This year Journey explored questions from the pews, namely from a (fictitious) person exploring faith and the Uniting Church. This month Nova B Lever asks: MY TEAM didn’t win the school Christmas trivia night. We seemed to miss some of the minor details in the coming of God to dwell amongst us! (I’d use the term Emmanuel except some of ...

IVP Academic (Downers Grove), 2009, RRP $33.95 Reviewed by Peter Harvey, Frontier Services, Flinders Patrol Minister. BRINGING THEOLOGY to Life is an attempt to “maintain the strenuous pleasures of precision, clarity, and lively confrontation that are mutually empowering and that keep us accountable to one another, to the responsible reading of Scripture, and to the God we serve.” Author, Darren ...

THE COOROY Uniting Church (formerly Methodist), in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, will celebrate 100 years of ministry and service to the community in January 2012. The original church building still stands on the site where it is used today as a hall. Over the course of 100 years this small church has provided comfort and support to thousands of rural ...

ON FRIDAY 4 November, the Heads of Churches from The Downs region gathered with the church community in Injune, north of Roma, to celebrate the culmination of almost 10 years of ecumenical vision. The Anglican Bishop Rob Nolan shared the journey of three churches that wanted to worship and serve God together. The decision was made to worship in one ...

HOPE IS very important for Prison Ministry; hope in Jesus. Christ means hope to everyone who wants to reach hope. In the prison hope is tangible. Many times when we talk with the inmates we need to share the hope of Christ. Last Friday I was in one of the prisons and one of the inmates said to me, “I’m ...

Canterbury Press. Norwich, 2008 RRP $29.95 Reviewed by Con Graves, who, after 28 years as a psychologist and business executive, switched to a life of voluntary simplicity aimed at reducing his impact on the earth and reducing stress in his own life and the lives of those around him. He worships at Newlife Uniting on the Gold Coast. THIS SMALL ...

The Alban Institute, 2008 RRP $33.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison, Rural Ministry Coordinator, Presbytery of Central Qld & Lecturer in Christian Education, PLC.  EVERYTHING ABOUT a congregation speaks of its values. Imagine yourself walking into a church you know nothing about. If you see children’s artwork posted on the notice board, hear children singing and playing, and see posters for ...

ST PAUL’S Uniting Soccer Club in Brisbane was awarded a State Government grant in October of over $140 000 to install lights at their home ground. Club President, David Valentine, said it was the culmination of five years of dreaming and several years of hard work. The club is an outreach program of Broadwater Road and St Marks Uniting Churches ...

LAST YEAR, the Christmas Bowl raised $2.3 million to help people from conflict and disaster affected countries, including Burma, where violence and persecution have forced tens of thousands to flee to camps on the Tai-Burmese border. The Christmas Bowl is the annual appeal of Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia. Funds ...

IN 2005 I spent Christmas morning in hospital in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. I wasn’t sick or injured; I was singing. At that time I was the Army Chaplain deployed to support about 400 Australian Federal Police personnel and 100 Aussie soldiers who were part of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). The local ...