By Andrew McKaysmith, Synod Writer and Content Creator Australia is home to a wonderfully diverse society, and finding a community that embraces this diversity is always refreshing. That’s what you’ll discover at the Logan Central Multicultural Uniting Church. Church elder and worship leader Judy Hunter offered insights into what makes this church unique and why they are committed to serving ...

By Dr John Harrison, Senior Lecturer in Journalism & Professional Communication, School of Communication & Arts, The University of Queensland.  The book of Ruth is a series of journeys. Naomi journeys to Moab. Naomi and Ruth journey back to Judah. The more important of the journeys is that of Ruth from her home in Moab to Bethlehem in Judah, which ...

By Jillian Ross, Day Camp, Intergen & Faith at Home Coordinator, Moreton Rivers Presbytery One of the foundational principles of the Here2Stay discipleship framework is the nurturing of Families/Households as the primary faith communities for all ages. Offering a range of resources for Lent/Easter & Advent/Christmas was one way our church realised that we could support households in having a ...

By Rev Dr Lorraine Parkinson, Uniting Church Minister. It is a fair comment that history is written by the winners. Until recently, the authors of Australian history, from Captain James Cook onward, may well have been described as such. Harvard philosopher George Santayana’s adage: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, bears repeating. As this ...

By Richard Moor, Children Youth and Families Pastor, Southside Uniting. “Our church is getting older”, or “We don’t have any young people.” We are used to these comments. You have probably been aware for a while that there seems to be a problem with our churches connecting with young people. The book points out that church numbers are declining, and ...

By Paul Wetzig, Project Officer – Discipleship.  Over the last couple of months there have been a number of events across the Synod inviting us to consider what discipleship means and how we respond to Jesus commission first given to the original disciples in Matthew 28:16-20 to “go and make disciples”. Reflecting on these events, some consistent ideas have emerged ...

By Rev Rod Fisher, The Gap Uniting Church.  Our gospel lectionary reading for this Sunday is Luke 24: 13-35, often referred to as “The Road to Emmaus.”  It’s an important story near the end of Luke’s gospel.  I’ve often wondered why this particular story was included at this point of the story and what relevance it has for us as ...

The Synod Standing Committee (SSC) meet once monthly on the first Thursday of the month. This meeting was shortened to allow members to participate in Maundy Thursday. Update from the Moderator and General Secretary The Moderator attended a number of meetings, including the Presbytery Meeting of Bremer Brisbane, Queensland Community Alliance and UnitingCare Queensland Board Meeting. The Moderator led the ...

By Andrew McKaysmith, Synod Writer and Content Creator.  March 21st in Australia is Harmony Day, a chance to honour the diversity of nations that have made Australia their home. Rev Stanley Tuilovoni, originally from Fiji, is a Minister of the Word at Kangaroo Point Uniting Church and has established a family in Australia, which now includes four grandchildren. He said ...

The complete set of Journey to Joy Advent and Christmas Resources is here! We pray that they are a blessing to you this Advent and Christmas. Feel free to choose what is useful to you and change and adapt as needed. A final heart felt THANK YOU to all the wonderful people from across the church who have written, and ...