40th Anniversary Celebrations at Rockingham Congregation

The worship space at Rockingham was transformed into a restaurant space on Friday night 16th. June.It was completed by the Youth Group as their contribution to the congregation's UCA 40th birthday celebration on Sat 17th. Church Council had decided we needed to celebrate the birth of our church. I was asked to organise an event.

With a small committee of 4 we organised a lunch and invited 3 former ministers as guests. The program included 6 short speeches by 4 former ministers, Ken Deveraux, John Edwards, Ian McPherson, Alan Jeffries, our current Minister Toby Keva and the Chair of the Church Council, Ken Paton. They were all asked to highlight something from their time at Rockingham. One thing that was mentioned was that John Edwards, now retired and a member of our congregation, was one of the first people to be ordained in the Uniting Church, shortly after union.

Rockingham was different to many congregations at Union as there were only Methodist congregations in this area. Since then former Presbyterian and Congregational members have joined.

The lunch ended with us all enjoying a birthday cake with the 40th Logo on it. Our choir sang two items, one of which had the lyrics written by Jennifer Ligtermoet originally for the 10th anniversary. The words are still relevant. Here is one of the verses.

"With God to help us travel, We’re working hand in hand, To build a new tomorrow, For all to understand, Uniting is continuous, This process never ends, Together with new vision, Wherever God may send"

Gerry Ligtermoet

Minister's, past and present, cutting the Anniversary Cake

40th Anniversary Cake