WOW, it might have taken them 40 years to get and organ and they have not got rid of it yet! but they can use the Internet!
The Glen Waverley congregation waves to the Beeac parishioners. Photo: Pat Scala PDS
THE future for many small rural churches was unveiled at the tiny town of Beeac yesterday: a direct internet link with a large city church and a shared morning worship service.
New 3G technology and a communal ambition enabled the Glen Waverley Uniting Church to transmit its 11am family service onto a large screen in Beeac in an experiment that has sparked the interest and hopes of many country churches.
"It's very exciting," Beeac parishioner Dawn Missen said. "We hope it will strengthen relations between country and city. We've already met some lovely people from Glen Waverley. Although we are small in number, we can be stimulated by a strong, vibrant city congregation."
Beeac, 20 minutes' drive north of Colac, is typical of many small rural towns with shrinking economies and congregations and a shortage of priests.
The 1862 bluestone building where the Uniting Church congregation of about 20 meets is the town's oldest building and last remaining church. The Catholics suspended services a few months ago and the Anglican church is now a private home.
Beeac's is one of seven rural churches, from Forest to Rokeby, that have been tended by the Reverend Jen Pretty, but she is taking up a new post as mission and education officer for western Victoria, responsible for 107 churches rather than seven.
But it has an active congregation that refuses to see the church as "God's waiting room", a declining community of the elderly. Though they expect they will never again be able to find or afford their own minister, they see no reason why they cannot thrive and continue to be important to their community.
Glen Waverley Uniting church has a congregation of about 1000 and holds five services each weekend. If all goes well, it will "adopt" eight country churches and share one service a month with each, according to Glen Waverley parishioner Warren Greenwood, who is behind the project.
"Country congregations are finding it more difficult to have full-time ministers, so they are looking for other ways of continuing to worship. This is more personal than sitting down and watching Hymns of Praise because it's current," he said
Technology saves church that didn't have a prayer | theage.com.au
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