Home > Tag Archives: Rev Jenny Coombes

Tag Archives: Rev Jenny Coombes

Letters from Longreach

Photo of dry land in the Australian Outback with a thank you card from a farming family.

Hope was on the horizon when winter rains brought smiles back to the faces of western Queenslanders. Ashley Thompson checks in with Longreach Uniting Church minister Rev Jenny Coombes. Although 80 per cent of Queensland remains drought declared, the Longreach community has had their spirits lifted by the wettest winter on record. “Since the rain has come, morale has lifted ...

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The minister’s partner: life beyond the fish bowl

(Clockwise), Dr Joan and Rev David Baker; Penny, Dr Amy, Rev Harlee and Sally Cooper; Peter and Rev Jenny Coombes; Ben, Lyndelle, Ellie and Rev Andrew Gunton; Rev Ian and Pam Kerr. Photos were supplied.

It’s 2016, the working world has changed and “traditional” marriage roles no longer exist. Ashley Thompson explores what it means to be today’s face of the minister’s partner. It was difficult to find people willing to speak to Journey about the challenges of being a minister’s spouse. Understandably, those who aren’t retired were not comfortable publicly voicing the strains ministry ...

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Counting the cost of disaster

Longreach minister Rev Jenny Coombes. Photo was supplied.

Longreach minister Rev Jenny Coombes provides insight into how we can care for people in times of disaster. One of the greatest stressors in my life at present is having to smile and say “thank you very much” to people who bring goods into the area—toys, pamper packs, food hampers, hay and so on—then deal with businesses who stock these ...

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Opportunities open for ministry partners

Peter and Rev Jenny Coombes. Photo by Dianne Jensen.

Rewarding opportunities can await ministry partners willing to venture beyond the city lights, as Dianne Jensen discovered on the moderator’s recent trip to the outback. Rev Jenny Coombes and her husband Peter had plenty of time to consider the pros and cons of moving to Longreach on the long drive to meet congregation members. Newly ordained, Jenny had asked for ...

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Bush congregations battle to support drought communities

The moderator's visit to Central Queensland. Photos by Dianne Jensen.

Everyone tells us that the country is a real picture in a good season. But as the moderator Rev David Baker, Central Queensland Presbytery minister Rev Brian Gilbert and their Uniting Communications sidekick meet with church members in Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall, the talk is all about the iron grip of the drought. Dianne Jensen reports. Over three days barrelling ...

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Churches respond to drought crisis

Transfer of the hay begins from the road train to local farm vehicles in Longreach. Photo by Jenny and Peter Coombes

Uniting Church bodies across Australia have coordinated to feed livestock, offering reprieve to desperate farmers throughout Queensland. Ashley Goetze reports. Confirmed by the ABC as Queensland’s most widespread drought on record, Frontier Services and members of two churches have independently taken action to alleviate the enormous cost of providing hay to Queensland’s starving livestock. “In six to eight weeks you ...

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