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address 12 Surrey Road South Yarra Victoria
3141 (Melways ref. 2M A9)
phone (03) 9827
7900
email church
@laughingbird.net
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The South Yarra Community
Baptist Church would be honoured to share our worship with you at
any time you are able to visit us. We are a small congregation
with deep roots in the ancient traditions of Christian
spirituality. Our worship weaves the wisdom of our forebears with
the vitality of our own contemporary Australian experience to
create a powerful and intimate experience of worship.
Our main weekly worship
service is held at 5:00 pm each Sunday, and goes for about two
hours. We serve a light meal afterwards and we would be honoured
to share it with you.
For our Latest
Sunday Sermon click here
For our latest Notice
Sheet (PDF) click here
Our church is governed by
the members meeting together to discern the will of God. We are
a member church of the Baptist
Union of Victoria and we welcome communion with all Christian
churches everywhere.
What are we on about?
We are a small group of people who are banding together to
journey deeper into the life of God. In silent expectation we
seek to yield ourselves to God's design, allowing God's Spirit
to heal our brokenness, purge our delusions, restore our
integrity, and lead us on into the fullness of life and love.
In a society that worships youth, beauty and wealth, we are
rebelliously searching for treasure that cannot be eroded, lost
or stolen - treasure of the Spirit. We are searching for
spiritual pathways that neither hide from the horror of a world
insanely bent on self-destruction, nor lead only into dead ends
of fruitless activism.
We are drawing on the rich heritage of wisdom and insight
developed in communities of prayerful people over the centuries
- people who discovered joy and peace in simplicity, creativity
and fidelity.
Our worship is shaped by structures that have stood the test
of time. It weaves the wisdom of our forebears with the
vitality of our own experience to create liturgies that have
the power to awaken within us the memory of our ancient
destiny, and lead us into communion with the one who restores
within us the dignity and integrity with which we were created.
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The Weekly Eucharist
Each Sunday at 5:00 pm
Central to our journey together is the Eucharist, for from
the shared table we are drawn with all creation into communion
with God. We find ourselves welcomed to the banquet table of
heaven to be fed with the bread of life and the wine of the new
age which sustain us and nourish our growth into the fullness
of life in Christ.
Sensory aids such as icons, incense, candles and music help
us to worship as whole beings. A cycle of scripture readings
ensures that we are kept in contact with the earliest
foundations of our faith. A "sermon of silence" gives
us the quiet space to allow God to reach us. Prepared prayers
help imprint the rhythms of prayer into our hearts, thus
equipping us to live throughout each week in the thankful
spirit of the Eucharist.
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Daily Prayer
Our lives have been deeply scarred by the pain and
bitterness around us and within us, and we are now convinced
that it is only the healing Spirit of Jesus Christ that can
restore our wholeness and holiness.
Such renewal requires the discipline of regular times for
silence and prayer, for we need shelter from noise and insanity
to hear the whisperings in our hearts. Only as we listen
regularly, with our minds attuned by the hearing of scripture
and participation in the liturgy, can we learn to discern which
of those whisperings are healing words of counsel from the
Spirit of God.
Times of structured prayer and contemplation take place in
our chapel most days, but most of us, being unable to be there,
participate in this rhythm of shared prayer while elsewhere. If
you wish to pray with others in the chapel, contact us first to
find out the current times of prayer.
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Are we right for you?
There's only one way to find out! We would gladly welcome
you to join with us any time in the Eucharist or in Daily
Prayers.
A word of warning though: our approach is quite different
from what many people are used to and most of us felt quite
uncomfortable during our first few experiences of such prayer.
Those from church backgrounds found that the experience
unsettled many of our previous ideas about prayer, worship and
the activity of the Spirit. Those without church backgrounds
found the experience very foreign to the hypnotic, high-tech
entertainment culture all around us. You will need to come long
enough to get past the initial discomfort before you will know
if it's right for you.
Another word of warning: Some of us found it even more
uncomfortable after we thought we'd gotten used to it. As many
had discovered before us, once the rhythm of prayer began to
work it's way into our hearts, our defenses and illusions began
falling apart. We saw ourselves and our surrounds through newly
opened eyes and were often deeply disturbed by what we saw. For
some it took great courage to go on.
No one has ever found a road to resurrection that does not
first lead to the cross. But we have begun to taste the first
fruits of the fullness of resurrection life and we have no
intention of going back!
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Our Pastors
Our pastors are people whom the church believes to have
been called and gifted by the Lord of the Church to exercise
a ministry of spiritual leadership and pastoral oversight of
the congregation and its life, prayer and ministry. They
exercise this ministry in consultation and cooperation with
one another, and each place themselves in relationships of
professional supervision and voluntary accountability
outside the congregation. They are Covenanting Members of
the Church and participate fully in the common life and
disciplines which are described in the church's annual
Covenant. Together they carry the primary responsibility for
the preaching and teaching ministries of the church, for the
ordering of it's worship and prayer, and for the provision
of pastoral care and counsel to people who are regular
participants in the life of the church or who contact the
church in search of care and counsel.
Our Pastors are Nathan Nettleton
and Jennifer Gillan.
To find out more about who they are, click on their names
or just scroll down.
Nathan Nettleton
Photography by the Revd Kim Cain
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Nathan Nettleton grew up in the suburbs and attended
one of Melbourne's most prestigious private schools and a
nice local church. This naturally led on to dropping out
of University, being kicked out of Bible College,
becoming a truck driver, and having a failed marriage.
After such an idyllic preparation for Christian ministry,
he began working in a mission among the street people of
St Kilda in 1990, and took a second shot at a theological
education. He continued his work at the "House of
Hope" for nearly five years before becoming pastor
of this church in May 1994.
He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1994 and
completed an honours degree in theology at Whitley
College in 1995. He later undertook a Master of
Theology degree in Liturgical Studies from the Melbourne
College of Divinity , completing it in 2001.
Nathan is only employed part time here (0.7EFT) and
also does some sessional work at Whitley College,
teaching the study of worship and tutoring various other
subjects. He writes for and manages the Laughing
Bird Liturgical Resources website.
Nathan is married to Margaret Welsford, and they have
a 10.y.o daughter named Acacia and two dogs, Jaz &
Dusty. His other interests include dog training,
cross-country skiing, baking and brewing.
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Jennifer Gillan

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Jenny accepted a call to serve
among us as a music pastor commencing in February 2008. She
was first inspired to a life of music teaching when she
joined the Young Voices of Melbourne at twelve years of
age. Since then she completed her Bachelor of Music
and Diploma of Education in Melbourne, the Kodály
Australia Certificate, a Master of Music Studies at the
University
of Queensland and Diploma of Advanced Conducting and
Kodály Methods at the Kodály
Institute, Kecskemet, Hungary. Jennifer has taught
at all levels of education from Prep to Primary school,
Secondary, Tertiary and teacher education. She is
particularly passionate about choral music and believes in
the importance of music literacy. Jennifer has
presented at conferences in Australia and America and has
taught in East London. She currently works at Melba
Conservatorium and the Victorian
College of the Arts Secondary School, teaching
musicianship and conducting choirs and small vocal
ensembles. Jennifer has always been involved in the life of
the church and has experienced several different
denominations and forms of worship. She has lead music for
different styles for worship and is particularly fond of the
Taize tradition. Jennifer is married to Tony, whom she loves
very much. She has a big, loud family and her parents
own two dogs that she is particularly fond of. She named
them Gina and Norgie. Her father has never forgiven her for
that.
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