Fuzzy with his white ruff just like our Geelong mayor

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My question answered by the Uniting Church - sort of

from w
This was published today on the Uniting Our Future Ask us a question website. Not the pictures - just words! I think their answer is rather convoluted. The pipe organ is in the St Kilda church which is listed for sale.

• What happens to moveable items in a church when it is sold - such as the piano, the drum kit, the hymn books? The kitchen utensils, catering equipment? I presume the pipe organ stays put and there surely are some fine ones in the buildings to be sold.

  wendy r 21 Nov 2013, 07:45 am
  Hi Wendy, the Relocations Team is working through these issues with each impacted congregation. The answers depend on what the items are and how moveable they are, as well as whether the congregation is relocating to another premises, merging with another congregation, disbanding as a congregation. The role of the Relocations Team includes talking with each congregation – those that are moving, and those that are receiving congregations – and working out what is important to take, and what could be helpful or important in the move. The team consists of specialists in architecture, fit out, furniture and equipment, interior design, logistics and accounting. Experienced conservation photographers are diligently capturing every feature of the property, including plaques, fittings, the external face, stained glass and ceilings. The logistics people count and photograph every item that has to come out of the building. All pipe organs are noted and the team is in the process of arranging valuations.

  
  

  Project Team 27 Nov 2013, 11:06 am

Keith Fagg writes about the Uniting Church

from w
I was glad to see that someone from Geelong has said it like it is about the Uniting Church 'fire sale'.  I've been quieter this week about protesting about the auction of our tennis club site in East Geelong, but today when I was at a Fellowship lunch with about eighty women at Ocean Grove, many did ask me how are you going about your Denman Street site?  So I gave them the facts.  Now - on the Uniting our Future Share our stories website, there's a piece of writing by a Geelong resident, Mr Keith Fagg (former mayor) a man of integrity. He refers partly to Geelong South Property.
Here's what he wrote - and it's just too true.

• What does "Grace and Peace" actually mean?

Correspondence from the Synod about Uniting our Future often ends with “Grace and Peace”. Given the way in which this whole sorry process is playing out, these seem hollow words.
The decisions of Standing Committee and some of the decisions and approach of the Project Control Group totally lack grace and certainly create no peace for the thousands of people in affected congregations. The driving forces are urgency and dollar return. Panic is are creating hasty property sale decisions,the impact of which will reverberate for decades.
Congregations, Uniting Care welfare organisations and the like have been suddenly forced to justify their existence and made to feel guilty for something over which they had absolutely no control. The apologies offered by Synod Leaders are lacking and demonstrate little understanding of the real impact of the sudden closure of congregations.
To think that a small, elderly congregation will happily move is to deny the depth of their association and care for their church building over generations. They may well be lost to the UCA forever.
The sales methodology adopted by the PCG is one of vacant possession. For congregations and other non-secure property users, this ‘scorched earth’ approach forcefully removes these groups from their loved church buildings before the sale without considering the opportunity that a potential purchaser may be prepared to allow congregations and other user groups to remain for a period of time. This creates more damage than may need to be.
In these Special Circumstances, congregations are rendered powerless and are unable to negotiate alternatives that would provide equal financial results but better outcomes for the people. The Standing Committee is the final decision making body but during this current critical stage in the process, has apparently gone missing inaction.
In such dire times, sound governance practice would have the key decision making body meet on at least a weekly basis – if only by phone –so that its members could keep abreast of and responsive to key issues that arose.
Standing Committee has imposed a high degree of urgency on affected congregations to respond, provide information, move out, etc. but have not had the grace or empathy to require it of themselves.
Disillusionment and mis-trust now prevail with the administration of Synod. Thank heavens Jesus talked about hope as there has been no element of hope in this process, only panic and hasty, imposed decisions. People are dis-enfranchised, made to feel powerless. Their faithful work over years in caring for and managing their churches and properties dismissed in a flash by the signing of a contract.
The collateral damage is immense. Any credibility the UCA has had to speak on justice issues is now sadly in tatters.
I am not sure what the authors of our "Basis of Union" would think of the denomination they visioned - my guess is they would be dismayed at they are now seeing. So disappointing.
by Keith Fagg 23 Nov 2013, 03:50 pm

Our garden in Boundary Rd

from w
I took a few photos in the garden after it was tidied up a bit now that we have some sunshine at last.

Geelong may have an energetic new mayor

from w
Interesting times. Looks like the new mayor will be a bit of a shocker like his hair. Made his money as part of the papparazzi in Europe, owns four pubs in Geelong, very flamboyant man, but with lots of energy. Maybe that's what Geelong needs at present.

Darryn Lyons looks all but certain to be voted Geelong's second directly elected mayor

Date

November 25, 2013

• 65 reading now

Clay Lucas

Workplace Editor for The Age

Lyons on track for Geelong mayor

Darryn Lyons is focusing on the future as he looks set to be voted Geelong's second directly elected mayor. Nine 

• s

''It's going to be a flying start,'' said Darryn Lyons, who on Sunday night looked all but certain to be voted Geelong's second directly elected mayor, in a resounding victory.

Residents and ratepayers in the state's second city got behind the pub and club entrepreneur, and former photographer who likes to be known as Mr Paparazzi. With more than half the vote counted, the 48-year-old had more than double the votes of his nearest competitor.

We've gone from a non-drinking, strong Christian and we are going to someone who owns pubs and clubs and is incredibly flamboyant. It's going to be interesting. 

The count, which the Victorian Electoral Commission will finish on Monday, came after the resignation of inaugural directly elected mayor Keith Fagg, who served just nine months of a four-year term.

The many faces of former photographer Darryn Lyons. Photo: Joe Armao

''I've had a few emotional moments, but I've kept it in control,'' said Mr Lyons, who stressed that the final vote was not yet certain and that preferences could still in theory see him lose the ballot.

However, assuming he won the poll, Mr Lyons said he would launch into the role on Wednesday, and work closely with Geelong's 12 ward councillors.

''He clearly has a mandate,'' said one of those councillors, Jan Farrell. And the change from the former mayor could not be starker, she said: ''We've gone from a non-drinking, strong Christian and we are going to someone who owns pubs and clubs and is incredibly flamboyant. It's going to be interesting.''

Mr Lyons was not the preferred candidate of either the Liberal Party, of which he is a member, or the local Committee for Geelong. But he looked to have easily defeated their preferred candidate Ken Jarvis, who was trailing in third position in the poll on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Lyons grew up in Geelong and worked as a photographer at newspapers there before launching his career in London. He now owns the Home House nightclub and the Elephant and Castle and Eureka hotels in Geelong, and the Growlers restaurant in Torquay.

Cr Farrell said the Committee for Geelong - which pushed for a directly elected mayor model like Melbourne City Council - would be sorely disappointed by the result.

Geelong property and fruit entrepreneur Frank Costa said Mr Lyons had won by ''quite a margin''.

''I would have preferred Ken Jarvis, he was the man I felt had the credentials,'' Mr Costa said. But Mr Lyons was ''definitely the people's choice,'' he said, ''so we've all got to get behind him.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/darryn-lyons-looks-all-but-certain-to-be-voted-geelongs-second-directly-elected-mayor-20131124-2y435.html#ixzz2lblxciQg

And now it's official.  Yes, he has won, doubled the votes of his nearest rival.  I wonder if youth, energy, and flamboyance will make Geelong a better place to live!

39 Denman Street tennis courts

from w
At 39 Denman Street East Geelong, the auction sign is up, a humungus sign, huge, and it straddles the path to the tennis club! I went over there this afternoon and talked with one of the young women inside the clubroom and she is devastated that our protest was not fruitful. The auction isn't even going to be on our tennis club property but up in Melbourne at an elitist function centre, Leonda on Yarra. We live very close by, so here's a picture of OUR house too. The estate agent said they expect the sale to go to about $800,000 which of course breaks the protocol of the Uniting Church Property group who said they wouldn't touch anything of less value than $1 million.'

Spy versus spy versus spy

from w
In Sydney Morning Herald.  It's all a beat-up I reckon.  A spy would surely just say 'It's my job!' There's nothing new in it all, - it just happens and USA spies butt in too of course.
Remember the Mad magazine we used to read many years ago - perhaps it's still going. There was often a cartoon page on spy versus spy.

Spy vs Spy

Spy vs. Spy is a wordless black and white comic strip that has been published in Mad magazine since January, 1961. It was created byAntonio Prohías, a Cuban national who fled to the United States on May 1, 1960, 3 days before Fidel Castro took over the last of the Cuban free press. The comic features two spies, Black and White, who are constantly warring against each other, and coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways of doing away with the other.

Abbott refuses to apologise for spying

November 20, 2013 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom

Canberra: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to apologise for the Rudd government spying on the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, despite an escalating feud with Jakarta.
“Every government gathers information and … every government knows that every other government gathers information,” Mr Abbott said in a speech in Parliament on Tuesday.
“Australia should not be expected to apologise for the steps we take to protect our country now or in the past.”
Nor should foreign governments “be expected to apologise for the similar steps that they have taken,” the Prime Minister added, repeating his earlier comments that Australia’s spying was done to “help our friends and allies, not to harm them”.
Mr Abbott’s statement followed a series of angry tweets from the Indonesia President overnight and on Tuesday, in which he attacked Mr Abbott’s public remarks over the spying scandal as showing insufficient remorse, continuing Jakarta’s display of outrage in response to revelations on Monday that his personal mobile phone and those of his close circle had been targeted by Australian spies.
-Sydney Morning Herald

Art in Geelong have a great website

from w
An excellent and comprehensive website has been set up in Geelong with numerous photos of art work - paintings, etchings, pottery, installations etc. from recent and current exhibitions in galleries in Geelong and the Bellarine region.  Go to http://artingeelong.com/  and check out the notes and pictures.  Here is a sample:

Running in Geelong

from w
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day - for running. Now, I can't run at all these days but we did see lots of people, mainly young, wearing the Geelong Run T-shirts as we were leaving Geelong to drive to Altona Meadows yesterday morning. A huge event for Geelong.And there was also a Cancer Awareness run in Melbourne and many of the Altona Meadows/Laverton church people were in that one, including Sue the minister who still wore her Cancer Awareness T-shirt as she led worship after 10 a.m. Way to go.

From Addie:

MORE than 12,000 runners, walkers and rollers made their way through Geelong under azure skies yesterday, for the fifth annual Run Geelong.

A sea of white and blue T-shirts filled the city in the morning, as people of all ages and abilities came together to raise funds for the redevelopment of Geelong Hospital's special care nursery.

Serious athletes, recreational runners and regular Joes participated in the six and 12 kilometre runs, and six kilometre walk. Most wore the standard issue Run Geelong T-shirts but some added a splash of colour and a bit of fun with face paint and novelty costumes.

An estimated 20,000 people competed in or attended the event, raising a record $532,156 for the hospital appeal.

Selling Geelong South property by auction in Melbourne

from w
And on another website is listed the 21 properties in the Uniting Church firesale.  Here is their picture of Geelong South Uniting Church property which includes the main offices of Uniting Care - the welfare for the Geelong region.

And this is how the whole portfolio of the fire sale has been written up.

About 21 Properties

Auction Portfolio Summary

The sale of these 21 properties is an exciting and extremely rare offering to the Victorian property market and is unlikely to be repeated. It provides an opportunity for buyers to acquire one or multiple properties. The properties are situated throughout metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong and Regional Victoria.

Auction Details

Venue
The auction will be held at Leonda by the Yarra, 2 Wallen Road, Hawthorn VIC.

Date
Wednesday 11 December from 10.00am.

Sale Order
The official order of sale will be finalised closer to this auction date and will be communicated to all enquiring parties.

Registration
Parties wishing to bid at the auction will be required to register and will receive a bidding ‘paddle’ with a designated number. Registrations are accepted prior to OR on the auction day.

39 Denman Street tennis courts up for auction

from w
Despite our passionate plea not to sell our Geelong East tennis courts, the grass roots churches in the east of Geelong City have been thoroughly let down by the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. Despite our arguments that sports ministry is very important, the debt concerning a foolish development in Melbourne - not our fault at all - has to be paid by a 'pin the tail on the donkey' kind of method - picking on  congregations rather than Head Office. And the auction will not even take place on site so that neighbours and tennis players cannot even protest! Perhaps a wealthy person will buy it, built units or something after destroying our excellent tennis club site and abandoning sixty active players including many children.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-residential+land-vic-east+geelong-200734603

39 Denman Street East Geelong Vic 3219

• Show Page Visits
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• Contact Agent
• Residential Land

Promote my property

Auction: Wed 11-Dec-13 10:00AM

Colliers International - Melbourne East

Level 3, Building 3, 195 Wellington Road

Clayton, Vic 3168

• Property Type:Residential Land
• Crossover:none
• Land Size:2440 m² (approx)

• 39 Denman Street East Geelong

  21 Properties 1 Day Never To Be Repeated
  Colliers International is delighted to offer this sensational property as part of a 21 property portfolio of which a similar offering will never be repeated. The portfolio consists of tennis courts, vacant land, church buildings, residential dwellings and development sites (STCA) ideally located around Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria. For further information on this particular property please scroll below and for information on all properties in the portfolio please visit www.21properties.com.au.
  
  Location:
  The site is well positioned, just two kilometres south of the CBD, close to public transport, schools, parks and shops.
  • 300 metres from shops
  • 400 metres from Eastern Park
  • 1 kilometre from Geelong High School
  
  Site Area and Description:
  2,440m², rectangular in shape with a gradual slope towards the rear boundary.
  
  Zoning:
  The property is zoned ‘Residential 3 Zone’ under the Greater Geelong Planning Scheme.
  
