News

As some of you are aware, our elders and pastors have been monitoring the covid situation these last 3 weeks even as we’ve reopened our physical services at Lidcombe. Our pastoral team met on Wednesday morning this week and with the support of the elders have decided that it would be best if we suspended physical services for the time being for the safety of our congregations and our wider community. Given the proximity and spread of cases in Sydney popping up, and the slow but increasing covid numbers, wisdom and love dictates that we put a pause on our physical services.

This means that we will be suspending our current Lidcombe 9.45am and 4pm services from this Sunday July 26th, and we will no longer be reopening our Burwood 9.45am and 4pm services on August 9th. We will also not be starting our new service at Granville on August 9th.

Even though we will not be able to church together physically like we would normally do on Sundays, let me encourage you by reminding you of the 3 things I shared from Hebrews 10:19-25 the week before last.

• God remains sovereign and committed to us, we have him because of Jesus’ saving work, so keep looking up to him for strength and help in this season.
• God has promised us a future hope where there will be lasting healing and restoration. There are better days to come because of Jesus, so keep looking forward and anchor in future hope. 
• God has given us a community to encourage us and keep us persevering in our struggles, so keep meeting with each other to do this as you’ve been doing the last 17 weeks. We might not be able to meet physically as a large group for church on Sundays, but we will still be able to meet one to one, in our community groups, and in our families to do church together around our livestream each week. Let me encourage you to keep doing this.

So what’s happening from this Sunday? We will continue livestreaming our Sunday services at 9.45am and 4pm. The livestream will be available on our Website (www.gracepoint.org.au/live), on our Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/gracepointsydney) and our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/gracepointsydney) If you’re a parent, our live online kids church program on zoom will continue from 9.15 to 9.45am before the morning service.

At this stage our hopes are to resume all our physical services in spring (early September), and we will be monitoring how things are going in NSW in the coming weeks and keep you updated with any changes. Let me encourage you to keep praying for us all as a church family, for our perseverance, godliness, love for each other and witness in this season; for our state and nation as they face economic and health uncertainty caused by covid; for our leaders in government as they make decisions; for our medical professionals and support staff as they work on frontline; and our wider community for the Lord’s ongoing mercy and healing.

On behalf of our pastors and elders,

Eugene Hor
Lead Pastor – GracePoint Presbyterian Church