3 August 2009

Curtain rises on new university church

Perth, Western Australia
Glenn Townend/Melody Tan

The first weekly Adventist church service at the Bentley campus of Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, was attended by 21 people on July 11. The service was the culmination of a week of prayer, organised by the Adventist Curtin Tertiary Students (ACTS), who are behind the launch of ACTS church.

"We decided that the best way to launch the ACTS church is through prayer," says Dr Sven Ostring, pastor of the ACTS church. "We are very excited that the dream to establish a church at Curtin University has become a reality. Jesus has always said, ‘If you have faith in me, you can move mountains and you can go anywhere.'"

Pastor Glenn Townend, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Western Australia, addressed the attendees at its first worship service.

"We have a real future when the Adventist Church can impact the places of advanced learning," he says. "I am delighted with the establishment of ACTS church and believe it will be like the [church in the book of Acts] in characteristic, as well as name!"

The students conducted surveys, ran Bible-study groups and workshops, distributed free bread to students and employed three youth Bible workers as part of their plans to become a church.

"There are many other churches on campus but to have our own church here is something really special," says Bruce McCourt, a Bible worker at Curtin University since 2008. "To be able to see people from the community coming along makes the church experience so much richer."

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