The Open Door is a congregation of the Community of Christ where everyone is welcome and loved for who God has created them to be. During the past 22 years since the Open Door congregation has been meeting, apart from our worship, prayer and study activities, we love to socialize with each other and enjoy each others company. When a birthday or a special occasion comes around for one of our congregation we celebrate it! This celebration has usually consisted of going out for dinner, having a party or congratulating the member with a cake.
Towards the end of July this year, we realised it was drawing close to the Open Door’s 22nd birthday in August. We were wondering how we might celebrate this occasion with the limitations that COVID 19 was placing upon us! We have always celebrated this birthday of the congregation with some sort of a party and we didn’t want to stop having it just because of COVID 19.
Our initial thoughts were to just have the congregation meet on Zoom and enjoy each others company with our own party food at home. Then this idea progressed to asking each of the congregation to share some sort of item that would bring some fun to the occasion. And then the idea evolved even further with Susan Palmer, our pastor, suggesting we invite guest artists to perform and have a worthy cause we could request donations for. And to add colour to the party we would ask everyone where possible, to wear rainbow colours with a prize for the most colourful person online. So all the planning eventuated and we met on Zoom on 14 August 2021 with 69 registered participants coming to the party to enjoy the entertainment and each others company.
Just to let people know what went on at the party, I have summarised the programme below. Overall, we certainly enjoyed a variety of entertainment.
Following a welcome and opening video showing photos of highlights of special events held at the congregation over the years, Sheryl Sharkie, an Elvis impersonator, sang some bright songs to set the mood for the evening. Region President Ben Smith was with us and encouraged us to make a donation to Saints Care and the Oblation Fund to assist with the poor and needy.
Narelle and Marina played their Ukuleles and sang two songs. A very impressive poem written by Meaghan Adam-Cross telling the story of how the congregation first began was then shown with accompanying photos of various events held over the years.
David Bryant followed by exhibiting many of the artworks he had painted. PJ Willis sang a song and we then had two strange “gypsies” (Leanne and Robyn) attempt to read some of our minds. Eleven year old Nichola, granddaughter of Trish and Leslie, gave a great performance playing the drums. Lyn Higgs then sang a song.
Spread throughout the concert, other members of the Open Door shared their reflections on a memorable moment they had experienced during their time at the congregation. We heard from Denise Jeffery, Bill Gillard, Alex Foster and Helen Taylor as they shared their memories.
It was then time to celebrate with a birthday cake. It is a tradition at the Open Door that everyone who has a birthday must have a cake! So we viewed a video of Leslie, our resident cake baker, making and baking the cake. The cake was then cut and we all sang happy birthday. Unfortunately, we couldn’t eat it!
The final performance for the night was Benny T, a professional magician, who did some amazing magical acts to round off the evening. A wonderful happy night of celebrations and good fun I am sure was experienced by everyone who joined with us to celebrate our birthday.
Bill Gillard
Member of the Pastoral Team
