Church leaders from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in Brisbane last month. Rohan Salmond reports. The annual trans-Tasman gathering of church leaders took place in Brisbane in April, bringing together the six moderators from Uniting Church synods, the president of the Uniting Church Assembly, the president of the Methodist Church of New Zealand and the moderator of the Presbyterian ...

Rachel Held Evans is a young, thoughtful, hyperconnected woman of faith—and she has a troubled relationship with church. Having grown up in, then left, an evangelical nondenominational church, she is broadly representative of a generation of millennials that have grown up in churches but now in adulthood struggle with the baggage heaped upon them by their received traditions. Research suggests ...

On the centenary of the Gallipoli landing, take time to honour the Christian witness of those who took a stand against war. Dianne Jensen reports. Thomas Roberts was only 16 years old when he was sentenced in 1914 to solitary confinement on half rations in the Queenscliff Fort for refusing to attend military drill. The Quaker was among thousands of ...

What could be better than heading off for a weekend with your church family? Here’s a few tips about how to ensure that church camp is memorable for all the right reasons. Start early Once you have booked the venue, put together a timeline. Publicity is the key to good attendance so create a marketing strategy which gathers momentum over ...

Danielle Stott explores how faith can flourish during a season of lament. “Is there really a God?” “God, why do you sit back and allow war to consume countries, and people?” “Why does God seem so hidden in our hour of need?” It’s quite common to hear such heartfelt protests, doubts and despair from people who dislike religion. However I ...

Lent is a season binding Christians together no matter their church tradition, but it is observed very differently depending on where you go. What does it look like for the Uniting Church to observe Lent? Rohan Salmond explores. For more than 1000 years Christians everywhere have observed Lent, an annual 40-day time of fasting and reflection in preparation for Easter. ...

In the coastal community of Yeppoon, Central Queensland, the clean-up continues after tropical Cyclone Marcia made landfall at Shoalwater Bay (between St Lawrence and Yeppoon) as a category five storm, Matt Gees writes. St Andrew’s Uniting Church in Yeppoon, approximately six kilometres up the hill from the main beach, sustained minor damage. However Emu Park Uniting Church (around 350 steps from the ...

Telstra Business Woman of the Year 2014 Anne Cross is CEO of UnitingCare Queensland, the largest not-for-profit health and community services provider in Queensland. Anne talks to Dianne Jensen about her lifelong commitment to building a more compassionate society. What were the issues that really fired you up as a student? I was at university in the 1970s, a time ...

There’s nothing like the New Year to turn our minds towards setting new goals. Here are some suggestions on how to make the most of your New Year’s fresh start. Update your church sign The sign outside your church provides that critical first impression. Will people pause for thought or flee for the hills? Consider the most appropriate use of ...

It’s much easier to be a young person in a church full of other young people, and it’s no secret that some Uniting Church members are gravitating to younger, cooler denominations—or leaving church altogether. Rohan Salmond talks to some young people who have made the choice to stick around. It’s a statistical oddity that one of Australia’s youngest denominations—the Uniting ...