Community Meal
At Ringwood, in February 2006 we served our first community meal, a program initiated by the congregation in response to local need. After more than 13 years our team of 50 to 60 volunteers continues to prepare a simple, delicious and healthy two-course meal for whoever walks through our doors at 5.00 pm every Sunday.
God has given us the ability and resources to witness to and be of practical help to our guests. Our aim has been to offer a safe and welcoming environment in which to have a nourishing meal and to meet with new and old acquaintances for a chat. Many of our volunteers have come to know the guests very well and it’s been wonderful to see relationships of trust and confidence develop.
Our volunteers are amazing and we are truly thankful for their continuing efforts. The community meal is an outreach program of our church and we pray that, God willing, and if he so leads us, we will continue to serve him in this way for many more years. As is so often the case, we have been blessed by the Community Meal and all that it involves, too.
We thank the Maroondah Council for once again blessing us with a Grant for our Community Meal in 2019-2020. We acknowledge and very much appreciate this money, as it allows us to serve more interesting and substantial meals for our guests most Sundays, and it also helps towards the Christmas party each year.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35)
Soup & Singing at Knox
During the winter months we promise some hearty soup, singing, conversation and fellowship to warm up both tummies and hearts. We work with the local council and other church and service organisations to provide this community event. It is held at Our Saviour's, Knox, on the first Thursday of the month at 11.30 am, from May to September.
Soup & Singing is about bringing people together. It is more than just food and entertainment. Comfort, sustenance, healing, joy, rejoicing, sharing ... Soup & Singing is all of these.
We usually invite a singer or musical group to entertain us and have enjoyed many and varied musical talents over the years.
Please come and share this meal with us, enjoy the music and you may even wish to sing with us! Please watch this website for details of the next Soup & Singing event. All welcome
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matthew 18:20)
- At Ringwood, groceries are donated weekly to Maroondah Community Assist for people in need.
- Knox supports Knox Infolink (an emergency welfare program).
- Knox provides facilities for local counsellors.
Meet Jenny, one of our members
Good Shepherd Ringwood is my extended family and I love being part of it. I find the congregation warm, caring and loving in so many ways: personally, and within its membership, and also in its outreach and involvement in the local community and overseas. I am involved with our Community Meal and thoroughly enjoy my commitment to that, working with other volunteers and meeting and getting to know our guests. This also involves a meeting with Maroondah Emergency Relief Network at which I meet other church and community representatives working in similar charity situations.
