Queensland Synod News

Uniting Church people are invited to make a Lenten gift to six worthy projects in Asia, the Pacific and Australia. Ask for a set of Lenten Appeal offering envelopes from your local Uniting Church. Make Lent 2006 a time where you share the hope. Read the Lenten studies on pages 9-12 in this edition of Journey. 1st Week of Lent: ...

A year-long effort by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, to baptise 1 million persons is falling far short of its goal. As of 16 March, two weeks from a 1 April midpoint for the drive, the denomination noted that 1555 persons, fewer than 1 per cent of the target, had been baptised, ...

St Patricks Iten in the Kenyan Highlands seemed like any regular local school until 1976 when Brother Colm O’Connell arrived for what was supposed to be a two-year assignment to teach geography. But the following year, the cleric who belongs to the Brothers of St Patrick order started coaching athletics and since then he has produced an astounding list of ...

The head of the Serbian Orthodox church has sent condolences to the family of the deceased Slobodan Milosevic, and urged the war crimes suspect to be given a "fitting burial" in his homeland. "Every person has an inviolable right to a grave and a fitting burial, especially people who, like Slobodan Milosevic, exerted an influence on their epoch, and on ...

The number of people leaving Finland’s majority Lutheran church has increased sharply in recent years, and many of them are young adults who feel the church lacks relevance, a new study has found. More than 33 000 people left the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in 2005, about 70 per cent of them in the 20 to 39 year old ...

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 ...

Germany’s main Protestant welfare agency has announced it wants an independent investigation into allegations that thousands of children in post-Second World War Germany faced abuse and neglect in church-run homes. "We don’t want to gloss over, play down or deny the facts," said Juergen Gohde, president of the Diakonisches Werk of the Evangelical Church in Germany, acknowledging that children had ...

Greece’s Orthodox church has pledged not to oppose a new law allowing cremations for the first time in the country, but said it will expect Orthodox Christians to continue to be buried. "The church does not oppose and has no right to oppose the cremation of the dead for those of other religions or Christian denominations," Charis Kondaris, spokesperson for ...

An Anglican priest who has stepped down from her parish duties because she can’t forgive those who carried out the July bombings on London’s transport system which resulted in the death of more than 50 people including her daughter, has stirred a strong debate on the capacity for absolution. "Can I forgive them for what they did? No, I cannot. ...

While most high school graduates are preparing for further study, apprenticeships, working or travelling, three young Uniting Church people are exploring their call to ministry with a year long traineeship in their chosen field. Tagisa Lale from St Ives UC Samoan congregation is enjoying her work at Wheller Gardens aged care residential facility with chaplains Colin Gurteen and Ruth O’Sullivan. ...