Keen to engage more with its local community, Christ Church, Lavender Bay has utilised its prime harbourside setting to host “High Tea by the Harbour”.
“The purpose was for us to be able to invite the neighbours, I’ve been here for a year now… we’ve all got to know one another, so next chapter for the church is inviting the neighbours over: how we do the next steps of outreach and engagement?”
Mr Edwards says the May event, which was organised by one of his assistant ministers the Rev Evonne Paddison, was designed so people from the parish could host a table and invite friends, family and neighbours, who were served high tea by another team of church volunteers.
Congregation members and friends also baked up a storm for the 110 guests – more than half of whom were visitors – and everyone sat in a marquee on the church lawns to eat, drink and chat. There was also the opportunity to listen to guest speaker (and regular worshipper at Lavender Bay) John Howard OM AC, who spoke about how Judeo-Christian values had “shaped us as a civilisation and a society”.
Says Mr Edwards: “John Howard has a particular concern that we continue to uphold the Judeo-Christian values of our culture – on which our society, government and social welfare structures are built. He’s concerned that this seems to be getting eroded away by our current culture [but believes] there’s good reason for us to remain with those historical values so we have a positive future ahead of us.”
Feedback from the event was so positive that another high tea is planned for September with the medical director of CareFlight International, Dr Noel Eatough, already pencilled in as speaker.
“There were some who were quite nervous about coming onto the church grounds,” Mr Edwards says, “but they were pleasantly surprised by the community and love and engagement they received during the afternoon and even said they wouldn’t mind coming back again!”
He adds that, in the spring, Lavender Bay will continue its outreach by adding another church meeting to its traditional morning choral service. A contemporary evening gathering is planned, “to engage a younger demographic from our local community”.
