The massacre that unfolded recently in the Philippines highlights how important peace building programs are in areas experiencing internal conflict. Ongoing tensions both between and within communities throughout Asia and the Pacific are continuing to create conditions where development efforts are slowed or ineffective. As a response to the growing need for peacemaking programs, UnitingWorld has launched the People for ...

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Alistair Macrae has pledged the support of the Uniting Church in Australia to support the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma. Macrae’s call has come in response to the continuing tensions between the Methodist Church and the Fijian government, which has seen the arrest and detention of Church leaders and the ...

AROUND 270 people from Australia, the Pacific, South East Asia and Africa gathered in Canberra for the fourth annual Voices for Justice Conference in Canberra in September. Unlike most Christian conferences the aim of this conference was not to talk to ourselves but to talk to our Australia’s leaders. After a weekend of worship, training and workshops, participants were unleashed ...

The Samoan islands and its nearby Pacific neighbours are currently dealing with the aftermath of a powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake and consequent tsunami waves which hit the coast of Samoa this morning. Reports of up to 40 people dead have been posted on various news sites. Kathy Pereira, Associate Director (Experience Programs) has been in contact with UnitingWorld volunteers in this ...

Self Published RRP $28.00 (including postage) Reviewed by Bruce Mullan, Associate Director Church Solidarity (Pacific) with UnitingWorld. Only a Woman is based on letters the author sent home to her mother and a friend in the 1950s and 60s while she was teaching in the Papuan Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. When Patricia Riddel stumbled across her letters again ...

UNITING CHURCH leaders made for a significant Christian presence in the events surrounding the 40th Pacific Islands Forum held in Cairns in August. Cairns Emmanuel Uniting Church minister Rev Dr Hedley Fihaki coordinated an Ecumenical Prayer Service for the Forum at which former Uniting Church President Rev Professor James Haire preached. Almost 400 people attended the service including Samoan Prime ...

Tears were shed in Fiji and Australia after Commodore Frank Bainimarama revoked the promised permit for the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma to hold its annual choir competition on a district level. The permit was the Military Government’s part of a compromise agreement where the Methodist leadership agreed to cancel their annual conference and national choir competition if the ...

AS I WRITE this I am preparing to travel to Sydney to attend the 12th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia. At the forefront of my mind are the questions, “How will this Assembly impact upon our life in Queensland?” and “How is it relevant to our current financial situation?” I was heartened to read the article about our ...

In an unprecedented attack on religious freedom in Fiji the Methodist President Rev Ame Tugaue and General Secretary Rev Tuikilakila Waqairatu will be back in court tomorrow (Thursday 13 August) charged with breaching the Public Emergency Regulations imposed by the Military Government. The charges arose after the Methodist Church Standing Committee refused to prohibit two of its ministers from attending ...

A leading NGO leader from Fiji will be speaking at the University of Queensland on Monday afternoon, July 20, bringing a rare and highly informed view of what is happening and likely to happen in Fiji, now under a military dictatorship and suspended from major regional and global organizations. Rev Akuila Yabaki, CEO of the Fiji governance and human rights ...