Local Church News

After 27 years of Christian-based tours Queensland’s Uniting Church Safari (UC Safaris) wound up operations in August. The brainchild of Rev Aub Baker (at that time the Burke and Wills Patrol Padre) and the late Jim Smallbone during a Synod meeting in 1983, UC Safaris has raised much needed funds for the work of the Church in Western Queensland and ...

WET weather and muddy campgrounds didn’t dampen the fun for nearly 150 kids enjoying the Redlands Uniting Church day camps at Mount Cotton this week. It was a case of continuing a steadfast family tradition for many of this year’s kids, including three generations of one family all attending. Rhonda Lynch has been a team leader at Redlands day camps ...

OVER THE weekend of the 3rd and 4th July, almost 300 current and past residents, staff, and ‘friends of the College’, celebrated the 60th Anniversary of Cromwell College, a residential college located within The University of Queensland. The weekend celebrations began on Saturday evening at Hillstone St Lucia, where guests travelled from far and wide to honour this significant milestone in ...

THE BOWEN Uniting Church Ladies Fellowship celebrated 50 years of their Friendship Club last May. Since 1960 the Club has tried to keep in touch with elderly members of the Church, who were no longer able to attend services. Now between 35 and 45 senior ladies of Bowen come together once a month for devotions, morning tea, and entertainment. Many ...

Moggill Uniting Church in Brisbane’s west hosted its inaugural Family Fun Run/Walk on 14 August to raise funds to develop a Family Centre at the Church which will be open to the whole community. Event organiser Joanne Thompson said the Fun Run/Walk was enjoyed, in perfect weather conditions, by 196 runners and walkers of all ages. Sizzling sausages and refreshing ...

THE ABERGOWRIE Uniting Church in Ingham was decommissioned on 6 June with a special service conducted by North Queensland Presbytery Chair Rev Bruce Cornish. Its opening in March 1959 as the Abergowrie Methodist Church saw four baptisms that day. Dwindling numbers and high building upkeep costs forced the congregation to reassess their use of the building. Event Coordinator Liz Bosworth ...

IN EARLY July Grace College within the University of Queensland celebrated its 40th anniversary. Grace College was officially opened in 1970 under the auspices of the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, later the Uniting Church, with 120 young women coming from country Queensland and interstate. The July weekend was chosen to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebrations of the University of Queensland. ...

MEMBERS OF the Esk Uniting Church celebrated the birthday of their oldest member, Ivy Fox (nee Feldhahn), at her 100th birthday lunch in Toowoomba in August. Baptised at the Lowood Methodist Church in 1910, Mrs Fox has had a continuous association with her church, showing adoration for her Lord in the way she quietly shares her faith by love and ...

The 2001 Tampa incident made my husband Geoff and me aware that Australia was dealing unjustly with powerless people fleeing torture, trauma and terror in their own countries. My own personal faith in a loving and compassionate God told me that it was just plain wrong to treat anyone like this. In 2002, through Buddies Refugee Support Group on the ...

Gwenda Spencer of the Helen Black group and The Gap Uniting Church has been volunteering to help refugees for over twenty years. The waves of refugees she has assisted settle in Brisbane mirrored traumatic world events; first from Vietnam, then Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and countires in Africa and now Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Africa and Burma. The Helen Black group’s role in ...