In Touch MAY 2016 TOORAK UNITING CHURCH MINISTER: Reverend Dr Christopher Page ASSISTANT: Reverend Peter Beale 603 Toorak Road, Toorak VIC 3142 (t) 9829 0300 (e) office@toorakuc.org.au www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au

 

TUC Office  9829 0300  Uni ng Arts Toorak / Kinross House  9829 0340 

John Mackenzie Kindergarten  9829 0331  Manse Gallery Café  9829 0341 

John Macrae Centre  9829 0320  Alan Watson Centre Dancing Class  9829 0310 

JUNE 26 No 9am service 10.15am Whole Church Family service, followed by lunch

JULY 02 Federal Election Day Fair

JULY 24 10.15am Healthy Relationships Sunday

AUGUST 28 No 9am service 10.15am Baptism Reunion service, followed by lunch

OCTOBER 30 No 9am service. 10.15am Grandparents & Grandkids service, followed by lunch

Since the last InTouch there have been several exciting activities named in this edition of the newsletter. On any day of the week the TUC “campus” is a hive of activity. Some have called it a village. It is a place of welcome and regardless faith, or background, we at the church would love to see you involved in whatever your interest is. Our Sunday morning services are open to all and pre-sented in a friendly, contemporary way of expressing faith and spirituality.

Christopher Page

TUC Music Director Jennifer Chou

FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR …

Virginia Davey Organ Recital

This year’s Virginia Davey Organ Re-cital features British organist Paul Dean, Director of Music at St Michael’s Church, Highgate, London and Deputy Director of Music at ‘The Hall’, Hampstead. Paul has had con-siderable success in national and in-ternational competitions and is in de-mand as a soloist in the UK and abroad. His 2009 solo concert tour of Australia was critically acclaimed and he’s delighted to be returning this year! Paul will give a Bach recital at TUC on Sunday 14 August at 2pm. Please visit our website and click the Trybooking link to purchase tickets. www.toorak.unitingchurch.org.au

More Opportunities for Music Lovers

If you are interested in singing in the TUC Choir we’d love to hear from you. If you want to sing but worry about your ability, we have lead singers in each part to guide you. Rehearsals: 9am Sunday morning to sing at the 10.15am service.

Our Pamela Brown Handbell Choir is also looking for beginner ringers. You don’t need any experience or any music abilities. If you’re keen and can count the beat, we rehearse 6.30-7.30pm Wednesdays during school terms. Handbell rehearsal is a very social activity, we are a friendly and happy lot! Come and try it out before you commit!

Jennifer Chou bach000@tpg.com.au 0410 844 552

Paul Dean

SUNDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER AT 3 PM at TUC FAVOURITE SONGS FROM MUSICAL COMEDY AND MUSIC THEATRE

Performed by talented singers with pianist David Ross-Smith. Entertaining songs by Ivor Novello, George Gershwin, Cole Porter,

Rodgers & Hart, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kurt Weill Admission: $30, $25 (concession) – includes refreshments after concert

Your attendance supports people living with dementia and their carers at home. This is a fundraising concert for Uniting AgeWell’s Music for David program.

Inquiries: David Ross-Smith – 9809 0550 / 0429 907 908

An Appeal from the TUC Archives Team -

We urgently need some copies of our two church histories:

* The Presbyterians of Toorak, A Centenary History of Toorak Presbyterian Church 1876 to 1976

* From Centenary to a New Millennium 1975–2000 Toorak Uniting Church

Also, if we have any memorabilia collectors...

Annual Reports 1910–1934, 1978,1980,1981;

The Recorder from the 1930s, 40s and 50s; 1974-1980, 1984-6 - to fill some gaps!

And the more recent publication In Touch with TUC.

We will be very grateful to receive any of these publications!

The Archives Team— Jeanette McArthur, Jean Prest,

Pamela Wilson (9882 0089), or please leave at the TUC Office.

