Features

The Uniting Church in Queensland has moved to defend the dignity and good name of Queensland’s North African Community from attacks by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews. “The government’s decision to single out the African community in this way is deeply troubling,” according to Queensland Moderator Rev Dr David Pitman. “Mr. Andrews has singled out the Sudanese and slurred that entire ...

With an election due for October or November 2007 Journey contacted six Queensland Senate candidates from among the contenders and asked them to provide answers to policy questions. Each candidate was given the same questions and word limit, and their answers have not been edited. Journey asked questions on issues which the councils of the Uniting Church have been concerned ...

A GROUP of teenagers from the Beenleigh area launched a ground-breaking documentary about bullying in September. An initiative of the Smart Connections Program at Beenleigh Adult and Youth Service (BAYS), a Wesley Mission activity, the film Walk in My Shoes is a collaborative and multi media effort from about 25 young people who attend the Youth Space. These young people ...

Prominent and outspoken UK evangelical leader and social activist Rev Steve Chalke claims Jesus never asked anyone to become a Christian. Founder of the Oasis Trust and the Faithworks movement for Christian social action, Mr Chalke spoke recently to a packed audience from across Brisbane churches. “Jesus never asked anybody to go to a religious service. “He did once tell ...

Surprising research from the National Church Life Survey (NCSL) shows that people joining Queensland Uniting Church congregations are different from the people already attending. Newcomers in 2006 were twice as likely to be remarried, separated or divorced and four times more likely to be living in a defacto relationship than long term Uniting Church members. They are also likely to ...

You may not be a member of any church. You may be Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. Whatever your race, whatever your religion, I’m going to ask you to come. Get up from your seats, hundreds of you, just get up out of your seats and come and stand quietly, right here, quietly and reverently. THESE WERE familiar words to those ...

ACCORDING TO Synod Young Adult ministry coordinator Tom Kerr, the key to evangelising young adults is by not evangelising. Well, not in the traditional sense of the word. Mr Kerr says forming a connection with young adults comes from being yourself and growing friendships, not pushing beliefs on someone. Here is part of Tom’s story: “I’m having this discussion about ...

THE CHURCH has reduced itself to being a mere service-provider and a dispenser of sentimentality and meaningless assurance. That was the astonishing claim of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his 1937 book, simply titled Discipleship. While he laboured with a sense of urgency that seemed almost to demand that he write it, Discipleship was not produced in response to the rise of ...

That those attending Uniting Church worship services in Queensland are not bored is the good news story from the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) results from 2006. Questions on the impact of worship on the lives of people show that fewer than 2% of Uniting Church worshippers always experience boredom. None of those over 65-years of age report being consistently ...

In a society bereft of community “rites of passage”, young males in particular see gaining a drivers licence and owning a motor vehicle as a mark of the transition from boyhood to manhood. Owning and driving a car is one of the clearest means of achieving power through independence from the family, and young males demonstrate substantially higher rates of ...