a group that encompasses 4 year olds and  80 year olds.
Talk to Jaimie our Children’s and Families Pastor  or Jess our Community Pastor if you’d like to know more: (jaimie[AT]paddington.church)

Future dates for 2021:  Aug 8, Sept 12, Oct 31 HALLOWEEN, Nov 14, Dec 5 GINGERBREAD, Dec 24/25 CHRISTMAS SERVICES. In 2021 we’re planning to use the themes from this Book called ‘Broken Signposts’ by NTWright as our topics for the year – love, justice, spirituality, beauty, freedom, truth and power (not necessarily in that order). 

 

Something New in 2021:

LOVE: On Valentine’s Day 2021 we thought about LOVE – how relationships, friendship, community are some of the best things in life, but loneliness, abuse and heartache are among the worst! We reflected on what Jesus had to teach his friends as he washed their feet the night before his death. We had edible hearts, speed dating, friendship bracelet making and a youth excursion.

 

 

JUSTICE: We explored the universal longing for justice; that sense that the world is broken and that things need to be put right. We saw Jesus face trial at the hands of Pilate and remembered again that God knows and hates injustice (and has experienced it from the inside), that God overturns the injustice done to Jesus and promises to do so for the whole world! We enjoyed lawn bowls, community speed dating, Easter craft, youth excursion, freedom chants and murder wink.
CONNECTION: In May we explored the universal longing for connection. We thought about spirituality – the desire to connect with God, ourselves and the world around us, reflecting on  Jesus’ imagery of God being the vine and his people the branches and talked about connection, dependence and fruitfulness. And we had fun with yarn bombing and taking a walk to see some local community gardening in process!

 

 

Something New in 2020:

Somethign New was quite disrupted in 2020 due to the COVID Pandemic, but we did enjoy a couple of weeks of meeting together. You can see the summary of our meetings below –

In 2020 we began looking at the biography of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Luke and will focus on different key moments in Jesus’ life.
For February we reflected on the story of Jesus at age 12 in the temple from Luke 2. Hearing how Jesus understood his own identity – as a Child of God, belonging in the temple, and so we reflected on our own sense of identity and belonging, asking ‘Who am I? Where Do I belong?’. And we heard the wonderful news, that in Jesus we are welcomed into God’s family and we can answer: ‘I’m God’s child and I belong in God’s family’. With –
  • hunting for lost figurines across the church site
  • a conga line (bring your maraccas!)
  • a community storytelling drama
  • silhouette poster making
Mid-Winter Storytelling: Tales from Lockdown
Sharing inspiring COVID19 stories from round the world, bible stories of lockdown and your own, so come with stories to tell!

In September we met post-COVID to discuss the mysteriousness of living in God’s beautiful and broken world.We explored some of God’s wisdom literature – Ecclesiastes 3 – “For everything there is a season”. We reflected on the Season of COVID, the wisdom of God’s word and the mysteriousness of living in God’s beautiful and broken world. The afternoon was based around table groups in the hall with games (like bingo, creative tower building and trivia), and there was story telling, discussion, prayer and craft; and compete with other table groups, re-connect with friends and consider what a strange & wonderful world we live in.

All Hallows Day Something NewThe Something New community gathered on All Hallows Day (November 1st) to remember the faithful departed and that God’s love is stronger than death! The afternoon involved Halloween games – mummy racing, pumpkin patch pop and feed the monster – creative Storytelling, lighting candles as we remember those who have died, craft and discussion on the big themes of life, death and the renewal of all things. We spent time looking at some of the Apostle John’s visions from Revelation chapters 7 and 21.

 

On Sunday 29th November (the first Sunday of Advent) we began the Christmas season and celebrated the amazing coming of Jesus into the world with carols, craft, guessing competitions, Christmas present making, poetry & prayer.

 

 

 

 

You can see the summary of our gathering in 2019 here.

 

Photos from previous Something New gatherings: