No Haven | Sunday 30th of November 2025

 NOTE — Fifth Sunday of the month...

No formal activity today on the 30th of November 2025 

This extra Sunday of the month is a gift for you to use! 
Plan in that: “We must catch up one day!” catch up! 

• Chat with the Neighbours? 
• Go out for lunch with the family? 
• Leisurely coffee with a friend? 
• Curl up with a book? 
• Lie on the lawn and watch the clouds? 
• Pause and enjoy the quietness of the start of Advent.

The following week (7th December)  will be our final gathering for the year, and we meet over a meal together. See HERE.

Haven | 4:30pm Sunday 23rd November 2025

4:30pm-6:00pm Sunday 23rd November 

Why Jesus? With Christmas coming up soon, we discuss, what it is about Jesus Christ that Christians so celebrate. 

We’ll also do some work on our Christmas focus

Venue: Social Support Centre, Activity Room:3, 70 Mernda Village Drive, Mernda

Haven | 4:30pm - 5:30pm Sunday 16th of November 2025

• 4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 16 November 2025 
• Worship Focus: Gather around the Communion table.
• Light refreshments. 
• Venue: Social Support Centre, Activity Room:3, 70 Mernda Village Drive, Mernda

Lest We Forget.

"Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling

"Recessional" is a five-stanza poem written by Rudyard Kipling for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is a cautionary message to the British Empire, urging humility and reflecting on the transience of power at a time of immense imperial pride and celebration, it reminds readers that the British Empire is trivial and transient in the face of the permanence of God:

A recessional is actually something you sing on the way out of church, at the ends of a service. This is a recessional to the coming end of empire.

The poem is not particularly about war. Kipling would probably have been surprised about how his words have come to be used, particularly here in Australia, in a commemorative context.

God of our fathers, known of old, 

Lord of our far-flung battle-line, 

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold 

Dominion over palm and pine— 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget—lest we forget! 

The tumult and the shouting dies; 

The Captains and the Kings depart: 

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, 

An humble and a contrite heart. 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget—lest we forget! 

Far-called, our navies melt away; 

On dune and headland sinks the fire: 

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday 

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! 

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, 

Lest we forget—lest we forget! 

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose 

Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe, 

Such boastings as the Gentiles use, 

Or lesser breeds without the Law— 

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 

Lest we forget—lest we forget! 

For heathen heart that puts her trust 

In reeking tube and iron shard, 

All valiant dust that builds on dust, 

And guarding, calls not Thee to guard, 

For frantic boast and foolish word— 

Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

Haven | 4:30pm Sunday 9th November 2025

• 4:30pm-5:30pm Sunday 9th November 2025
• Maps and Compasses Maps and Compasses 
• How do we negotiate other points of view?  — Week:2
• Seven principles!
• Light refreshments. 
• Venue: Social Support Centre, Activity Room:3, 70 Mernda Village Drive, Mernda