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EVERYONE KNOWS the old adage, “You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family”. The New Testament describes us as being like family. So where is the love when people choose to leave? Faith family break-up isn’t easy to talk about. Yet a significant proportion of members leave our congregations each year, slipping out the back door, often ...

IN THE English language there is one word for love, which we use to describe different sorts of love. However in the Greek language, at the time of Jesus and the early church, love was translated from at least four different words: eros, storge, philia, and agape. Eros is understood to be the love of intimacy and sexuality. Storge is ...

WHILE AFTERSHOCKS continue to jolt the people of Haiti into the terrible reality of an ever-increasing death toll after the massive earthquake on 12 January, Christians around the world have been called into prayer for the nation. Uniting Church in Australia President Rev Alistair Macrae has offered prayers and support for the Haitian community. “Our prayers are with the people ...

O perfect Love, all human thought transcending, lowly we kneel in prayer before thy throne, that theirs may be the love which knows no ending, whom thou forevermore dost join in one. O perfect Love words by Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney, 1883 FEBRUARY IS often known as the month of love. Even from the origins of St Valentine’s Day the month ...

Some surprises started unfolding when a team of Calvin Theological Seminary professors and graduate students recently launched the Post-Reformation Digital Library. Chief eye-openers included successfully tracking down rare Reformed theologians’ manuscripts once thought lost, Religion News Service reports. Another revelation: 16th-18th century theologians and philosophers were brutally honest about their doctrinal positions and emotions, including the well-known Reformer John Calvin, ...

The ACT Alliance global network of churches and related agencies says its members are bringing food and temporary shelter to victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti but has warned that the country’s food supplies may soon run out. "The streets are still thronged with homeless people walking for hours to find food and water. As well as widespread destruction ...

Australian Christians from many denominations are set to rally with the country’s Coptic community against violence directed towards Christians in Egypt. A specially-organised liturgy and demonstration is to start on 14 January at St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, process to the Egyptian consulate and then on to offices of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. ...

Vulnerable communities have been left own their own to adapt to climate change or perish, with only God to count on, because of the failure of a United Nations conference in Copenhagen to agree legally-binding commitments, a Kenyan theologian and ecologist has warned. "They should not expect any significant help from the nations most responsible for historical emissions," Professor Jesse ...

In a first for the Queensland Synod, the Moderator Rev Bruce Johnson has recorded a video Christmas message available on the JourneyTelevision YouTube channel. Or see here. Text is below. Christmas message As the world around us joins the Christian celebration of Christmas, we need to be open to listening to the hopes and doubts and concerns of the wider ...

Tuvalu people are as low as you can get. They are also out of sight on world maps as they belong to such a tiny country, which is, however, a glaring example of the looming danger of climate change. Tuvalu national, the Rev. Tofina Falani, is in Copenhagen for the United Nations climate conference, and when he opens his arms ...