Magazine

As the Uniting Church celebrates 40 years, we recall the legacy of love and respect between the Fijian church and the Australian missionaries who served there. Dianne Jensen reports. Viti Packer’s room at Parkview—Wesley Mission Queensland’s Wheller Gardens aged-care community in Brisbane—is a cheerful space full of family photos from across the generations. For 93-year-old Viti and her sisters (Bethe) ...

The news can seem awash with story after story of terrorism and warfare but how can today’s Christians respond to the carnage in the spirit of Jesus’ teachings and other passages in the Bible? Rev Dr Peter Hobson explores how the church and its followers can respond to violence and terror. In the years that have passed since the September ...

Correctional centres aren’t exactly the first place in which most people would want to volunteer but for volunteer chaplain Fotuika Ruiz it’s a place where she feels called to serve. Ben Tupou reports. The last line of the service promise for UnitingCare Community Prison Ministry reads, “Our strength, our resources, our blessings and our growth are all found in Him”. ...

St Petersburg in Russia has seen thousands protesting against the return of the Cathedral of St Isaac to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) since January this year. How much influence does the church now have in modern Russia and how much do we really know about its leader, Patriarch Kirill? John Harrison investigates. St Isaac’s Cathedral is the largest Orthodox ...

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Uniting Church, we also celebrate the many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities with whom we have united on the way. Ben Tupou was at Sunnybank Uniting Church in Brisbane to witness the welcoming of a Cook Island community into this vibrant cross-cultural church. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and ...

As the conflict continues to unfold in northern Iraq, volunteers are at the heart of the humanitarian services delivering aid. Dianne Jensen talks to members of Operation Hope, a group of Uniting Church people bringing hope to shattered lives. Monday: I worked in a small container today just inside the entrance to the U2 camp … Three doctors, three interpreters, ...

Uniting Church Foundation Indigenous Learning Pathways grants have helped six Indigenous secondary students to pursue their dreams. Journey reports. Year 11 Indigenous students Bailey of Unity College, Caloundra and Maci of Sunshine Coast Grammar School have been awarded Uniting Church Foundation Indigenous Learning Pathways grants in association with the Schools Commission. The grants were awarded in May 2017 in the ...

I’m sure you are well aware that the Uniting Church turns 40 this month (was the cover a clue?) and it is a major milestone for this uniquely Australian church that came together to live out God’s call to Christian unity. Forty may be reasonably young in the grand scheme of history but it’s still a major milestone and I’m ...

During my research for our February 2017 edition feature article on the origins of the Uniting Church, it was soon apparent there was an alarming dearth of photographs and video footage of the 1977 celebrations which took place in Queensland. There were a few grainy black-and-white stills of the Milton tennis courts celebration we located in the State Library’s microfilm ...

Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria come together with local Brisbane church members to celebrate the Easter journey. Sue Hutchinson reports. My Catholic community of Bracken Ridge in north Brisbane has welcomed about 90 families from Iraq and Syria since last May. These Christians were brought to Australia as refugees, fleeing war and persecution in the lands where they have ...