Features

In response to the concerns voiced by the delegation from Tuvalu at the UN Copenhagen Conference yesterday, UnitingWorld asks Uniting Church members to stand in solidarity with our Partner Churches throughout the Pacific who are facing possible relocation due to rising sea levels. The delegation from Tuvalu voiced concerns that agreements arising from the conference would not be effective as ...

A Christmas message from the President of the Uniting Church in Australia I wonder how those who favour harsh policies towards desperate people seeking haven and hope in this country will celebrate Christmas this year. For their sake I hope they don’t listen to the story at the heart of the season. They might choke on their turkey and gag ...

IT MAY BE the Queensland version of Melbourne’s Choir of Hard Knocks, but there is something unique about the Transformers choir. A Reclink project, Transformers started in January and aims to create a community for those experiencing disadvantage who have a passion for music. Lifeline Community Care Queensland assists Reclink with the group. Lifeline social inclusion and community connection team ...

KENMORE UNITING Church recently ran The Hospitality of God; Studies in the Gospel of Luke, a 10 session course offered by the Pilgrim Learning Community. Kenmore Uniting Church minister Heather den Houting and participants of Pilgrim Learning Community’s Hospitality of God course explored how true hospitality is less about over-catering and more about abundance. The course used Brendan Byrne’s book ...

AUTHOR, PASTOR, and leader of the emerging church movement, Brian McLaren visited Australia in October to challenge people to think about their faith and its relation to the world. As a guest of World Vision Australia, Mr McLaren spoke on a range of topics including some of the main issues he sees facing the church in today: the prosperity crisis, ...

JESUS IS the figure that defines Christianity and is one of the main distinctions from other Abrahamic faiths such as Islam and Judaism. Retired Uniting Church minister Garth Read has a close friendship with members of the Bald Hills Mosque and said that understanding different perspectives of Jesus is very important in interfaith dialogue. “Answers to the question ‘Who is ...

AT THE 12th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia in July former Uniting Church President Rev Gregor Henderson called on Uniting Church members to take up the challenge of building interfaith relationships. Speaking at the launch of the Relations with Other Faiths (ROF) website and DVD, Mr Henderson said: “The 21st Century has to be a century of increasing ...

“WITHOUT EACH other we are impoverished.” Those are the words of the World Council of Churches (WCC) inviting churches to continue their journey together “as a further step towards full visible unity”, adopted at their 9th Assembly in 2006. The Uniting Church is one of the churches on a journey to unity. It is easy to forget the massive achievement ...

New York, 23 October (ENI) The number of Americans who are praying is increasing at the same time as more of them say they have no formal religious affiliation, a study of religious trends has found. The dynamic represents an "apparent shift in patterns of spiritual practice and identity away from the familiar institutions," Omar M. McRoberts, a University of ...

THE JOURNEY letters section continues to have lively discussion in response to our February edition Who is Jesus? and the review of Who on Earth was Jesus? a book by Quaker and humanist author David Boulton. Mr Boulton was in Australia in September to speak at the SoFiA conference in Toowoomba. Journey spoke with Mr Boulton as well as Centenary ...