Queensland Synod News

As part of the Queensland Synod’s commitment to being a prayerful listening church, a new program has been launched to encourage intercessory prayer among Christians. Rohan Salmond reports. One of the first things you notice upon visiting the Queensland Synod moderator’s office are the dozens of photographs scattered on the wall. Religious and political leaders are depicted as reminders to ...

Looking for innovative ways to connect to the broader community? Dianne Jensen finds out why mission shaped ministry may be able to help. