St Michael's Uniting Church

Sunday Service
2018-01-07 10:00 - 11:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
St Michael’s is a unique church in the heart of the city. Unique for its relevant, contemporary preaching that embraces and inner wellbeing as its core message.

Sunday services include a mix of traditional and modern presentations interspersed with inspirational music performed by world-class musicians.
St Michael’s affirms and encourages the best expression of humanity, not only through the Sunday service but though our programs and our commitment to counselling. We believe faith, spirituality and a meaning to life are vital ingredients for our health and wellbeing and that there is a need to get hold of a more authentic religious understanding.
Sunday services commence at 10am.

This Sunday at St Michael’s, we welcome guest minister Rev Paul Tonson.

Organ Recital
2018-01-04 13:00 - 13:30, 2017-12-21 13:00 - 13:30, 2017-12-14 01:00 - 13:30, 2017-12-07 13:00 - 13:30, 2017-11-23 13:00 - 13:30, 2017-11-16 13:00 - 13:30, 2017-11-09 13:00 - 13:30 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
Every Thursday at 1 pm, the St Michael’s Carillon is sounded and the grand organ comes to life for a free 30 minute recital. Now into their ninth year, these recitals are well attended by the public.
Performed by organist Rhys Boak, and visiting artists, brings the joy and beauty of live music to many Melbournians and visitors.
Please check your orders of service or our Facebook page each week to see who will be performing the following Thursday.
Music has an important role to play in the functioning of society and has had for many thousands of years. No human culture appears to be without music. Singing, in particular, seems to be universal. Music is invariably expressed in relation to religion. The music program at St Michael’s each week brings us some of the best musicians and music that Australia has to offer to enrich our experience during our Sunday services at special events during the year.

Sunday Service
2017-12-31 10:00 - 11:30, 2017-12-17 10:00 - 11:00, 2017-12-10 10:00 - 11:00, 2017-12-03 08:00 - 17:00, 2017-11-26 10:00 - 11:00, 2017-11-19 10:00 - 11:00, 2017-11-12 10:00 - 11:00, 2017-11-05 10:00 - 11:00 and 1 more date | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
St Michael’s is a unique church in the heart of the city. Unique for its relevant, contemporary preaching that embraces and inner wellbeing as its core message.

Sunday services include a mix of traditional and modern presentations interspersed with inspirational music performed by world-class musicians.
St Michael’s affirms and encourages the best expression of humanity, not only through the Sunday service but though our wellbeing programs and our commitment to counselling and psychotherapy. We believe faith, spirituality and a meaning to life are vital ingredients for our health and wellbeing and that there is a need to get hold of a more authentic religious understanding.
Sunday services commence at 10am.

Christmas at St Michael's
2017-12-25 09:00 - 10:00 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
Join us at St Michael’s for our Christmas Day service at 9am on Monday 25 December.
“What Really Happened at Christmas?” by Rev Ric Holland
Guest Artists: St Michael’s Singers with a selection of Brass & Timpani

Christmas Eve Service
2017-12-24 10:00 - 11:00 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia

Cordelia's Potted Operas and St Michael's Present Amahl and The Night Visitors
2017-12-17 13:00 - 14:00 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
As Christmas quickly approaches, we are excited to welcome the mini-opera Amahl and the Night Visitors to St Michael’s, on Sunday 17 December at 1pm following service.
The story is of the Kings travelling to Bethlehem when they stop for a rest in a little cottage where Amahl, a young crippled boy, and his mother live. They are extremely poor but offer to give the Kings a place to rest for the night. During the night the Mother is strongly tempted by the gifts the Kings are carrying – to find out what happens you will need to come and see the opera!
Cordelia’s Potted Operas launched two years ago to give young emerging trusts the opportunity to perform with and learn from more experienced artists through Opera and Operetta.
This event is suitable for children.
When: 1pm, Sunday 17 December
Where: St Michael’s Church
Duration: 1 hour (no interval)
Cost: $25 Adults, $10 Children. Tickets available here or at the door.

