Opinion

AS WE ARE a very small congregation we have learnt to work in what we call a “community within a community”. The different groups who use our facilities feel a sense of belonging and of community. The making of a community within a community has been a slow process and is still very much in its infancy. Through phone conversations and ...

Church in the Flinders Patrol doesn’t look much like the traditional congregational model that we have become so tied to. Church happens whenever and wherever people gather as a community. Be it a Royal Flying Doctor Service’s (RFDS) clinic at a remote homestead, a gathering of kids and their families at a School of Distance Education outreach camp on an ...

THE DOCTORS told me that I had a close shave with death. It’s not that I had not been warned. Six years ago an angiogram showed that I had a partial blockage that might need bypass surgery if the cholesterol continued to build up in the arteries. It did not bother me much since I was taking some of the ...

AS I WRITE this reflection we are in the last days of an election campaign where the “forward together” slogan became a bit of a joke. The process of discernment and visioning that we as a Queensland Synod are involved in at the moment, Together on the way, enriching community, is not a joke but a very serious engagement with ...

The Uniting Churches at Redcliffe and Samford are intentionally praying for the Together on the way, enriching community process. At Redcliffe we have started a special prayer time on Wednesday nights specifically for this purpose. Some of us were able to go to the Synod office and pray onsite during the last Together on the way visioning day. We are ...

IT IS TEMPTING to stand outside the Together on the way process; to be cynical and negative. What will it achieve anyway? For me active participation in a process like Together on the way, enriching community achieves a great deal. I expect together we will learn something about God and God’s purposes for the world and its people. I expect together ...

Journey continues its exploration of Brian McLaren’s 10 questions he says are transforming the church. This month is the sexuality question. MATTERS TO do with sexuality are of the most intimate human interactions. That is why people in churches have responded to sexuality issues with such energy and emotion. The Uniting Church has established clear processes to deal with sexual misconduct ...

Our Together on the way, en-riching community discernment and renewal process continues. Most people in the Uniting Church across Queensland will by now be aware of the Call and Gospel Values that we have affirmed: The Church’s call at this time In response to God’s Call at this time, the Uniting Church in Queensland is committed to: Uniting in Christ ...

AUSTRALIA HAS been opening its doors to a wide range of people for a very long time. The social, cultural and economic life of our nation has benefited immeasurably from those who have arrived here to make a new life for themselves after fleeing persecution in their own countries. Despite World War I’s creation of a massive refugee problem in ...

Fifteen years ago the phone was ringing as I walked past a desk in the Lifeline Community Services Unit on my way to the lunch room for my cheese and vegemite sandwich. I could have left it but the ringing was persistent. On the other end was a woman in her 30s, struggling to survive, accommodation unreliable, food intermittent. Targeted ...