National News

THE RECENT Queensland floods have devastated the nation – but they have also revealed the strength of Australia’s community spirit, with thousands of volunteers lending a hand. Clean Up Australia Day – Australia’s largest community participation event – reflects this great tradition of volunteering in Australia. Thousands of volunteers have already registered for Clean Up Australia Day 2011, to do ...

AS NOTHERN Australia suffers the worst flooding in more than 30 years, Australian churches have moved rapidly to respond to the community’s urgent needs. Flooding has continued to build since late December with flood waters covering an area the size of Germany and France combined. Sixteen people are now confirmed dead, with 53 missing and more than 200,000 people stranded. Local ...

JANINE WINKLER loves reading books to her 2-year-old grandson Judah, but instead of sitting on her lap at her home in Michigan, he’s usually half a world away in Nigeria, where his father works for Wycliffe Bible Translators. What connects them is Skype, the free online telephone and video service, that has made expensive phone calls and lengthy periods of no ...

This Friday 7th January 2011 at 1pm, Australian Church leaders from all Christian denominations and notable dignitaries will gather at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne at an Ecumenical Prayer Service for the victims of Egypt’s New Year’s Eve church bombings which took place in the Northern City of Alexandria and claimed 23 lives and wounded over 80 Coptic Christians. His ...

ON 18 OCTOBER this year the Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, announced that around 900 unaccompanied children and vulnerable families in immigration detention would be released into community detention . Some will be released as early as Christmas, with the majority being placed by June next year. He committed the Government to working with churches and community service agencies to ...

The Uniting Church in Australia and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) of the Uniting Church has congratulated the Australian Government on its announcement of a referendum on the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution. Uniting Church President Rev Alistair Macrae said today this announcement signals the start of an important further ...

DENOMINATIONS FROM every State and Territory in Australia have signed up for the 2011 National Church Life Survey (NCLS). They will be provided with individualised feedback from the Survey that continues to be a rich resource for church leaders to use for the benefit of their people and for planning, outreach and advocacy. From September to November 2011 each participating church ...

The World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has condemned the "criminal act of terror" Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq, when gunmen took hostages in the Sayidat al-Nejat Church. The death toll from the hostage standoff rose to some 58 people on Monday, including priests, women and children and Iraqi security forces who conducted a raid to ...

Feeling dry and need of refreshment? No, this is not a beer ad! How about organising or joining a pilgrimage to a source of water? Inspired by the current Assembly theme, ‘Living Water, Thirsty Land’, the UCA network of people working in the ministry of spiritual direction approached the Assembly President, Rev Alistair Macrae, with an idea. Could he encourage ...

REV ALISTAIR Macrae, President of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, has today called on Uniting Church people to consider their vote carefully and prayerfully this Saturday. Mr Macrae said, “In an election campaign dominated by sound bytes and negative campaigning, I urge Uniting Church people to resist thinking small and instead, think big. This is a time ...