A Day of Learning and Fellowship at Cootamundra

On Monday 20th May 2019, Cootamundra Uniting Church hosted an Eastern Region Event. 20 people from across the Region attended and thoroughly enjoyed a time of new learnings, the renewing of connections and good food.

Roz and Rev Keith Robinson, Rev Carolyn and Pastor Andrew Thornley.

The day was led by Rev Keith Robinson (Eastern Region Minister), supported by his wife Ros and the Presbytery IIMs – Rev Carolyn and Pastor Andrew Thornley. Carolyn began the day with a session on Intergenerational Worship, highlighting different worship strategies to help with all-age worship.

The “Sheep” all safely gathered in.

Keith and Ros Robinson then led a session on Messy Church, a new expression of church worship which they successfully pioneered at Crookwell and which they are hoping to initiate in the Eastern Region.

Food and fellowship after “Messy Church” experience

Keith pointed out, Messy Church is not an “add-on” to conventional worship, it is an integral form of church worship in its own right. Its purpose is mainly to reach out to families in the community who wish to reconnect to the religious side of their life and in doing so, experience their worship as a whole family experience. Ros Robinson led us through messy church activities, including a reflection on Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

Keith telling us about “Messy Church”

The day ended with Andrew leading the group through aspects of music in the worship service.

For a further note on the use of copyright music in the church service refer to the IIM pastoral letter for the month of May. ( extract is below)

Using Copyrighted Music in Church Services

At a recent Eastern Regional Event, there was discussion around the use of copyrighted music in church services. It was pointed out that it is permissible to use copyrighted music (such as gospel songs) in a worship service. An example would be the use of a YouTube video. It was stressed that this can only be the case in a worship service. The CCLI license remains important as a protection so that the words of the music can be printed in the Order of Service or projected on a screen. For a useful discussion of this matter refer to the following website:

http://www.behindthemixer.com/your-guide-to-churches-music-and-copyright-infringement