Seventy Uniting Church congregations will be delivering almost a quarter of a million invitation cards to households across Queensland as part of the Gifts of Time and Love Christmas campaign. Warmed by the cute face of the boy in the box, the cards and thousands of accompanying posters will reinforce the message that Christmas is about taking time to be ...

Worship Today: Understanding, Practice, Ecumenical Implications (Faith and Order Paper No. 194 from the World Council of Churches),Edited by Thomas F. Best and Dagmar Heller RRP: $52.95The commentators in this collection seek to find what is common in Christian traditions, East and West, such as the central place given to the worship of God by all Christians. There is also ...

A new set of worship resources will be released in the Uniting Church on October 1, which give local congregations scope to develop worship relevant to their own setting. Uniting in Worship 2 is a departure from Uniting in Worship because many of the resources will be found on the CD-ROM rather than in the book.  The new package, devised ...

Worship Today: Understanding, Practice, Ecumenical Implications edited by Thomas F. Best and Dagmar Heller.World Council of Churches, April 2004.Worship Today: Understanding, Practice, Ecumenical Implications is an important book for the church in Australia and across the world. It is Faith and Order Paper No. 194 from the World Council of Churches. Its first value lies in how widely representative it ...

Book Review by Rev Barry Allen “Anatomy of a Revived Church: Seven Findings about How Congregations Avoided Death” by Thom Rainer I am not very good at writing reviews as such, but I want to record how my experience in ministry shows the accuracy and worth of the book, Anatomy of a Revived Church. I hope this will encourage others to ...

By Andrew McKaysmith, Synod Writer and Content Creator The Central Western Queensland Congregation has successfully secured grants that will assist the congregation in addressing the needs of the wider community. Longreach, Barcaldine, and Blackall have all benefited from assets acquired through the Community Sustainability grant. Reverend Donna Muston, the minister in placement, said that the grant’s objective is to enhance ...

By Andrew McKaysmith, Synod Writer and Content Creator  St. Luke’s Uniting Church in Hamilton galvanised the local community, rallying support raising over $3,000 in contributions for Breast Cancer Network Australia. The event, named ‘Go Pink in Our Gardens,’ was inspired by their church Chairperson, Lynelle Muntz, a breast cancer survivor. October, recognised as Breast Cancer Awareness month, highlights the lasting ...

And just like that, the meeting of the 37th Synod is complete. After five days of community, worship, encouragement, business and yarning, members are wending their way back home across the state. Opening Worship & Bible Study Dr Paul Jones explored the text of Jeremiah 13:1-11, drawing a line from this enacted parable to Paul’s later New Testament teaching about ...

Exploring the idea of ‘Growing, not building’, the 37th Synod continued into its penultimate day. Opening Worship & Bible Study Drawing on arresting imagery of a tree planted by the water (Jer 17:5-8) Mandy Smith led the Synod in a deep and at times challenging reflection on what it means to live and depend wholly on God. “What does it ...

The sun has set on a long but rewarding day three at the 37th Synod meeting of the Uniting Church in Queensland. It was a day filled with rich discussions, deep reflection, and exciting stories of small green shoots around the Church. Opening Worship & Bible Study Pastor Katie Iles joined the Synod from South Australia’s Journey Uniting Church for ...