Church Goes To Water With The Gospel
The Age
Monday November 30, 1998
It's not quite the Sea of Galilee - but the Reverend Tim Costello could imagine Jesus preaching from Lake Eildon yesterday.
He helped launch Australia's first floating church, a remodelled houseboat, which will ply the waters of the lake for the Uniting Church, perhaps fulfilling a role as ``fishers of men" among the 10,000 population any summer weekend.
The boat, named Chinook, will visit the remote little communities of permanents and holiday-makers around the shores, and its 850 houseboats, for Sunday schools, concerts, lakeside retreats, and counselling services, as well as being available for marriages.
``I think it's a great idea," said Mr Costello. ``The first stories that Jesus ever told, some of them were told from a boat. The crowds were so thick on the shore that the disciples put him in a boat. That became his pulpit on the Sea of Galilee, for one of the parables.
``The simplicity of the message and the beauty of the boat, I think, is retrievable today. Whilst cathedrals and stained glass windows and pews are all very nice, I don't think that communicates the moral simplicity and very profound choices that place demands on us. So I think back to a boat is fine."
Christ criss-crossed the Sea of Galilee, set among mountains as is Lake Eildon, and stopped at towns on its shores like Capernaum, his Galilean headquarters and scene of important events in the Gospels.
The Uniting Church director of mission, Reverend John Rickard, dedicated the floating church yesterday. It was developed by the Reverend Ric Holland, responsible for strategy in central Victoria. For $120,000, he says, the floating church could reach a community otherwise cut off in places like Howqua, Pepin Point, Bonnie Doon and Jerusalem Creek.
He said the boat would pull up, sometimes with a rock band on the roof, and serve as a pulpit or base for activities. One of its first bookings was for a ``clown ministry". It would also be available to ministers of other Christian denominations.
© 1998 The Age
