I'VE been introducing the Uniting Church to people for most of my adult life – its history, vision, values and structures. I even wrote a booklet called "Introducing the Uniting Church in Australia". I go to Uniting Church agencies to brief boards. I go to Uniting Church schools to do professional development with teachers. I go to Uniting Church councils ...

AT first thought, penguins and presbytery ministers do not appear to have much in common. But, the story of one penguin – anxious to encourage change within his colony – was one of the key themes of the National Presbytery Ministers’ Conference held at Beauty Point, in Tasmania’s north, in February. The story of the penguin related to the seemingly ...

THE role of teacher is a significant one in everyone's lives. In the formal education system alone, everyone has memories of the impression, good or otherwise, a teacher has made on them. As children, we are often unaware of the dedicated professional community that nurtures our progress through education. Now, as an adult and a parent, I stand in awe ...

PEOPLE learn in many different ways. Our experiences of learning are influenced by the way we interact with our world. Whether we are in a classroom, workplace, at home or at church, we are interacting with information and making decisions that expand our understanding of the world. It’s interesting to think that the way we view the world shapes our ...

SIXTY FIVE young leaders from all parts of the Uniting Church in Australia emerged inspired from the Uniting Church National Young Adult Leadership Conference in Sydney in February. The six-day conference brought together young adults from across Australia who were nominated as key leaders in the Uniting Church. It aimed to recognise, celebrate and develop the gifts and voice of ...

THE Uniting Church is a community of worship, witness and service but it is also a place of learning. Our schools are not the only learning organisations within the Church either; one of UnitingCare Queensland’s values is “Leading through Learning”. In Paragraph 11 of the Church’s foundational document, the Basis of Union, it states: “The Uniting Church acknowledges that God ...

On the first day of business of the 29th Synod, Saturday 8 October 2011, immediate past Moderator, Rev Bruce Johnson, reflected on his three-year term and the lessons learnt along the way. He said three words that summed up his term as Moderator were debt, disaster and discipleship. Mr Johnson began as Moderator in 2008 at the 27th Synod when the ...

JOURNEY SAT down with the organisers of Summer Madness and asked them about their experiences of being young adults in the Uniting Church. We started by asking if young people are the future of the church. This is what they said. Stephen Rothery: Young people are not the future of the church, they are the church of today! We need ...

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, ...

WHAT STARTED as planning a simple conference for the Assembly agency The Commission on Women and Men (later renamed Gospel and Gender) turned into a gathering that shook the foundation of what it meant to be a Christian woman in Australia. The 1996 gathering, Women Clothed with the Sun, held during a steamy Brisbane January, is still remembered fondly as ...