St George’s Balliang to host community carols and picnic

BRINGING the community together is at the heart of the Balliang carols and picnic event taking place next Sunday 14 December.

Residents from throughout the wider area including Balliang, Balliang East, Anakie and Staughton Vale are all invited to pack a picnic hamper and rug and get along to Balliang Memorial Hall to enjoy the free sausage sizzle, carols and seasonal cheer on offer.

The event gets going from 4pm, runs to 7pm, and is being organised by St George’s Anglican Church, which generally hosts regular 10am church services at the nearby historic Balliang church on the second and fourth Sunday of the month.

St George’s Church has been at Balliang since 1912 and these days members are keen to help foster community connectivity and enrich life for locals, Anglican Church minister Rev Andrew Gifford said.

“We are really keen to see the community flourish and have its own identity because there are quite a few people who live here in the Balliang, Anakie and Staughton Vale area,” Rev Gifford said.

“There hasn’t been community carols in the area for a number of years.

“We will have some local people helping to lead the singing including a local opera singer, Caitlyn Wessner, who will sing two carols for us.

“We will also have Loretta Liston, who is a local person known for her great singing voice, who will help lead us in the carols.

“The Balliang East Primary School will also sing two items starting the carols program and we’ll have well-known classic carols that people can sing along with, and battery-powered candles ready to hand out.

“There will also be puppets for the kids telling the Christmas story and kids’ activity bags as well with Christmas activities in them.”

This new community event on the calendar is part of wider community-building efforts by the church and community leaders, and follows on from a successful Harvest Festival event held earlier this year.

“In the last two years we started the Harvest Festival at the beginning of the year and held it in the hall,” Rev Gifford said.

“We raised $1500 for the Balliang CFA and it was really encouraging, so we’ve decided to also hold this community carols and picnic event for people to come together and celebrate the season, and if it rains we will just move into the hall.”