Local Church News

A partnership between two churches in Ipswich and East Timor is helping change lives in both places. Mardi Lumsden reports. Glebe Road Uniting Church in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, has a long partnership with East Timor. When members, including Noela and Noel Rothery, experienced Timor for themselves through a UnitingWorld InSolidarity trip in 2010 they understood how a partnership could ...

Rockhampton South Uniting Church is reaching out to the community through a program helping people to deal with grief. Dianne Jensen reports. Dealing with the death of a loved one is one of the toughest things we ever face. When members of Rockhampton South Uniting Church heard about training for the Grief Recovery Program offered by Blue Care Gold Coast, they ...

As part of its development project, Forest Lake Uniting Church in Brisbane’s south west is partnering with ASCOF to provide interest-free loans to those who need them most. Rohan Salmond explores. For migrants and people on government payments, a lack of credit rating and a low income can mean exclusion from financial services. Uniting Church member Dr Njau Gitu is ...

May is the month of Chaplaincy Sunday and National Volunteer Week. Ashley Goetze speaks with two Uniting Church volunteer chaplains about their sector’s needs. Health care, aged care, education, police and emergency services, defence, tourism, human services and sport and recreation are the seven formal sectors of chaplaincy found within the Uniting Church. Need and calling draw out volunteer chaplains ...

The mental health ministry at The Gap Uniting Church in suburban Brisbane has struck a chord with the local community. Dianne Jensen reports. Mental health ministry coordinator Jeannie Ballantyne knows first-hand the impact that a small group of like-minded souls can have on their church and community. Jeannie and her colleagues Margaret Shield and Barbara Waltisbuhl have seen the ministry ...

Uniting Church bodies across Australia have coordinated to feed livestock, offering reprieve to desperate farmers throughout Queensland. Ashley Goetze reports. Confirmed by the ABC as Queensland’s most widespread drought on record, Frontier Services and members of two churches have independently taken action to alleviate the enormous cost of providing hay to Queensland’s starving livestock. “In six to eight weeks you ...

The Christian tradition of giving something up for Lent could provide a new perspective on life and faith. Dianne Jensen talks to families about Lent Event. Uniting Church congregations don’t have much corporate memory when it comes to the Lenten practice of undertaking 40 days of repentance and self-denial, culminating in the joy of Easter Sunday. Frankly, it’s been a ...

When Cyclone Ian ripped through the Pacific Island nation of Tonga on 11 January, Caloundra Uniting Church member Judy Morrison’s first thoughts were with her friends on Tongatapu, the southernmost island. Ashley Goetze reports. While the category five storm left no dramatic structural damage on Tongatapu, the north island of Ha’apai, home to the Free Wesleyan Church school and kindergarten, ...

All in God’s time is the theme of the new Lenten exhibition at the Vera Wade Gallery in Brisbane by members of the Visionaries Christian artist network. Dianne Jensen reports. The Vera Wade gallery at St Andrew’s Uniting Church presents the work of 15 Queensland artists who use a range of genres including gouache, mixed media, sculpture and photography to ...

An innovative partnership between Queensland Uniting Church congregations over 400 kilometres apart has resulted in a new early childhood centre serving isolated families. Dianne Jensen reports. The $1.25 million Mitchell Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC) was opened in September last year on the grounds of Mitchell State School with the help of a $58 000 state government grant and the ...