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I WAS WORKING as the Uniting Church Queensland Synod’s Social Responsibility officer when the Fitzgerald Report was submitted to the Queensland Parliament on 3 July 1989. The Report followed a two year judicial inquiry, led by Tony Fitzgerald QC, and went some way towards restoring respect for democracy in Queensland. One of the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Report was that ...

SOMEONE RECENTLY recalled my first induction as Moderator in 1989 and that I’d said something like it was important that people read not only their Bibles, but the Fitzgerald Report – and discover what each had to say about the other. It was not an entirely original statement. Swiss theologian Karl Barth, in the midst of the turmoil of World ...

THIS YEAR’S National Reconciliation Week held in June marked its 13th anniversary with the theme, ‘See the person, not the stereotype’. The event offers an opportunity for all Australians to focus on reconciliation and celebrate the rich culture and history of Indigenous Australians. It is a time to reflect on achievements and to renew commitments to reconciliation. Journey asked the following people ...

“A watershed in the history and culture of Queensland”. That how ethicist and retired Uniting Church minister Rev Dr Noel Preston describes the Fitzgerald Inquiry. The judicial inquiry by Tony Fitzgerald QC found extensive political and police corruption in Queensland, and the Report went to Parliament twenty years ago this month, on 3 July 1989. “Fitzgerald emerged at a pivotal ...

17-YEAR-OLDS have no place in adult prisons, the Queensland Synod reminded the Queensland Government in May 2007, but still no action has been taken to implement a policy recommended in the landmark Fitzgerald Report twenty years ago this month. UnitingCare Queensland Director Anne Cross, and former Synod Social Justice Advocate Andrew Johnson, told the 2007 Synod that keeping 17-year-olds in ...

The Uniting Church in Australia now sees itself in an entirely new light. And it will project itself to the world in a fresh way. For the first time in Australia, and possibly in the world, a major Christian denomination in a Western nation defines itself in terms of its relationship with the people dispossessed by colonisation. This is the ...

Wednesday, 15 July 2009 Rev Alistair Macrae BA, BTh, MPhil (Ecum), was officially installed as the 12th President of the Uniting Church in Australia on 15 July at the moving opening ceremony of the 12th Triennial Assembly, which took place at the Clancy Auditorium, University of New South Wales. Christians from every state of the nation, the countries of partner ...

THE CRYSTAL Creek campus of Shalom College is getting a makeover. The campus, used for Indigenous young people disengaged from mainstream education, is an outdoor education centre half way between Townsville and Ingham. The main campus of Shalom College, a K-12 boarding and day school supported by the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, is located in the western suburbs ...

WITH AMNESTY International groups, Lifeline door knocks, Youngcare support groups and countless other activities in schools, it seems as though young people are passionate and active in supporting those less fortunate than themselves. Many schools make an effort to support their local community, but some schools are able to take that passion one step further. After a trip to Tonga ...

STAFF AND students of Scots PGC College in Warwick have been praised for their quick response to an early morning fire that destroyed one of the junior boys’ boarding houses in June. The alarm was raised just before 3am on Saturday 13 June when one 14-year-old boy saw flames next to the bed of his roommate. He woke his roommate ...