Features

Speaking at the end of the 25th Queensland Synod, Bayside Youth Worker Tim Griggs said, “It is exciting, inspiring and challenging to be part of a church that keeps God’s mission and ministry the priority.” The meeting, held over six days at Carrara on the Gold Coast, was different to previous Synods with a noticeably younger age profile and the ...

In its attempt to get the message across, British churches have undertaken extensive advertising campaigns to re-image church and faith. Mountaineer Bear Grylls, model Kim Johnson and footballer Linvoy Primus feature in a new series of 60-second cinema commercial for the Alpha course. After scoring a winning goal, walking the catwalk or climbing a mountain each of the role models ...

Church shopping has really come of age with the introduction of the National Church Life Survey’s new free Internet service, Church Search, a comprehensive guide to Australian churches. Project Manager Dr Ruth Powell said "NCLS Research is in the unique position of having perhaps the best list of Australian churches that exists.  We are the caretakers of a list of ...

Two Queensland Uniting Church ministers suffered personal loss when the Boxing Day tsunami devastated costal villages of South India. Mackay UC minister Rev Satya Yerramsetti grew up in the area and Moggill UC minister Mr Devadosan Sugirtharaj worked in a fishing village that was destroyed by the tsunami. “I have been affected personally. Some of my friends are gone,” said ...

After twenty-four years in prison ministry in Queensland, lay pastor Charlie Greer retired in July confident that prisons were not the answer to minimising crime. “I am convinced there is a better way of doing it and it is not locking people away for longer. I heard the Premier espousing his prison policy and he said ‘what a wonderful policy ...

Caught with a bad case of the jitters after the July 7th bomb blasts in London and the not forgotten September 11th, Australian authorities are contemplating the use of racial profiling as a strategy to deal with terrorism. Racism has its foundations in the belief  human beings belong to different races which can be differentiated by culture, ethnicity, skin-colour, national ...

When it comes to attitudes to Aboriginal people non-indigenous Australians seem to have a massive blind-spot. Despite legitimate debate in the History Wars precipitated by Keith Windschuttle’s controversial writings one wonders whether the real reason in his denying the validity of Aboriginal oral history and missionary advocates on their behalf is so we can avoid seeing or hearing the evils ...

Christian Palestinian Zack Sabella lives in East Jerusalem. Around him the 21-year old sees the Israeli ‘Separation Wall’ being built higher each day. The wall, which was condemned by the United Nations in 2004, separates Israel from Palestine and in some sections reaches as far as  6 km into Palestinian territory. Mr Sabella grew up separated from Israeli’s until he ...

Ten Uniting Church members were thrown into a melting pot of faiths, cultures and languages during a a cross-cultural adventure northern India in June/July. As guests of the Church of North India (CNI), a partner church of the UCA, the trip enabled participants to experience the mission and ministry of the CNI in Kashmir, an area claimed by both India ...

The result of years of work, Making Waves: Dreaming Justice Today has been released as three publications: the Making Waves book, a companion study guide and resources for worship. From Warwick to Thursday Island the book contains fifteen stories from every region in the state about ways people are involved in social justice. There are stories from an inner city ...