Cade Lucas
Singing is something that is synonymous with churches, but on Tuesday October 17, the congregation at Werribee Church of Christ will be belting out numbers not normally heard on a Sunday.
“We’re gonna do a few Beatles songs” said pastor Garry Cowley of they type of music attendees at the ‘Come…Sing …Celebrate’ event will be singing along to.
“There maybe a few Australian songs in there as well.”
Coinciding with seniors week, Werribee Church of Christ first hosted Come…Sing…Celebrate in 2017 and Mr Cowley said it’s a great way of connecting elderly members of the community who can become isolated in their later years.
“People get to know each other. We’ve had people who’ve made good friendships with each other and that’s the whole purpose. They may come in not knowing many people but they walk out knowing that they’ve made some friends.”
Come…Sing…Celebrate involves attendees singing along with accompaniment from a guitarist and food, fun and games thrown in too.
And despite being hosted by a church, in a church, event coordinator Brownwen Hickman said it was open to people of all faiths.
“We have a short 5 minute devotional at the end, but otherwise it’s not a churchy thing at all,” Ms Hickman said.
‘There’s nothing really religious about it.”
84 years old herself, Ms Hickman knows how important it is for seniors to maintain social contact and runs a weekly catch up event for that reason.
And living in Hoppers Crossing, she’s noticed loneliness be a particular problem for elderly migrants.
“Many of them are older people, they’ve often come out here to be with their children and look after their grandchildren.
There’s a certain isolation even for them because their families are working during the day, their children are at school, they’re not always happily occupied”
Ms Hickman said singing events like Come…Sing…Celebrate can also help improve language skills.
Come…Sing…Celebrate takes place at Werribee Church of Christ from 10.30am to 1.30pm on Tuesday, October 17.
For more information, visit: www.werribeechurchofchrist.org/
