AROUND THREE hundred Christians from Australia, the Pacific, South East Asia and Africa will gather in Canberra from 17-20 September for the annual Voices for Justice (VFJ) conference. Organised by Micah Challenge, a coalition of over 30 aid and development agencies including UnitingWorld, participants spend the weekend worshipping and training before meeting with politicians to ask for better aid and ...

THERE ARE both practical and spiritual dimensions to the way we relate to the world of nature, but is there an overriding philosophy that guides our personal theology and action? In the West, Christian scriptures have deeply influenced people’s ways of thinking about the environment. But people draw different interpretations. These range from the idea of human dominion, to that ...

TENS OF thousands of Christians united in Toowoomba over the Easter weekend to worship and celebrate at Easterfest. After 13 years the annual event, held at Toowoomba’s Queens Park, remains the largest drug and alcohol free festival in Australia. Fans were eager to see headlining bands Switchfoot, Naturally Seven and Newworldson as well as Australian Christian music favourites the Paul ...

A SPECIAL Emmaus Walk took volunteers from throughout Queensland and New South Wales to Fiji in early May. Jasper Williams School in Lautoka, Fiji, played host to the Australian team as they assisted the local community in the organisation (including permits) of two Emmaus Walks. Bayside Uniting Church’s Elaine Rae took on the role of logistics and IT provider, battling ...

ON SATURDAY 21May over 100 former residents of the Methodist Training College (MTC) held a reunion at Grace College (University of Queensland) in Brisbane. People came from all over Australia and even Singapore to catch up with friends from over 40 years ago and give thanks to God for the amazing contribution the College has made to the life of ...

This year Journey explores questions from the pews, namely from a (fictitious) person exploring faith and the Uniting Church. This month Nova B Lever asks: How do small churches celebrate communion? MY SON and I were driving home from a visit up north and stayed overnight in a small town where we went to worship on Sunday morning. We’re still ...

SOME YEARS ago I heard an interview with a farmer who said he had changed from being a cattle producer to being a “preserver of soil”. For years he had focused on producing cattle as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. He kept data about the amount of fertilizer he used to keep his farm producing. He knew the most ...

Nearly 70 young people from the Uniting Church congregations of Glebe Road, Oxley, Centenary, Karana Downs, Forest Lake and Indooroopilly were camped at Easterfest this year and all were caught up in the chaos of the Saturday night flooding. Indooroopilly youth minister, Rev Josie Nottle, was responsible for 40 young people when the plans for the weekend changed due to ...

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will be web streaming the plenary sessions and special events of the upcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC). The video streams will be live from the Mona campus of the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, where the convocation is being held, beginning Wednesday 18 May. The streaming will be available through the ...

FOR FIVE days in late March a group of people involved in lay ministry in the Uniting Church, some new Pastors among them, gathered at Alexandra Park Conference Centre on the Sunshine Coast for Christian formation, training and education. Pilgrim Learning Community lecturer, Karyl Davison, said there was a lot of learning, forming new friendships and fun. “With keynote speaker, ...