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THE GATHERING of God’s people in worship is at the heart of the church’s life. Week by week we are drawn together to be fed by word and sacrament and sent out into the body of the world to share the hope and love of God with others. This is how the Basis of Union describes it: “The Congregation is ...

TUESDAY NIGHTS in the back of an art gallery and framing shop, a few good men from the Ingham Uniting Church, North Queensland, prove that blokes can multitask. “We can talk, eat Tim Tams and drink tea or coffee!” claimed David Rowe. This is church where two or three (or at most eight or nine) gather to support each other ...

FOR SOME Uniting Church people church is not a building with the cross out the front, but rather somewhere in the community where people gather to relax, have fun and meet friends. At Indooroopilly Uniting Church, across the road from one of Brisbane’s largest shopping centres, that space has become the local pub. Rev Josie Nottle said their Pub Church ...

WEEKLY BIBLE study is perhaps second only to the Sunday gathering as the common expression of church. For eight women in the tiny coastal communities of Taylor’s Beach and Halifax, the weekly Know Your Bible (K.Y.B.) class has forged a fellowship that even cyclone Yasi couldn’t interrupt. Mavis Spann has been opening the side room at Halifax Uniting Church for ...

“I DON’T know how many times he has jumped off the bridge. The voices insist that he does, to prove he is not afraid.” Rosemary (not her real name), a 67-year-old Uniting Church member, is a mother of five. One has schizophrenia. “Putting your child in a psychiatric hospital is a terrible thing for a parent to have to do,” she ...

CYCLONE YASI tore its way through North Queensland in February but with it came a tide of community spirit and strength. North Queensland Presbytery Minister, Rev Bruce Cornish, has been travelling throughout North Queensland to examine the damage from floods and cyclone Yasi to Uniting Church properties and uphold Uniting Church people as well as the community. Mr Cornish said the ...

AT 12.15 on Sunday afternoon, Liz Lamb and her husband Bill noticed smoke near their home on the edge of the Darling Range Regional Park. Ms Lamb realised the fire was down in the valley, and arranged for her daughter, who also lives in the area, to evacuate to their house. However, not long after, she was preparing for her ...

MODERATOR BRUCE Johnson, along with four other heads of churches, is taking part in a series of six ecumenical gatherings that aim to provide an evangelising moment. Each Living Jesus gathering includes presentations by three church leaders on their personal faith journey. The first gathering was held on 15 February at St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Sippy Downs on ...

FOR MANY years emotional experiences evoked by sense and touch and have been used to create a different style of worship. Known as alternative worship, it is used by Christian churches all over the world including, possibly its best known proponents, the Taizé Community. Cheryl Lawrie is the co-director of the Culture and Context Unit of the Synod of Victoria ...

CHURCH IS like a chainsaw being wielded in an old lady’s backyard. Church is like new friends sleeping in the spare rooms of your house. Church is when you don’t speak English very well and you realise bad things are about to happen. These were only some of the recollections of the ministers in Townsville as they met four days after ...