Queen Street Massacre Memorial Service
2017-12-08 10:00 - 11:30 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
On Friday 8 December we remember the family and friends lost in the tragic Australia Post massacre on this day 30 years ago in Queen Street, Melbourne. In 1987, nine people died and several injured as a result of the incident.
We welcome those who wish to pay tribute or offer prayers to those lost on this sober day. Stories of those involved will be shared.
Proceedings will start at 9.15am on the corner of Queen and Bourke Street (H&M Building), where a wreath will be laid at the memorial stain glass window. Attendees are then invited to attend the memorial service at St Michael’s at 10.30am. Refreshments and morning tea will be served following the service at St Michael’s Hall, behind the church.
When: 9.15am H&M Building (wreath laying), 10.30am Service
Where: St Michael’s Church

Choir of Hard Knocks
2017-12-03 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
During Social Inclusion Week, starting Monday 27 November, we welcome to St Michael’s the Choir of Hard Knocks led by Jonathan Welch. This choir will be performing on Sunday 3 December during Sunday Service.
Social Inclusion Week invites everyone to ‘Connect, Collaborate and Celebrate’, at hundreds of self-hosted events around Australia. The aim is to help every person feel included and valued in society and encourage connection in local communities and workplaces.
The Choir of Hard Knocks began as a ‘street choir’ directed by award-winning singer, conductor, composer and recording artist Dr Jonathon Welch AM, and provides an opportunity for homeless and disadvantaged people to connect through musical performance. Now in its 11th year, the Choir of Hard Knocks are the only artists in Australian music history to have been awarded the highest accolades in the same year, winning a Logie, an Aria, Platinum Aria and a Helpmann Award in 2007, after being the subject of an international award-winning ABC TV series. The Choir recently completed a national tour for its 10th birthday, selling out the Sydney Opera House, Hamer Hall in Melbourne and QPAC in Brisbane.
We are privileged to welcome the choir into the church and hope you can join us for this joyous event.

Lior in Concert
2017-11-30 20:00 - 22:00 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia
Lior is a publicly and critically acclaimed Australian songwriter and performer with a rich, powerful voice and gentle and dexterous guitar playing that creates his unique tonal blend. He is one of the most successful independent artist debutants in Australian music history and a winner of two ARIAs.
Lior was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to write a new work in collaboration with renowned composer Nigel Westlake. The work, titled “Compassion”, consists of original melodies and orchestrations set to ancient Hebrew and Arabic texts centring around the notion of compassion.
Lior is an ambassador for The Global Poverty Project and The Cambodian Children’s Trust.
To get a feeling for the beauty and power of his performances, watch him perform live at the Sydney Town Hall in 2015.
On Thursday 30 November 2017 at 8:00pm, Lior will bring his string quartet to St Michael’s on Collins for a very special and intimate performance in this beautiful space.
Tickets are selling very fast and are available here for $45 + booking fee.

Healthy Ageing Seminar - November 2017
2017-11-24 11:00 - 13:00 | St Michael’s Hall, 120 Collins St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Another year is almost over. Join Clinical Psychologist Julijana Chochovski as we take stock of the psychological insights and tools we have explored over 2017.
The end of the year is a time for reflection. We all have ups and downs and the team at S.A.G.E. Healthy Ageing Seminars we have worked together all year to provide much-needed tools for coping with problems commonly associated with ageing.
Reflect on your problem-solving achievements during your time at S.A.G.E. To celebrate the end of the year we will enjoy live music and festive treats.

Time and Date: 11am, Friday 24 November
Location: St Michael’s Place, Hall, Ground Floor (behind the church)
Tickets: $20pp (includes tea, coffee and sandwiches)
Limited Seating Booking Recommended: Call 9654 5120 to reserve your seats

Each month we choose a theme and present an exploration of helpful Psychological tips on that theme. Presented by Clinical Psychologist Julijana Chochovski, of The Cairnmillar Institute, these seminars provide much-needed tools for coping with problems commonly associated with ageing.
The supportive and friendly atmosphere allows participants the opportunity to discuss a variety of concerns that may arise in later years. Hosted by St Michael’s Uniting Church in the heart of the CBD, these secular seminars will help inspire you and your loved ones to enjoy an independent and high quality of life.

“These seminars attract so many older people, and I’m not surprised considering the important topics they discuss, all of which help older people to age well.” – Noeline Brown (Australia’s first Ambassador for Ageing)

Creative Faith Discussion Group
2017-11-19 11:45 - 12:45
Our Past and the Experiences that Shape Our Present.
Our life journey is a personal one-full of experiences, which help guide our response to everything happening in our lives.
This will be the topic for our next session in our series The Things That Bring Meaning To Life.
All are welcome to Join Neil in the Waratah Room for this conversation.
Tea and coffee provided
Date: September 17
Time: 11.45 am to 12.45 pm
Location: Waratah Room, Level 1, St Michael’s Place