Milestones … Marriages

16 Apr - Christopher Tan & Rebecca Huang 23 Apr - Sioeli Tonga & Carolina Mendez

Funerals 13 Apr - Grahame Green

26 Apr - Alma Anne Parratt 26 Apr - Fiona Campbell Shepherd

JOHN MACRAE CENTRE Over the last three months we’ve been ‘travelling’ through Greece, England and Italy, sampling their cuisines and exploring the countries and their traditions. We en-couraged our members to bring along memorabilia and share memories of their own

visits. We were ‘in England’ for Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday on April 21st; so to mark the occasion we ate birthday cake and sang to her! We discussed what Anzac Day meant to us and then during May our travels took us to Italy Piano accordion playing and an armchair presentation, together with slides and costumes, gave us a taste for the boot-shaped island. Delicious as they are, I doubt anyone will want more pasta for a while! Next, we’re exploring South America followed by France in July. Winter parties with French food, lots of games, singing and dancing to get everyone up and on their toes!

JMC members have been enjoying the autumn sunshine with walks around the garden on fine days, music and singing provided by St. Catherine’s School and other entertainers. Rev. Peter Beale holds our weekly devotions. A Carers meeting is held quarterly (usually with a guest speaker) and in May we visited Alzheimer’s Australia. If you are, or you know of someone caring for a frail elderly person, or you’d like more information, please feel free to contact me on 9829 0320.

Katrina Szabo, JMC Director

Bagpipe serenade 

Kinross Ceilidh

KINROSS ARTS & SPIRITUALITY CENTRE

9829 0340 | 0404 078 105 Gallery, Café, Studios. 8.30am-3.30pm M-F

manager@kinrossarts.org.au | www.kinrossarts.org.au | www.facebook.com/

KinrossArtsCentre

CEILIDH - SCOTTISH DANCE Our April 30th event was a great suc-cess and many people contributed to making it authentically Scottish and very enjoyable with wonderful music, great food and good cheer. A huge thank you to all volunteers, especially Colin MacLeod (Celtic Fiddle Guru), Nina Mumford, the Catering, Ticket Sales, Bar and Decoration teams, po-etry reader Norie Macleod, dancers and the Caledonian Ceilidh Band led by Matthew Robertson.

KINROSS VOLUNTEERS Kinross warmly welcomes four new volunteers: Lea Beranek, Betty John-son, Joan Earle and Joe Pascoe. All volunteer enquiries welcome.

UPCOMING EVENTS Sat. 2 July. Craft with Spirit Stall at the TUC Election Day Fair.

Sun. 24 July. Fine Music Concert presented by David Ross-Smith fea-turing soprano Catherine Pendelich, baritone Bruce Raggatt, classical gui-tarist Michael MacManus and harpist Megan Reeves. Refreshments follow.

August. Friends of Kinross Art Excur-sion to the Islamic Museum of Aus-tralia. All welcome. More details via the Kinross webpages and e-bulletin.

EXHIBITIONS In July and November we welcome Fine Art Dealer, Anita Traynor to ex-hibit at Kinross, presenting the work of young Australian artists.

MANSE GALLERY CAFE Raz Psonis is serving a great array of dishes over the Winter. Open 8.30am-3.30pm during school terms. Tel. 9829 0341 for bookings and event enquiries.

STUDIO PROGRAM Roz McQuillan (painter) has joined in Studio 6. All artists are going well in-cluding the Art Therapy Collective in Studio 1. For enquiries about art ther-apy opportunities and workshops please contact Tracey Bradford on traceyart@hotmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you over Winter - Kinross is heated and a great space for a Winter retreat.

Lyndel Wischer - Manager

JOHN MACKENZIE KINDERARTEN News for Term 1, 2016

Autumn has come to John Mackenzie Kindergarten and the children love playing outside in the leaves. Luckily the weather has still been pretty good, so we have had plenty of outside time, and haven’t been forced in by rain too much.

