Community Meal
Friday evening community meal offered at Urban Life, 143 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood.
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 volunteers provided a simple, delicious and healthy food to serve those in our community.
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.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 meant that we are unable to continue our Community Meal.
In place of our own meal, we are putting our efforts and resources towards the Friday evening Winter Shelter Meal coordinated by the Croydon Hills Baptist Church, which assists over 60 people each week.
We thank the Maroondah Council for again blessing us with a Grant for the support of the Winter Shelter Meal in 2024-2025. We acknowledge the contribution this grant makes towards the meals provided under the Winter Shelter program.
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 June to August.
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.
Our Entertainment for 2025:
Thursday 5th of June- New Horizons Band
The New Horizons Band is a concert band conducted by Brian
Hogg. Brian is a well-known music educator, conductor, choir
master, adjudicator and composer. Started in 2008 the band’s
compliment is made up mostly of retirees. They come from all
musical backgrounds. The band’s repertoire includes concert music
from Australian, American and UK composers, along with classical
pieces, music from movie themes, popular tunes and Christmas
Carols and songs. The band’s focus is “music for life”.
Thursday 3rd of July- Rhys Lett
Performing over 30 years all over Australia, Rhys faced health challenges in 2018 that lead to a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Now with positive outcomes in fighting the disease, Rhys returns to regular performing, singing, as well as overseeing teaching over 400 students at the Eastern Suburbs School of Music.
Thursday 7th of August- The Melbournaires
The Melbournaires Harmony Chorus, the largest chorus of the Melbournaires Barbershop Chorus, Inc. formed in May 1991, is one of the best competing choruses in Australia and in the Pan Pacific Region. Comprising about 40 men, singing 4-part barbershop harmony music performing regularly through the Melbourne Metropolitan Region, they are a professional, quality singing organisation comprising amateur performers, generally gathering together to rehearse just once per week. If you can hold a tune, love close harmonies and would like to join a group, they would love to hear from you!
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)
Senior Festival
Wednesday 8th of October
Brendan Scott
At Our Saviour's Knox
An experienced entertainer, Brendan brings his one-man show that has toured around Australia and America to us again in 2025.
Please note that a barbecue lunch will be served with this event.
Christmas Carols Morning Tea
Wednesday 3rd December 2025
10am-12 Noon
Jenny Dawson And Colour Notes Choir
(formerly Tecoma Sing Australia)
Organist and pianist, Jenny Dawson will play a range of Christmas Carols for us to sing along to as we commence the festive season.
The Colour Notes Choir will entertain us with their Christmas program, bringing their joy of singing to our community.
Begin the festive season by enjoying a special
morning tea and sharing in a time of heartily singing
favourite Christmas Carols – both traditional and new.
ALL events are FREE but a donation
towards costs is appreciated
Spaces are limited so RSVP
- 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.
The Welfare Committee on which I have been a member for many years, supports a women’s refuge in our local area, ALWS and its many worthy causes, other charities in our area, Operation Christmas Child, and, now that our own Community meal has ceased due to our aging congregation, another group of churches providing a meal every Friday evening in Ringwood. We provide soup, fruit, milk, bread rolls every week from our own congregation, and offer our facility as a drop off for main meals and desserts provided from other sources. These are then collected from Good Shepherd House and delivered to the Urban Life church for the Friday meal. We have 4 teams of 2 who make themselves available on a roster basis to receive and dispatch all the food provided every week.
For many years I have attended, with Peter Hoffmann, the Maroondah Emergency Relief Network meetings, thereby meeting with representatives from other organizations (mainly churches) in the area and, importantly, keeping in touch with what is happening in our local community.
I have also been a member of our Hospitality committee which plans and oversees our catering needs. These have included congregational anniversaries, Longest Lutheran Lunches, and catering for funerals and other events as required.
I enjoy my involvement in our congregation as it helps me keep in touch with so many others from our congregation, and also from the community. It is fun mixing with and getting to know so many people, and it gives me a channel with which to express my faith and to use the blessings I have received to help others.
Jenny Lange – July 2023