Photo Book Workshop
2017-11-05 11:45 - 13:00, 2017-10-29 11:45 - 13:00 | Waratah Room, 120 Collins St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Learn how to make a Photo Book and make use of your digital photo files, with Roger Hersey.
We all have lots of photos on computers, tablets and phones – but how often do we look at them? Having a coffee table photo book gives us easy access to wonderful memories.
Presented over three Sunday’s after Sunday Service, Roger will go over the tools needed to produce a photo book to keep a hard copy of wonderful memories.
When: Sunday 22 & 29 October, 4 November
Time: 11:45am
Where: Waratah Room, Level 1, St Michael’s Place
Free Event for those with a tablet or mobile device.

French Conversation
2017-11-05 11:45 - 12:45 | Wellbeing Studio, 120 Collins St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
Join native French speaker, Johanna Hersey, for a fun and informal French conversation class where all are welcome to practice their French and receive some pointers in basic French conversation skills.
Beginners and fluent speakers alike will find someone to chat to in French with help and guidance on hand.

OrganLunchtime Recital
2017-11-02 13:00 - 13:30 | St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Hal Taussig - Saturday Lectures
2017-10-28 10:00 - 16:00
Saturday Lectures:
1.The Messy Mix of Early Christ Movement Texts:
Both conventional Christianity and secular culture assume that the New Testament fell fully-formed to earth and hit someone on the head shortly after Jesus died. This lecture shows how no such thing as a Christian canon could have happened before the fifth century CE.

Replacing the Notions of an Orthodoxy-Heresy Story of How Christianity Began:

There is a presumptuous narrative inherent in most secular and Christian understandings which assumes a single line of tradition, belief, and story that was handed down from God to Jesus to the unified apostles to the loyal and orthodox bishops to traditional Christianity in our day. This lecture brings an historical approach which contradicts this master narrative with diverse portraits of two centuries of loose connections, no central authority, and wildly imaginative literature by women and men.

Wild & Humour-filled Early Christ Supper Clubs

Taussig unfolds a rich tapestry of ecstatic, humorous, fairly inclusive, and contentious festive meals that served as early Christ group “worship” throughout the Mediterranean world. Undoing the conventional picture of these groups in and as “churches,” this lecture shows how imaginative, diverse, and passionate these festive meal-groups were, and elaborates how they formed a core of unconventional spiritual practice.

The Strangeness of Early Christ Groups

This lecture portrays the early Christ groups as inherently diffuse, disorganised, and fascinated by identities that overlapped and resisted uniformity. In this view, it is pretentious to think that Christianity itself existed within the first two centuries. Rather, Christianity per se is at earliest a creation of the third through fifth centuries.
Professor Hal Taussig, one of the leading theologians of the late 20th & early 21st centuries, is to tour Australia & New Zealand in October & November this year under the Common Dreams on the Road banner.
Hal has recently retired as Visiting Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary, New York where he taught masters & doctoral level studies. He is Professor of Early Christianity at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. He has also retired from 30+ years as a United Methodist pastor & now is specially assigned by his bishop as a consultant to local congregations. Hal is co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Consultation on Greco-Roman meals, & on the steering committees of SBL’s Seminar on Modern Theories & Ancient Myths of Christian Origins and the Greco-Roman Meals Consultation.
Professor Taussig is a foundation fellow of the Westar Institute & participated in that Institute’s celebrated Jesus Seminar. He is currently co-chair of Westar’s Christianity Seminar. Among his 14 published books are A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21stCentury & Newly Discovered Texts (2013); A New Spiritual Home: Progressive Christianity at the Grass Roots (2006); & Re-imagining Life Together in America: A New Gospel of Community (2002).
REGISTRATION
Registration is essential (as this is a catered event). The easiest way to register is on line at https://haltaussig.eventbrite.com.au or alternatively by mail by completing & mailing the form below to The Progressive Christian Network of Victoria (address below).
You may register for the full series or, if you are unable to attend on Saturday, only for the Friday evening lecture.
Admission Costs (per person):

FULL PROGRAM (FRIDAY & SATURDAY)
Earlybird
(Before 6 October)
Regular
(From 6 October)

Member of PCNV or St Michael’s UC
$50
$60

Non-member
$55
$65

Student
$20
$20

FRIDAY EVENING ONLY
Earlybird
(Before 6 October)
Regular
(From 6 October)

Member of PCNV or St Michael’s UC
$25
$30

Non-member
$30
$35

Student
$10
$10
