Presbytery of North East Victoria

The Body of Christ from across the region, meeting to worship, pray, study, learn and do business.

Lenten Studies

Where do we go from here?

Kickstart your heart, rev up your missional engines and get stuck into Acts…..of justice, mercy and compassion.

The six studies are based on Book of Acts.  In re-reading Acts, we will discover questions and clues about how we might enter into the great adventure of ‘mission’ in our own time and place. In Australia.

On Zoom: Form a group at your church or join us from home.

Each study will be led by a representative from Presbytery of Loddon Mallee or Presbytery of North East Vic.

Lent

Lent is a period of fasting, repentance, and spiritual discipline in the Christian faith, occurring during the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday.

The season of Lent has a very clear direction. It leads us to the cross, and in the great Festival of Easter, takes us through death into the joy of the Resurrection.

Where do we go from here?

Good so far, but, once we have arrived on the other side of death, where do we go?

This has always been the question faced by the church. At the Ascension, we are told Jesus commanded us to ‘go out into the world to make disciples’. But how? Which direction first? With whom? For how long? Are we there yet?

There are easy, pat answers to these questions, answers grounded in the mission, tradition and theology we have breathed in since we first started to attend church, answers that may have more to do with ‘then’ than they have to do with ‘now’. As with most ‘easy’ answers, a closer look reveals that each answer contains within it many more questions.

So, let’s look at the early church and once again celebrate the passion, enthusiasm, miracles, unity and determination that are so evident in the Book of Acts. Surely the answers are there? Perhaps. Or, more likely, in re-reading Acts, we will discover questions and clues about how we might enter into the great adventure of ‘mission’ in our own time and place. In Australia. Today.

Whether it be in your home, your church, your suburb or the wider world, the call of mission is the call to be engaged with, to love and to honour all that God has made. We walk the Gospel into the world not simply through words but through our actions. Mission is the continuation of the great Incarnational love story between God and all that God has made.

Kickstart your heart, rev up your missional engines and get stuck into Acts…..of justice, mercy and compassion.

When:

Sunday evenings from 19th Feb  6:30 to 8.00pm

Wednesday afternoons from 22nd Feb 2.30 to 4.00pm
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89894892992?pwd=bWprcW53Nm5kZ0FKUzN3MUlOQ21Sdz09

Meeting ID: 898 9489 2992

Passcode: PNEVPLM

Explore the Book of Acts and the key dimensions of mission

The six studies are based on the publication “Where do we go from here?” by the Anglican Board of Mission.

The Five Marks of Mission began life as a mission statement for the Anglican Board of Mission. Being mission-focused, this organisational statement was more “mission” minded than most organisation’s mission statements. The Five Marks of Mission are such an important resource that Churches outside the Anglican Communion often reflect on them too. The six Lenten studies focus on the readings from the early church, but seek to frame them within these marks of mission.

The Five Marks of Mission

The mission of the Church is the mission of Christ

  1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
  2. To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
  3. To respond to human need by loving service
  4. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
  5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

The Studies.

There are six studies in this series. Each will be led by a different representative from the Presbytery of Loddon Mallee or the Presbytery of North East Victoria.

  1. Hearth to Heart
  2. It passes all understanding
  3. We never journey alone
  4. Sunday Best
  5. The death of gods, the life of God
  6. The hospitality of strangers

The format.

The studies will be available on Zoom. Congregations may form a group to meet at the church or at someone’s home. Individual can join us from home.

When the time comes for discussion, congregational groups will be their own discreet group, while individual participants will join an online breakout group.

Each study will be led by a representative from Presbytery of Loddon Mallee or Presbytery of North East Vic. This is an opportunity to get to know others and benefit from the wisdom across the presbyteries.

The Zoom will be facilitated by Brian Spencer, Education, Innovation and Resource Support Minister Presbytery of North East Victoria and Gordon Wild, Presbytery Minister, Southern Region and eLM Minister, Presbytery of Loddon Mallee.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89894892992?pwd=bWprcW53Nm5kZ0FKUzN3MUlOQ21Sdz09

Meeting ID: 898 9489 2992

Passcode: PNEVPLM

When?

Sunday evenings from 19th Feb  6:30 to 8.00pm (Feb 19th, 26th, Mar 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th)

Wednesday afternoons from 22nd Feb 2.30 to 4.00pm (Feb 22nd, Mar 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th)

About the Presbytery

The Presbytery of North East Victoria covers a large area of north eastern Victoria and reaches into southern NSW. The western boundary stretches from Mathoura to Colbinabbin, and the eastern boundary from Corryong to Alexandra with Broadford as the southern most community. Our northern boundary is through the Murray Valley region to Mathoura, and then south-east to Broadford. Click to see map below.

Strategic Directions

The presbytery has responsibilities under the Basis of Union and regulations for the ministry and mission within its bounds.  In the rapidly changing context of the church and the world, PNEV was concerned to find ways to care for all congregations and people, regardless of size and financial stability and capacity. Strategic directions were developed and agreed to early in 2013 and are subject to ongoing review.

The presbytery has endeavoured to remain true to its values and role in aiming to care for both small and large congregations. However this is a challenge in a presbytery with many congregations whose members are aging and declining in numbers and thus who are experiencing a reduction in financial resources. Many of the lay leaders are also aging. Ensuring that new possibilities are nurtured and that the outreach to younger people and families is valued and celebrated is also vital.  Recognising that small groups and tiny congregations have much to share along with the larger ones, ensures that all feel valuable and make their contribution to the whole.

The desire to support all congregations resulted in a set of directions for the presbytery, where it identified six centres of population, Seymour, Shepparton/Mooroopna, Benalla, Wangaratta, Albury/Wodonga and Echuca, with a priority to try and ensure that congregations in those centres retained placements as far as possible and became centres of resourcing for smaller congregations around them.  The strategic direction also identified the need for education and the equipping, support and nurture of lay leaders in smaller congregations for the future, and for some new thinking around worship and leadership.  This helps PRC and M&E committees in particular to identify where they need to put their focus.

Map with Congregations

Below is a map showing the extent of the Presbytery and congregations indicated by purple dots. Where congregations linked into a cluster, lines are shown linking the dots.

 

Presbytery Meetings and Governance

Representatives and ministry workers usually met four times a year for formal Presbytery meetings. The Presbytery in Council is much more than a business meeting: it is the Body of Christ from across the region, meeting to worship, pray, study, learn and do business.

Our present practice is to hold the meetings on either Thursdays or Saturdays to enable different people to participate. We rotate around various congregations across the Presbytery to give depth to our relationship together. The Presbytery meets for other special occasions such as the ordination or induction of a new ministry worker, or on the rare occasion when an extraordinary meeting is called. Between Presbytery meetings, Standing Committee deals with the business of the Presbytery and is able to make decisions on behalf of the wider Presbytery.

The Presbytery has gained richly from a number of ministers from non-Anglo cultures serving amongst us. The presbytery greatly values the ministry of its Lay Preachers and other lay leaders.

The Presbytery operates through four main committees:

  • Standing Committee – meets monthly
  • Pastoral Relations Committee – meets monthly
  • Mission and Education Committee – meets quarterly
  • Property, Finance and Administration Committee – meets quarterly