About Us - Ashburton Uniting Church

Leadership Team at Ashy U.C.

Alison Wright

Church Council Chairperson

'For me, Ashy Uniting is a welcoming community of love, trust and friendship; a place where we can develop and share our gifts.'

Galatians 5:22-23

Patsy Donnelly

Church Council Secretary & Elder

'Music is my first love, all types of music. I'm a member of the music team as a singer, guitarist and occasional pianist. I worked for many years with people living with dementia and continue to volunteer as a spiritual and pastoral care practitioner in that area. Always ready for a chat and a cuppa'.

Libby McLauchlan

Church Council Assistant Secretary

Libby joined Ashburton Uniting in 2005 and immediately became involved with Saturday Nighters.

She likes to spend time in the Church garden and enjoys walking, bike riding and coffee with friends.

"In the world ye shall have tribulations.

but be of good cheer;

I have overcome the world"

John 16:33

Howard Hamlyn

Church Council Treasurer

Rev Lavingi Fine Tupou

Church Minister & Church Council Member

Rev Lavingi hails from the Island Kingdom of Tonga. A wife, mother and grandmother. Loves meeting peoples from all walks of life. Enjoys creating new things even with their imperfections. Passionate gardener who often harvested crops prematurely. A baker who learns better from failure.. Enjoys good coffee and chat. Doesn’t take No as the final answer. Faith in Jesus Christ is non-negotiable. It compels me, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” Micah 6. 8

Michael Donnelly

Church Council Member, Congregational Chairperson & Elder

Michael is an artist and teacher, held many solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. He has worked as an art educator in secondary schools, and with students who have vision impairments. He is married to Patsy and they have three adult children. Michael has been involved in Ashburton Uniting since 1993 and has an ongoing passion for ecumenism and the good news of Jesus.

Ken Ashcroft

Church Council Member

Andrew Wilkinson

Church Council Member & Elder

Anne Forrest

Church Music Coordinator

'It has been a great privilege to be the coordinator of music at Ashburton Uniting church these last 10 years.
It has been a joy to play organ or piano for services and on many special occasions. It has been a great pleasure to work as a team with our minister and other musicians to plan services, working with others in leading the music, the band of talented young people, the special services, and joyful Christmas carol services.

Also:

Dawn Sullivan

Church Newsletter Editor

Angus Moore

Church Council Member

Activities

At Ashburton Uniting, we value growing together in discipleship and serving the community, following God’s call.

Activities specific to children and families can be found on the children and families page and activities specific to youth can be found on the youth page.

We enjoy social activities, like our annual camps. There are opportunities to get to know each other better over meals, such as regular Sunday lunches, and occasional men’s or women’s breakfasts on a Sunday morning. There are also special interest groups, including a table tennis group and a UCAF group.

The “Saturday nighters” are a group of adults who have been meeting to listen to speakers and share fun times together once a month, for around 50 years! They are a wonderfully open and welcoming group.

As well as the youth group and AKA (for children), we have three adult study groups, in which small groups of people gather to study the Bible and discuss life issues together. They meet on Monday afternoons, Tuesday nights and Friday mornings.

We deeply value prayer, and have a prayer meeting on the second and fourth Sundays of the month before worship. We also have morning and evening prayer chains – any pastoral need can be referred to the prayer chain, who are faithful in keeping our prayers before God.

We seek to serve the community in a variety of positive ways. These include:

providing accommodation to a household of people with mild intellectual disabilities (our “One One One” project)
providing mentors for a Kids Hope Aus. program at Solway Primary School
a 'mainly music' program on Wednsday mornings during school terms
playgroup on Tuesday mornings for pre-school age children
supporting the ministry of chaplains in schools
providing regular visits for devotional times to the nearby aged-care residence, Iris Manor; and
visiting and supporting residents of the nearby supported residential service, Coorondo.

We also are pleased to run the popular introductory course on Christian faith, Alpha, whenever there is a group ready to explore it. Even if you don’t know anything at all about Christian faith, if you would like to find out about it this is an easy way to discover the answer to lots of ‘frequently asked questions’ in a friendly, open atmosphere. Please let us know if you are interested! More details on Alpha can be found at www.alphaaustralia.org.au