The Young Adults Mission Immersion Weekend to be held on April 8-9 is an opportunity for young adults to hear stories from returnees from volunteer placements, both overseas and within Australia. It also enables young people to hear experiences from guests from partner churches and migrant-ethnic communities, to discover more about opportunities to serve within Australia and overseas, to share ...

Indigenous people from around the globe have had a special place the church for much of its life but, all too often, place has been destructive of their physical, spiritual and cultural heritage as the first nations of the colonized world. Seen as objects of mission rather than people of the living God, these first nations are now represented in ...

"To lead is to undertake a journey,"says The Hon. Justice (John) McKechnie, chairperson of the National Christian Youth Convention management team for 2007. Mr McKechnie’s vision for NCYC 2007 is to lead delegates on a journey of transformation. "The noun ‘leadership’ has no content unless the destination is known," he said. "For NCYC 2007, the destination is to transform delegates ...

A US religious freedom watchdog commission says it is "deeply concerned" about what it calls a worsening situation for religious minorities in Iran. "A consistent stream of virulent and inflammatory statements by political and religious leaders and an increase of harassment, imprisonment, and physical attacks against these groups is clear evidence of a disturbing, renewed pattern of oppression," the US ...

Christianity in South Asia needs to be redefined if it is to be relevant and responsive to issues of armed conflict and religion-based animosities, say church leaders from the region attending the World Council of Churches’ ninth assembly. "Why are we not being recognised as Christians? Maybe we have failed to follow Christ. Maybe our churches have become worship-oriented rather ...

Mark CornfordIf I had been asked this question ten years ago I would have answered with something like “the Uniting Church is no better or worse than any other church”. I had a general agreement with most of the theology of the Uniting Church, historically it was where I had grown up, and I had a vague sense that this ...

By Phil Hoffmann MediaCom Education Inc. RRP $4.95 Designed as a series of daily personal reflections for people to use during Lent The Journey of Lent follows Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem and invites the reader to focus on readings from John’s Gospel offering a brief one page meditation, question for reflection and short prayer. It would take just ...

Over the New Year I’ve been reading Jim Wallis’s book, God’s Politics. It’s a confronting book, as you might expect from the founder of Sojourners, but a very important and timely publication. While the book’s primary focus is on the developing relationship of contemporary religion and politics in the USA, most of the issues he addresses, and all of the ...

Morayfield Community Uniting Church has found a new home at the local Blue Care centre. After worshipping at the local Blue Care centre since January 2004, the congregation placed a relocatable building on the site for worship and use as a community centre and officially dedicated it on 23 October. Rev Beryl Nielsen said, “The church is most grateful for ...

Run, Shepherds, Run By L. William Countryman Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing, 2005 RRP $19.95 Poet and priest William Countryman would hope that readers considering this short collection of poetry – both recent and traditional, would take up his advice: …if you have a vague sense that something better is possible, that Christmas may have something better to say to real people ...