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BEING A funeral director isn’t necessarily a job you grow up wanting to do. Journey spoke with three funeral directors who explained that it is more of a vocation or calling than a job. Bethel Funerals’ Queensland Branch Manager Steve Burnett had been attending the Bible College of Queensland in the early 1990s when he felt called to help the ...

ACCORDING TO a recent ABC report seven out of ten Australians die what might be called an ‘expected death’. Yet until recently the focus of medicine, even for those in palliative care, has been to try to prolong life as long as possible, despite the unintended discomfort this may cause. Wesley Mission Brisbane’s Bethesda Caring Centre at Corinda in Brisbane ...

This week will see millions of Christians around the world celebrating the same date for Easter by attending church and again reflecting upon the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What does Easter mean for us in Australia? Is it just another long weekend or is it more than that? For some it may just be ...

Christmas Island Detention Centre is a fascinating place to reflect about Easter! I have recently returned from a Church leaders’ delegation to this remote island where all asylum seekers arriving by boat are housed whilst awaiting refugee and security status checks. Many of them carry great anxiety not to mention the trauma that many have experienced before embarking on their ...

Queensland Synod Moderator Rev Bruce Johnson presents a video Easter message available on the JourneyTelevision YouTube channel. Mr Johnson urges Uniting Church member to think about the gifts and chocolate they purchase this Easter and how they could reflect Christ in the world.

AROUND 50 Uniting Church members and staff gathered in February in response to a 27th Synod resolution to begin to discern a shared direction for the next 10 years of the Uniting Church in Queensland which enriches community; local, state, national and global. This is a grassroots approach that aims to inspire, renew and energise congregation members and Church and ...

U.S. membership has increased in the Roman Catholic Church – the nation’s largest Christian body – but the No. 2 Southern Baptist Convention, along with most traditional Protestant denominations, reported continuing decline, according to new figures released by the National Council of Churches. Both the Southern Baptists and Catholics reported membership losses in 2009’s Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches; ...

Australia should follow New Zealand’s lead and offer Pacific Island Nations an economic safety net against catastrophic climate change. This is the claim made by former Garnaut Review economist, AusAID Chief Economist and World Bank Lead Economist, Professor Stephen Howes from the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. UnitingWorld Associate Director Church Solidarity (Pacific) Mr ...

Patron saint of love, young people, happy marriages, bee keepers and against epilepsy, fainting and plague. THERE ARE many stories about the origins of St Valentine. In reality Valentine was probably the name of several martyred saints. The most common story is one of a Roman priest who assisted those under persecution from Claudius II (Roman Emperor from 268-270) and ...

WHAT’S THE similarity between marriage and mowing the lawn? There are catches in both, but sometimes both are done out of love and some days they’re chores. Twenty-seven years ago a youth worker told a young man considering marriage not to always expect to feel “in love”. “There will be days when you wake up and you won’t feel all ...