  Property Description / Improvements:
  The site features three, full-size tennis courts and a small weatherboard clubhouse.
  
  Auction: Wednesday 11th December 2013, 10am at Leonda By The Yarra.

Geelong Nativity scenes are rare

from w

I'm thinking of making some collages for the Christmas story linking the cross and cradle. But I don't want to make the 'cross' too obvious so just used the shape as a kind of window onto the Nativity scene. Then maybe I could make a larger painting. Toying with the idea anyway. Here I just used a page from a Catholic resource book for schools I rescued from the bin at DIK, and pages cut and torn from the recent weekend magazine. I've been tearing and cutting up pictures since I was six of course.

Some of us at East Geelong were thinking about how to use our prominent space on the main road to show that Christmas is more than tinsel. We even thought about using the brick wall for a mural /graffiti artists space, but contacting the local graffiti artists hasn't got far.  But would that invite vandalism?  Another idea was to make an installation on top of the storeroom with painted wooden figures but who could volunteer to do the work?

Numerous houses in Geelong have lit-up Christmasy scenes in the front gardens so folk can drive around to view and chldren especially enjoy the decorations. However these don't alway connect with the 'church' Christmas scenes at all.

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St Stephens in Williamstown safe

from w
But unfortunately our tennis courts are not. The guys that came down from Synod office Melbourne seemed to be sympathetic to our argument that our Denman Street tennis courts are part of sports ministry, but perhaps they were just going through the motions. Location, not vocation. In a nice residential street. Money.  Anyway I am happy that the Williamstown church St Stephens is saved from the 'fire-sale' of the Uniting Church.

St Stephens parishioners win church sale fight 

By Goya Dmytryshchak

16:42:PM 12/11/2013

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  Message heard: Sally, Ashleigh, Aaron and Madison had their demand met. Inset: Retired County Court judge Ross Howie. Photo: Mark Smith
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  Reverend Ken Dempsey has good reason to smile – his prayers have been heard. Photo: Mark Smith
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  Message heard: Sally, Ashleigh, Aaron and Madison had their demand met. Inset: Retired County Court judge Ross Howie. Photo: Mark Smith
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  Reverend Ken Dempsey has good reason to smile – his prayers have been heard. Photo: Mark Smith

1. Slide 1 of 2

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EXCLUSIVE: St Stephens Uniting Church at Williamstown North will not be sold, with the parish’s victory against church leaders sparking a statewide revolt against the synod’s decision to sell 56 properties.

On Monday night, the parish held a meeting, steadying itself for battle and the message was clear: This church is not for sale.

A packed nave unanimously passed a resolution to “wholeheartedly support” Supreme Court action against 20 members of the Uniting Church synod who were trying to sell the 130-year-old church and adjacent hall to recoup a $56 million debt incurred by the collapse of Acacia College at Mernda.

John Beckman, whose martial arts class is among 23 community groups that use the hall, vowed it would be a David and Goliath battle with a difference.

“There’s a bit of deja vu because I think they’re getting their 30 pieces of silver for this,” he told the meeting. “This is like a real David and Goliath. The only difference is, us being David, Goliath has no idea how big a stone we’re gonna hurl at him.”

When told by the Weekly that church leaders yesterday had agreed not to sell the church and hall, he said: “I tell you what – David doesn’t have to fling the rock at them, hey.”

Church elder and Save St Stephens convener Iris Whitehurst said the synod had decided that St Stephens could retain most of the property, including two tennis courts, with the exception of the manse at 177 Melbourne Road.

Reverend Doctor Ken Dempsey, who does not live in the manse so will not be affected by its sale, said their masters had tried to sell the property from under them to pay a debt “generated through negligence and incompetence”.

Retired County Court judge Ross Howie, who had initiated legal action to stop the sale, said there were other ways the synod could recoup its debt over time without causing the “great anguish and sense of betrayal” to Victoria’s parishes.

Synod general secretary Mark Lawrence said aside from St Stephens, “there were no other changes to the synod’s divestment list”. 

Musical afternoon at East Geelong

from w

This afternoon we tried something different at East Geelong church - a musical program then a nice afternoon tea. Using only members from our church. Just an hour of community singing, some songs with banjo mandolin and an enthusiastic drummer - not one of the kids this time but one of our seniors. Items from our Tongan family - a capella singing as well as a performance with a cello, violin and trumpet. It went well and was a good mix of musical items and interaction with the audience through the community singing. I don't like passive audience events but prefer some kind of input from all of the people. Next year our Worship team will probably plan for about eight similar events and invite Geelong choirs, and maybe poets? Our next community event will be Carols in the afternoon from 4 p.m. onward to be followed by a sausage sizzle. This will be on December 22nd.