Southport Uniting Church recently used a ‘Go Grant’ to kick start Sunday@10, a new, alternative gathering for young adults, young families, and anyone interested in an alternative to traditional worship, meeting twice a month for coffee/ conversation around life and faith.
This is a new mission focus group, where the team (of mainly young adults) are seeking to connect their non church friends. Southport Uniting Church has also invited their baptismal and thanksgiving families from the last 10 years to be part of this new group.
Sunday@10 started on 10 June, beginning with good coffee and biscuits, and a reflection on a Nooma DVD. Here’s Sue Page’s report on progress so far…
“At our gathering on 24 June, we talked about symbols and their meanings, and painted personal symbols on mugs, so that we can be environmentally responsible in our coffee drinking. At our last gathering on 8 July, we talked about salvation and what it means to belong, reflecting on the movie, Lilo and Stitch. Our next gathering is on this Sunday, where we will share in Holy Communion, exploring the different parts of the liturgy in a non traditional way, and sharing good food and drink together.
We have had a variety of people join us – young adults, families, overseas students, homeless people, and have enjoyed a mix of churched and nonchurched people interacting, with about 18 people at each gathering. The team of about 8 people have shared responsibility for leading each gathering, preparing the coffee, etc. The grant enabled us to purchase coffee plungers, coffee, tea, biscuits, children’s resources, mugs and cups, and the paints for painting our mugs and cups, a rug for the children, table cloths, and storage containers for all our gear. Our plan is to continue until the end of the year, and then to assess how we’re doing, and where we want to go in 2008.”