World Day Of Prayer

The Harden Uniting Church recently hosted a service to commemorate the annual World Day of Prayer.

Around 30 folk from the various local churches, plus friends from Murringo and Cootamundra gathered as the Ross Memorial Church in Murrumburrah for this event on Friday evening, 5th March.

The service this year was prepared by the women of Vanuatu and was followed by everyone as a slide presentation interspersed with songs.

Members of the local churches led the service which highlighted the culture, Christianity of the Vanuatu people and natural disasters they face. Vanuatu (formerly known as the New Hebrides) is a country spread over about 80 islands in the South Pacific.

Guest speakers were Lorna and Ian Baird (formerly of Harden, now in Young), who lived for a numbers of years in Vanuatu, teaching science and agriculture to teenagers at the Presbyterian College in Onesua on the island of Efate.
Their son Andrew was born in Vanuatu.

As well as the illustrated talk, Lorna and Ian arranged a wonderful display of arte-facts and memorabilia in the church hall which everyone inspected over supper.

Lorna also read some Bible verses in the local language, Bislama. Next year, the World Day of Prayer will be organised by the Catholic Church, with the service prepared by women of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Contributed by Stewart Bruce

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