Features

IT MAY only be August but the Synod communications team has been hard at work consulting with as many people as possible to help decide on the 2011 Christmas postcard artwork. This year the slogan is: Faith Hope Love (but the greatest of these is love). The back of the card will say “experience Christmas with us” and have a ...

JOURNEY SAT down with the organisers of Summer Madness and asked them about their experiences of being young adults in the Uniting Church. We started by asking if young people are the future of the church. This is what they said. Stephen Rothery: Young people are not the future of the church, they are the church of today! We need ...

ANNE AND Geoff (not their real names) have a familiar story to tell. Highly involved in their church communities, between them they have run youth groups, taught Sunday School, been on the Church Council and even ran a bible study at their home. Then, an internal congregational issue not only drove them away from that congregation, but church in general. ...

WHEN I first arrived in the Burdekin, North Queensland, I went on a listening tour to discover what people’s hopes and dreams were for the church. A quite consistent message emerged; they wanted a church where their children, both 40 and 4, could belong. I suspect that this is a heartburst felt across the whole of the Uniting Church – ...

THE AUSTRALIAN population is in itself ageing but according to National Church Life Survey (NCLS) data, the church still has more people aged over 50 years and fewer under 40 years than the general population. According to NCLS data, the Uniting Church has the fewest members (8 per cent) aged between 15 and 29 of all Australian mainstream Christian denominations. ...

IN THE inner-Brisbane congregation of Trinity Wilston Uniting Church there is an exciting undercurrent of supporting those who have a passion for social justice. Recently, two of the congregation's youngest members staged campaigns to raise funds for worthy causes and minister, Rev Sue Pickering, couldn't be prouder. Emma Irvine-Collins was 10 when she started a craft stall at the church ...

The Uniting Church in Australia has congratulated the Government and the members of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee on today’s announcement of a price on pollution. The Church welcomes the strong package of measures as the most important step towards a clean economy and a sustainable future. Rev AIistair Macrae, President of the Church said, “When the Uniting Church was ...

FOR MANY people music has the power to transform their mood, remind them of special events and even uplift their soul. Dr Felicity Baker, Director of Research of the School of Music at The University of Queensland, said there is clinical proof that music can make you happy and improve wellbeing. A music therapist, Dr Baker has spent 20 years ...

LOUISE TOWLER is a Christian comedian based in Perth. When she first came to Australia from the UK the mother of four lived next to a young woman with depression. “I used to sit with her to try to make her laugh.” One of these stories became her show Big Purple Undies which she wrote about a lady she used ...

STANDING IN a worship service, surrounded by people singing joyful songs to the Lord while feeling like you are in a pit of despair is not an uncommon feeling amongst our congregation members. For June Wood, and many others, it threw her faith and understanding of God into disarray. Diagnosed with depression 20 years ago, Ms Wood’s long journey has ...