Opinion

On Sunday 28 November 1993 while driving to Giru to conduct the 9.30am worship servce I was involved in a vehicle accident. I was told that the engine came through the firewall – whatever that means – and the driver’s door had to be cut open to release me. I was initially attended to in Ayr but within 24 hours ...

Uniting Church Queensland Synod Vision for Mission Advocate Rev Duncan Macleod has a personal investment in road safety. His 18 month old daughter was hit by a car and killed in 1992. The driver was traveling at ten kilometers over the speed limit. It’s difficult to watch some of the commercials that show similar scenarios. The agony is all too ...

Synod can be a pretty emotional time. When things are going well it’s a bit like being on a natural high. All is well with the world, faith is encouraged, and hope runs amok. When things are going badly, or even just badly from my point of view, it is hard to stay optimistic, easy to be discouraged and tempting ...

On the Sunday morning of Synod I preached on the theme, “Running Free”.  It was a sermon about the sinful burdens we choose to carry and how, as a result, our lives and relationships are inevitably damaged. It was also a clear declaration of the good news that in Jesus Christ we can know the reality of forgiveness and new ...

IN LATE 1847, Karl Marx and his fellow communitarians were accused by some of the bourgeois elite of undermining the most fundamental of social institutions – private property and the family. His response was characteristically scathing, and ingenious: “You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done ...

Singing songs of praise in the streets of Sydney… that’s what we did as we converged on the Town Hall on 22 June 1977 for the service of worship, thanksgiving and commitment that inaugurated the Uniting Church in Australia. This was a never to be forgotten moment, a once in a lifetime event. Joined by representatives of other communions and ...

I migrated to Australia from South Africa and took up a placement as Minister of the Word at Indooroopilly in January 2003. Now in my fifth year, I have come to appreciate many things about the Uniting Church in Australia. I appreciate the hospitality that welcomes the stranger – we were warmly accepted and embraced as a new family to ...

I was baptised into the Uniting Church as an infant and as I grew up I was blissfully unaware of its history. I grew up naive to the distinctions between denominations. I had a strong sense of all Christians being united through Christ. This was never the explicit teaching but was the vibe I received and because of this I ...

Last weekend the Moderator of the Queensland Synod Rev Dr David Pitman participated in various church and community-related activities as part of the Festival of the Wind, organised by Tourism Chaplain, the Rev Terry Ayling, in the Whitsunday’s.  These events related to both the Christian celebration of Pentecost as well as remembering that Captain Cook named the Whitsunday Passage and Pentecost Island ...

My son just got his first job. He started his apprenticeship as a hairdresser and he loves his work. He’s a great people person, and his boss says he’s a natural. But one question that nags him: “Why do people make such a big deal out of me being a man in this job?” We often ponder this question together ...