Features

A Blue Care evaluation report has revealed widespread enthusiasm among staff about the physical and psychosocial benefits of Nintendo Wii use in aged and community care services. Data collected from 53 Blue Care services throughout Queensland and northern New South Wales has shown young disabled clients and able elderly clients benefit most from the use of the technology. Blue Care ...

New York, 11 June U.S. "mega-churches" – predominately large Protestant or Pentecostal churches, many without denominational affiliation – attract more younger and unmarried members than smaller and more established Protestant churches, a new study concludes. A survey issued on 9 June of 24 900 people who attend services at 12 U.S. mega-churches, found that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of those ...

By Mardi Lumsden PEOPLE GO into teaching professions for many reasons. Perhaps they were inspired by a great teacher or determined that they could do better than a teacher they didn’t like. But coming in contact with so many young people every day creates a special duty for teachers. It is more than a duty of care. For many, it ...

What does it mean to be a Christian School (or Church school) and is there a difference? Is it about an educational organisation based on values such as care and respect, or is it something more than that? With more than 12 000 Queensland students and almost 2000 staff going through the gates of just the Uniting Church schools each ...

A fresh exploration of the Beatitudes of Jesus is emerging as a grass roots international movement, starting in Queensland. Plan Be author Dave Andrews worked with the Bible Society Queensland to launch a new collection of resources at Easterfest in Toowoomba. The We Can Be concept is based on a modified version of the serenity prayer: “Lord, grant me the ...

“Unchecked greed” and “extreme capitalism” are responsible for the Global Financial Crisis, said Rev Elenie Poulos, National Director of UnitingJustice Australia. In March Ms Poulos visited Matanzas, on the northern coast of Cuba, as a member of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), an advisory body of the World Council of Churches. The CCIA, which advocates on ...

UnitingWorld has today launched an emergency appeal to respond to the ‘humanitarian crisis’ unfolding in Sri Lanka. This appeal is in response to desperate pleas for assistance from Uniting Church partners in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Uniting Church members following the recent military victory over the LTTE. Within the Church, Tamil and Sinhalese members have spoken of their anguish ...

IN HIS book Beyond the Boundary, Christian ethicist Dr Noel Preston AM explains that the essence of love, and therefore charity, is deeper than we may realise. “Perhaps the core of loving … is to understand the needs of another being and to be actively willing to meet those needs,” Dr Preston said. Director of UnitingCare’s Centre for Social Justice ...

IN THE King James Version of 1 Corinthians 13:13, we are told to uphold faith, hope, and charity. “But the greatest of these is charity.” The Apostle Paul and the members of the early church strived to live as Jesus had lived. Paul, particularly in 1 Corinthians, encouraged people to look at the life of Jesus as an example of ...

“I SEE A cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.” (1 Kings 18:44 ) Elijah might have been standing near Bedourie late last year near the end of four years without a wet season. Drought had crippled both properties and people throughout northwest Queensland. But by Easter 2009, the area was struggling to recover from floods. Some rain may have ...