AS we head towards Easter, there is an air of anticipation around the Synod Office. The Easter postcards have been distributed and we are excited about the Easter Sunday call to worship video, featuring the Moderator, Rev Kaye Ronalds and many of our church family, that has been produced in a joyful expression in diverse and multilingual interpretations of our ...

We have watched a lot of episodes of The Simpsons over the years in our house. Mr Burns, the mean spirited owner of the Nuclear Power Plant, has a brush with illness and becomes intoxicated with the drug treatment. In the forest a glowing light appears and people of Springfield gather outside the town to see the spectacle. Emerging from ...

In our community we grew up given the understanding that Easter could be even more important than Christmas because it is the culmination of what God has done. Christmas is an extended celebration but Easter is a huge event in our culture. In Sri Lanka I remember every year we go out on the road at 5 o’clock in the ...

Lu: It means great hope and this hope is a gift from God in Jesus Christ. It’s a time of reckoning as we come face to face with the mystery of God’s unwavering commitment of love to all. I’ll be celebrating Easter by going to church in the morning to worship, followed by lunch with the extended family. Scotty: A ...

THE Uniting Church’s Statement to the Nation in 1977 is a remarkable declaration. Read an extract below. If we look at it in today’s context, it is still current and the public commitment to Church made 35 years ago still needs to be upheld and strived for. The Easter is love theme is an attempt to capture the diversity of ...

World Library Publications, 2010 Reviewed by Karyl Davison. THIS music CD is a collection of 27 songs performed by a wide variety of performers. The majority of the songs included are recent compositions although you will recognise a couple of more traditional hymn tunes. As someone who has conducted the majority of weddings for couples with only loose links to ...

Illustrated with artwork by Jack Bell and with historic photos from the author’s private collection Black Ink Press, 2010 RRP $15 Reviewed by Robin G Krause who worships at the Chapel Hill congregation. THIS small paperback draws attention to a little-known part of Queensland’s history. Fantome Island is one of the several islands in the Palm Island Group, off the ...

A nation paused in grief on 11 March as Japan marked the one-year anniversary of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident that took 19,000 lives and triggered a continuing reconstruction crisis. As Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reminded the Japanese people that their predecessors "have repeatedly risen up from crises," faith communities throughout the country remembered the victims through prayer ...

THE national Assembly of the Uniting Church has developed a new online worship resource called Songs that Unite. Songs that Unite is a music website that supports the production and distribution of music resources to the wider church community and has a focus on serving those who are preparing a service of worship. The idea stemmed from the 2009/10 Assembly-run ...

FEBRUARY was a month of celebration at Paradise Point Uniting Church on the Gold Coast. In a growing congregation of 150, a total of 26 newly confirmed members and members-in-association were recognised during worship led by Rev Col Shenfield on 5 February. A further nine new confirmed members were recognised on 12 February. The congregation also celebrated the 20th anniversary ...