Bruce Mullan looks at two very different churches with a great partnership. The United Church in Solomon Islands Guadalcanal Circuit and Beenleigh Regional Uniting Church in Logan have nothing much in common except a partnership which has been inspirational and transformative for both churches. Stephen Haase first travelled with two others from Beenleigh to the remote village of Koleasi in ...

We interviewed Betty about her life and faith on Friday 27 June and sadly advise that since this article was written and went to print Betty has passed away. We have been informed that Betty did have the opportunity to read the article before her passing. She died on Wednesday 6 August 2014 after a short illness. How does a self-described shy ...

A partnership between two churches in Ipswich and East Timor is helping change lives in both places. Mardi Lumsden reports. Glebe Road Uniting Church in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, has a long partnership with East Timor. When members, including Noela and Noel Rothery, experienced Timor for themselves through a UnitingWorld InSolidarity trip in 2010 they understood how a partnership could ...

The 2014 Budget was a major concern for the Uniting Church and its agencies. Mardi Lumsden reports. The federal government’s 2014 Budget was met with frustration and concern by many different parts of the Uniting Church in Australia in May. Uniting Church President Rev Dr Andrew Dutney said the church’s main concern is how Australia’s most vulnerable are affected by ...

Church aid workers in the Solomon Islands are struggling to care for tens of thousands of people affected by deadly flooding in early April. Mardi Lumsden reports. Flash floods tore through the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara and the Guadalcanal Province on 4 April after days of torrential rain, strong winds and rough seas, leaving up to 50 000 people homeless and ...

For many Uniting Church members Lent is a time for spiritual reflection and for participating in Bible study. Lent gives us a special focus in the journey towards Easter as we observe the death of Christ and the celebration of resurrection, writes Neil Thorpe. In the early Church, Lent was a time of preparation for the baptisms which would take ...

The Christian tradition of giving something up for Lent could provide a new perspective on life and faith. Dianne Jensen talks to families about Lent Event. Uniting Church congregations don’t have much corporate memory when it comes to the Lenten practice of undertaking 40 days of repentance and self-denial, culminating in the joy of Easter Sunday. Frankly, it’s been a ...

When Cyclone Ian ripped through the Pacific Island nation of Tonga on 11 January, Caloundra Uniting Church member Judy Morrison’s first thoughts were with her friends on Tongatapu, the southernmost island. Ashley Goetze reports. While the category five storm left no dramatic structural damage on Tongatapu, the north island of Ha’apai, home to the Free Wesleyan Church school and kindergarten, ...

Moses Leth, pastor of the Uniting Church’s South Sudanese Nuer Faith Community in Brisbane’s Coopers Plains narrowly escaped death under fire. Ashley Goetze reports. As the world’s newest sovereign state struggles to navigate tensions between the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups, media outlets speculate that South Sudan runs the risk of mirroring nearby republic Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Yet the true ...

The Uniting Church is working to support the people of the Philippines through its agencies and partner churches after the devastating arrival of super typhoon Haiyan, but needs your help, writes Marnie Frost from UnitingWorld. Super typhoon Haiyan—one of the worst storms ever recorded—crossed the Philippines on Friday 8 November, killing, injuring and displacing thousands of people and destroying whole ...