This term the children started looking at ‘the Hospital’, and we learnt about our bodies. It was great to see the children so curious – learning all the differ-ent names of the bones, about the way our hearts lungs and brains work, and about all the different people working to keep us safe and healthy.

Miss Hannah, our newly graduated teacher, had the children doing an amaz-ing project – getting them to build a life-size skeleton out of ‘salt dough’! It’s now hanging up in the Kindergarten foyer, where the children can proudly show visitors to the Kindergarten.

The Three Year Olds are well and truly settled in to the Kindergarten lifestyle, and have been doing some great artwork with Miss Amy. Whenever we see them playing outside they are very happy and content.

On the social side, we had our ‘Father’s Pizza Night’, with all the Dads bring-ing their children to the Kindergarten after dark with torches for pizza and fun. As always, a very fun night was had by all!

Just recently we had our Mother’s Morning Tea to celebrate Mother’s Day, where the children gave their Mum a freshly painted pot with a daffodil in-side, and a beautiful ink-blot card. They did a wonderful job, and it was good to see the Mums so happy with their gifts!

We are loving watching the weather change at Kinder, and our ‘dramatic play’ area is set up as a farmer’s market at the moment, and the children have been enjoying discussing healthy eating concepts. We will soon have our ‘Happy and Healthy’ week at the Kinder, where we will focus on waste free morning teas, and will have a Three Year Old and Four Year Old joint picnic – always a huge highlight of the year!

Jim Irvine Kindergarten Teacher

and JMK Director

COMMUNITY GROUPS meeting at TUC :

Australasian Native Orchid Society Stan 9511 4211 or Graham 9435 7887 Beaurepaire’s Bridge (for beginners)

Sue 0402 137 143 Dickens Fellowship

Elisabeth 0425 790 266 High Line Active (physiotherapy exercise)

Nicole 0409 998 967 Ikebana International

Sally 9882 4021 or Helen 9822 2827 Joanne Brown Bridge

Joanne 0412 499 918 or Gary 0418 570 430 Pamela Brown Handbell Choir

Jennifer 0411 109 095 Psychology

Anne 0411 109 095 Soozexercises Sue 9827 2787

Tai Chi Gary 0407 855 344 Weight Watchers

Sally 0419 316 852 Yoga Mitra

Fiona 0400 404 384 Yoga with Phoebe

Phoebe 0414 836 404

DANCE CLASS

At the time of writing this, Semester 1 is almost at its end with only the for-mals ahead of us. Time flies when you are having fun! The fancy dress nights were well enjoyed with all students participating and joining in the spirit in some sort of dress up.

Our classes are structured such that all dances are taught progressively and all students dance continuously changing partners throughout the dances and participating the whole time.

Rhonda Tellis has moved into the role of Head Dance Teacher with confi-dence and ease and the dance enjoyment continues under Rhonda’s profi-cient guidance. John Durzynski has also fitted in very nicely in the team and

together with Edwina and Rachelle we maintain excep-tional dance teaching. Daniel Godeassi returns to share the supervision with Paul, Julie and Matthew.

Semester 2 sees us in need of boys so if there are any Year 10 boys who would like to join our classes please contact me.

Lin Cooper Dance Class Coordinator

REGULAR EVENTS AT TUC Sunday Worship services Sundays at 9:00am (informal). Communion 1st Sunday of the month Sundays at 10:15am. Communion 3rd Sunday of the month

Whole Church Family Worship services (no 9am) 10.15am, last Sunday of June, August, October Usually followed by a delicious lunch! Please check our website to confirm. Drop-In Card Group (Feb-Dec) 10am, 2nd Monday of the month (if a public holiday, then meet on 3rd Mon.) Fellowship Morning Tea (Feb-Nov) 11am, last Monday of the month. A cuppa & conversation. All welcome. Morning Group for men & women (Feb-Nov) 10am, 3rd Thursday of the month. Guest speaker & discussion. All welcome.