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Opinion

Unfreeze the past, create the future

The Year of Living the Gospel.

Past success shouldn’t rule out innovation in the future. North Queensland Presbytery minister Rev Garry Hardingham encourages the Uniting Church to continue to be a pioneer in faith and service. One of the problems of viewing the world through a rear-view mirror is not being able to focus on what’s in front of you. In April, my fellow ex-flying patrol ...

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Wrestling with angels

Rev David Baker. Photo by Dianne Jensen.

The last two editions of Journey have elicited comment regarding the May edition cover, and articles and letters about same-gender marriage, homosexual orientation and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The Uniting Church, through its Basis of Union, commits itself to be a church open to the world, in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, as attested ...

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Free to be different

The Year of Living the Gospel.

We often talk about God and our souls, but what about our bodies? Dr Janice McRandal explores how God’s threeness subverts our expectations of the world and frees us to be different. In the world of contemporary theology, there seems no riskier notion than that of the body—what we do with our bodies and how we identity with them. It’s ...

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Faith and fairness in Tolpuddle

Queensland Synod Moderator, Rev David Baker on a tour of the western part of Central Queensland Presbytery. Photo by Dianne Jensen.

After see-sawing for a couple of years, from 2016 we’re back to celebrating Labour Day in May. It got me thinking about the church’s connection to the union movement. One of our founding tradition’s connections goes back to Tolpuddle, in Dorset, England. In the early 1800s, there was a trend of consolidation of land holdings by wealthy landholders that was ...

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Resurrection and renewal

The Year of Living the Gospel.

Resurrection is at the core of Christian faith. Rev Dr Anita Monro reflects on how this dramatic part of the Easter story means renewal for our lives. Jesus’ dramatic story has several acts. It’s not just about birth and death, it’s not only about healing and teaching, it’s also equally about resurrection. But what does that act of the drama ...

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Our larrikin God

Funny Easter cartoon by Phil Day.

Around 1990 my New Testament professor, in referring to the encounter of Moses and the burning bush, spoke of Moses encountering “the larrikin God of the desert”. The God that Moses encountered was nothing like the gods of the empires of the ancient Near East. This God was about covenant, freedom and human society organised to a completely different economy ...

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Handy tips for a drama-free church camp

Dirty dishes in a sink. Graphic by Uniting Communications.

What could be better than heading off for a weekend with your church family? Here’s a few tips about how to ensure that church camp is memorable for all the right reasons. Start early Once you have booked the venue, put together a timeline. Publicity is the key to good attendance so create a marketing strategy which gathers momentum over ...

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Rediscovering lament

Silhouette of a man cradling his head in his hands

Danielle Stott explores how faith can flourish during a season of lament. “Is there really a God?” “God, why do you sit back and allow war to consume countries, and people?” “Why does God seem so hidden in our hour of need?” It’s quite common to hear such heartfelt protests, doubts and despair from people who dislike religion. However I ...

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Reclaiming our empty palaces

The Year of Living the Gospel.

The problems facing the Uniting Church are common to many denominations around the world, and there is much we can learn from how they are responding, writes Rev Orrell Battersby. At the 31st Synod we received some sobering statistics—attendance in the Uniting Church across Australia is in sharp decline. The prediction: continued decline. The problem: failure to attract young families. ...

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Flow to grow

Church planting cartoon. Photo by Phil Day.

They say memory may not be housed just in our brains. I remember that some of my training talked about “anchoring”, that a memory, idea, thought, theme or plan, can be physically anchored in another part of our bodies—just as a noise, song or smell takes us back to a memory of life, so also one of these may be ...

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