At Parramatta Mission, it's all inclusive

Parramatta Mission's vision is to be a community where all people are included, valued and enabled.

It's a vision that extends, through its community services work and congregational life, from Auburn to Lithgow.

It also involves reaching out to vulnerable people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds - many of whom have critical health and welfare needs.
Leigh Memorial congregation member, Greta Blow, remembers experiencing Parramatta Mission's special brand of inclusiveness when she first ventured there 18 years ago.

"Within a few days of us attending worship, we got a 'Thank you for coming, we hope you might come again' letter, which was very special," she says.

An elder for more than a decade, she passed that welcome on.

"Because we're a mission, it's very open, everyone's welcome, there's no bars to anyone. We welcome everybody and I just love that, because I think that's what we're meant to do."

Greta says that, with Parramatta Mission's new general manager Chris Burtinshaw at the helm, the Leigh Memorial congregation also hears more about how the mission is serving people in the community.

And there's certainly a lot to tell.

Parramatta Mission's many services - provided in partnership with governments, community organisations and individuals - help people in crisis, people living with mental illness and people who are homeless.

Services include a Meals Plus program, which serves 55,000 meals each year, Lifeline Western Sydney, which operates a 24-hour seven-day crisis counselling service answering 1,200 calls each week, Thelma Brown Cottage Refuge for women and children (often fleeing violence), and Parahouse and Hope Hostel, both providing crisis accommodation.

Parramatta Mission, through UnitingCare Mental Health, is also one of the largest providers of support for people living with mental illness in Western Sydney.

Its Leisure Club serves 370 clients and 100 carers through its quarterly program of activities filled with everything from karaoke, picnics, day trips and holidays.
Jim Hannelly, Team Leader at the club, says its programs encourage people to try to take control of their illness as best they can - providing socialisation, exposure to the community and advocacy.

This year, sewing machines were introduced into to the club.

Girls, who had previously been too intimidated to make regular use of the space, were now rearranging their shifts at work to spend more time at the club learning to sew.

"For a lot of people," says Jim, "all they need is a little bit of self confidence and a little bit of a push in the right direction and away they go - and they don't look back!"

Mental health on agenda
UnitingCare Mental Health's Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI), jointly funded by the NSW Department of Health and NSW Department of Housing in partnership with Parramatta Mission, provides assistance to people with serious mental illness.

This includes help with medication, meal preparation, budget planning, accessing the community, linking with friends, travel training and referrals to places like the Parramatta Mission Leisure Club.

"Without our support, these people will most likely end up in long-term hospital beds," Team leader Simon Besley says.

The cultural diversity in western Sydney means it is important to be culturally sensitive and in constant communication with the Transcultural Mental Health Centre.

HASI is also working with the Daruk Aboriginal Community medical service to find a HASI model that fits indigenous culture.

Caring for mental health "carers" is a new challenge facing the Mission but it's a challenge Family and Carer Mental Health Program Team leader Sarah Joy finds exciting.

"When carers come to us we will be trying to find out where they are at and what they are wanting so that we can put them in a program that is suitable," she said.

"Mental health is a huge issue at a state and federal level right now. It follows that some thought is going into acknowledging the role that carers play. I think carers across the board save the government a lot of money.

"Acknowledging and respecting their role is important, but we also need to support them well in the work that they do."

Multicultural church

Greta Blow says that the congregation at Leigh Memorial, attracting about 80 to 100 worshippers to a morning service, has changed over time.
"It's now a bit smaller and more multicultural, which I love."

The Rev. Martin Goodwin, who served the Mission since December 2003, was farewelled at a closure of ministry service on May 20.

"We praise God for Martin's leadership and ministry over the past three-and-a-half years," says Leigh Congregation Elders Council Chairperson Robert Key.

The Rev. Il-Woong Kim, who leads a Korean faith community of about 25 to 30 regular worshippers at Leigh Memorial, said it's one of his passions to be part of such a multicultural church.

The Rev. Veitinia Waqabaca ministers with three Parramatta Mission congregations: Westmead, Parramatta and Ermington (both Fijian).

At Parramatta Fijian, change is being spearheaded by youth and the Sunday school using music and a newly-formed band to draw young people to a congregation where adult numbers are dwindling.

"It seems to be working," says Veitinia.

Younger people are coming along and older members who had initial concerns are being convinced it's workable.

"We can help the kids do what they want to do but make sure they are sensitive to the needs and the values of the traditionalists," she says.

At Ermington, young people are also taking on more leadership roles and there's a strong youth group with 16 members for whom good Bible studies are provided each week.

"We've given them a bus so they can do outreach and create interesting programs … extending into the community. At the moment they are looking at how to contribute to saving the environment, which is exciting. They're already beginning to wash their cans and bottles for the recycle bin and switching off all the power points at night - it's good they can correlate their theology with the natural world," says Veitinia.

At Westmead, the 90- to 100-strong congregation is predominantly made up of older people - so Veitinia, who is 63 now but who'd like to stay in ministry until she's 70, says it's very hard work to serve such diverse congregations.

She says she's also been trying encourage other Fijian leaders, with one woman commencing training for ministry of the word in January, another half way through her period of discernment and a youth pastor offering pastoral work with an English congregation.

Keeping the Leigh Memorial building open on weekdays between 9 am and 2 pm is one way of showing the openness that lies at the heart of Mission's vision.
Il-Woong Kim is happy to be one of the many volunteers who help make "open church" happen.

He says that, with the church being so close to the station, post office and library, "open church aims to encourage anyone to come in, sit quietly, pray or meditate during the day".

His contribution joins with that of hundreds of other volunteers, staff and partners who, 30 years after church union, make the Parramatta Mission such an inclusive, far-reaching and unique enterprise of care.

Research and writing by Emma Halgren, Lyndal Irons, Marjorie Lewis-Jones and Stephen Webb.

See www.parramattamission.org.au/ for more information.