In this exclusive column for The Scoop, Scott Guyatt explores faith on the home front and how families can practice and express their faith outside a church setting. So the evidence seems pretty strong, and multiple studies suggest the same thing: children and young people learn faith best at home. What happens in the family context is the biggest factor ...

The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week. Check back in every Friday to see the latest wrap up of religious news that made us think and reflect. No more shouting to the Lord Relevant reports on Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston’s decision not to include the popular Shout to the Lord and worship juggernaut Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) in Hillsong ...

Most Australians will either experience disability themselves or have direct contact with someone who has, but are churches equipped to be an inclusive environment for everyone? Sue Hutchinson examines disability, faith and what churches can do to be welcoming to all. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, around one in five people in Australia have a disability ...

October, the month the jacarandas come out, when students see the signs and start studying for exams, when storms roll across the land. It’s the month when we start planning for the end of the year and look forward to what we will focus on in the new year. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will ...

Behind the jaw dropping feel-good anthem of the 2016 Rio Paralympics is local Brisbane musician Tony Dee: Queensland Baptist client service officer by day, superhuman singer by night. Ashley Thompson talks to Tony about faith, music and disability inclusiveness. Launched in July, United Kingdom broadcaster Channel 4’s promotional trailer for the September 2016 Paralympics “We’re the superhumans” has reached extraordinary ...

The alarming incarceration rate of First Peoples highlights the long and painful path towards reconciliation and justice for many Australians. Journey explores the issue and speaks to the prison chaplains on the frontline. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull may have recently declared the incarceration rates of young Indigenous people a “top priority” in light of alarming revelations of prisoner abuse in ...

Someone new walks into church. You’re torn between maintaining a polite distance and asking them around for lunch and afternoon Bible study. Dianne Jensen talks to two quite different Uniting Churches about welcoming newcomers. Stepping through the church door can be a scary business. The jargon and rituals are unnerving—and that’s before someone is invited to stand up and sing! ...

On 24 August, community-service provider Wesley Mission Queensland hosted a launch event on the Wesley House rooftop in Brisbane City to celebrate its name change from Wesley Mission Brisbane. But what’s in a name change and why does it matter? Journey reports. For over 100 years Wesley Mission Queensland (WMQ) has reached out to Queenslanders, striving to make a difference. ...

Right before Australia hit the polls on 2 July, Ashley Thompson asked under 30s at Newlife Uniting Church’s Heartbeat Conference what policy decisions they would champion given the chance. Let them stay The plight of refugees and asylum seekers is a contentious issue in the Australian political arena but in the eyes of Grace (13) and Iram (12) it’s simple: ...

Each week hundreds of Christian, Baha’i, Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim volunteers provide religious instruction to students in Queensland state primary schools. Should objections to one particular program lead to unprecedented intervention from Education Queensland? Mardi Lumsden explores. In early June, religious instruction (RI) at Windsor State School in Brisbane’s north was suspended for the third time since 2014. Principal Matthew ...