Crookwell Uniting Church

15/09/2025

A beautiful afternoon at Jerrara yesterday

05/08/2025

Good afternoon,

This Sunday 10 August, we have worship at Crookwell at 9.30am. The service will be led by myself with Bret Fisher from our congregation as the preacher. After worship, we will then have a gathering for anyone who would like to know about leading worship. This is an important step as we prepare the congregation for the closure of my ministry at the end of September.

Speaking of which, please save the date for Sunday 28th September for my Closure of Ministry service in Crookwell.

Looking ahead, I will be on leave from 11-31 August. The Harpers will be leading worship for us on the 17th and 31st, while Rev. Miriam Lacey from Uniting will lead on the 24th. Jerrara next month (September) has been pushed back to the second Sunday (8th September) to avoid a clash with Father's Day.

Finally, don't forget that our new Coffee and Catch Up will be happening on the third Wednesday each month at 10am at the Criterion Hotel. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, August 21st. For any enquiries, please call Joi on 0491 735 022.

Yours in Christ,
​​​​​​​Daniel

18/07/2025

In loving memory of
David George Wray
5 September 1939 - 13 July 2025

Much loved husband of Janet.
Loving father and father-in-law of Brian, Cathy and Aaron.
Adored Pa of Cody and Reagan.
Loved by family and friends.

"Gone from our sight, but never from our hearts"

A service celebrating David’s life will be held at 11am, Thursday 24 July 2025 at Crookwell Uniting Church, 60 Goulburn Street, Crookwell NSW 2583.

Interment will follow at the Crookwell Cemetery.

Please leave words of comfort for the family on David's tribute page: t.ly/ht2ty

18/07/2025

Janet Elizabeth Maberly
11am, Monday 21st July 2025.

30/05/2025

Weekly Update & Hymns: 1 June 2025

Good afternoon,

This Sunday we celebrate together the 7th (and last) Sunday of Easter. We will share Communion together at services at Crookwell (9am) and Jerrara (2.30pm), and hear the story of Paul and Silas' arrest in Philippi (Acts 16.16-40).

Our hymns for this week are:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXhxbEjfxxc)
Yours be the glory, Risen conquering Son (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4tG_btLmU)
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I)
Inspired by love and anger (https://youtu.be/bp2bsBelbUA?si=9XFwcFKIU1xLzIS-)
Next week (Sunday 8 June) we will be celebrating Pentecost together with our Anglican siblings at St Bart's.

If you have any matters you would like inluded in the prayers, please let me know.

Daniel

20/05/2025

Good evening folks,

It's good to be back with you after a productive 2 weeks of study leave. My thanks to Gill and to Miriam for leading the services while I was away.

This Sunday (25 May) we celebrate the Sixth Sunday of Easter together, as we hear the story of Paul's encounter with Lydia and the birth of the Church in Europe through our reading from Acts 16.1-15.

The hymns for this Sunday are:
TiS 422 - Come, Holy Spirit, Come (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6aNnYCH1yU)
TiS 437 - Blessed Jesus, at your word (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQajNEYnHMQ)
TiS 387 - Christ is alive, let Christians sing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWfC5uGMLig)
Colligan - The Church that breaks down walls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTfd3mgJVcQ)

I have included links to Youtube versions of the hymns, in case you want to get to know them before Sunday.

If you have any matters for prayer this week, please let me know.

Daniel

01/05/2025

A CHRISTIAN'S VOTER GUIDE
In the lead up to last year's US Election, Pastor Brian Zahnd released an excellent Blog Post titled: Election Season and Your Soul. In it, he outlined the following guide for Christians voting in an election:

1. The political process, while necessary, has little to do with how God is saving the world.

2. The fate of the kingdom of God does not depend upon political contests.

3. Don’t be naïve, political parties are more interested in Christian votes than they are in Christian values.

4. The bottom line for political parties is power. The bottom line for a Christian is love. And therein lies the rub.

5. While in pursuit of the Ring of Power, you are not permitted to abandon the Sermon on the Mount.

6. If your political passion makes it hard for you to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to turn it down a notch.

7. Your task is to bring the salt of Christian civility to an ugly and acrimonious political process.

8. To dismember the body of Christ over politics is a grievous sin.

9. Exercise your liberty to vote your conscience and conviction, while accepting that other Christians will do the same and vote differently than you.

10. It’s more important that your soul be filled with love than it is for your political team to win the game.

I commend it to your consideration:

Election Season and Your Soul Brian Zahnd Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. […]

30/03/2025

HOLY WEEK: ONE SACRED JOURNEY

April brings us to the heart of our Christian faith as we journey through Holy Week toward Easter. This year, we'll share this sacred time with our Anglican siblings from St Bart's, walking together through the fullness of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection.

Our shared services include Palm Sunday (13th April, 9:30am) and Maundy Thursday (7:00pm) at our church, Good Friday (9:30am) at St Bart's (Anglican Parish of Crookwell), and then we'll celebrate Easter Sunday (20th April, 9:30am) in our respective congregations. Easter Sunday will be especially joyful as we witness the baptism of Bret Fisher.

I want to gently encourage you to consider participating in the entire Triduum—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday—as one continuous liturgy that tells the complete story of our salvation. Each service flows into the next, carrying us through Christ's last supper, crucifixion, and triumphant resurrection.

Some of us may find Good Friday particularly difficult. The sorrow and darkness can feel overwhelming, especially for those already carrying grief. Yet it is precisely at the cross where God's glory is most profoundly revealed—in a love that enters fully into our suffering. Our God works through negation and death, not despite them.

When we avoid Good Friday, we risk embracing a faith that becomes overly sentimental, one that may comfort but ultimately has little to say in our hardest moments. Just as in baptism we must symbolically drown before rising to new life, so too must we journey through Friday's darkness to truly experience Sunday's light.

May we have the courage to embrace the entirety of this sacred story—not just its triumphant conclusion, but its painful middle as well—finding there the God who meets us in our deepest suffering.

Rev. Daniel

(Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash)