Opinion

Advent, Christmas and Epiphany are closely related. The first seasons of the new church year. A prophet, a few Bethlehem shepherds, and three astrologers from northern Iraq contribute to God’s revelation of himself. More precisely, each points to the universality of Jesus Christ. The signs in the heavens, heralding a King’s birth, was not missed by sheep minders and eastern ...

I had thought that this was the first Christmas I would be spending in hospital. But on reflection, it will be my second. The first was as a mum of a rather sick little girl who we rushed to Royal Children’s Hospital at 5am. We spent the day being looked after by a wonderful number of nurses, doctors and Santas. ...

I have worked for Blue Care at Yeppoon Respite Centre for the last three years caring for others. But it is what I get in return that makes it really worthwhile. With family overseas and interstate, the clients are like family to me and I treat them all accordingly. I am always trying to find ways to make the clients’ ...

Christmas has come a long way since A.D. 353 when Pope Julius I first declared December 25 as the date for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  As a child, I remember Christmas as a much simpler event as we gathered around the tree with the family taking turns to open presents and enjoying excitement that was worth so ...

Christmas, for our family, is traditionally spent going to church, spending the day with relatives and of course opening presents. Although our three boys, aged 12, 9 and 6, have been brought up in the Christian faith, the focus of Christmas was becoming lost with the commercial aspects of wanting and getting. My husband and I thought we needed to ...

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul declares that there is one thing that matters above all else, without which everything else is meaningless. He calls it the “more excellent way”, the way of love. Now Paul would have known that Jesus, in his own ministry, had taught that love for God and for one ...

I’ll call him Merv, a young minister fighting Christmas crowds, looking for a special gift at one shop, a toy another place, a card at still another. Eventually he finds something he likes, or more importantly, that he thinks someone else will like. The saleswoman wishes him a ‘Merry Christmas’ as she hands back his purchase and change. Merv responds ...

The following opinion was offered as the Editorial for the December 2005 edition of Ruminations the quarterly journal of the Uniting Church NSW Rural Ministry Unit and was written by Bruce Irvine: There are some who say that the Uniting Church is a church divided. Divided implies that there are two opposing groups, or points of view. But on every ...

This issue of Journey looks at the Bible, a book written over a 1500 year period by more than 40 authors from every walk of life. Read by more people and published in more languages than any other book in history, the Bible has been translated, retranslated, and paraphrased more than any other book which has ever existed. The Bible ...

In this issue of Journey, with its emphasis on the Bible and how we read it, I want to reflect a little on the Bible as a manifesto for mission. A manifesto is a declaration explaining the intentions, motives and principles of actions to be undertaken. In that sense we can engage with scripture as one of the key ways ...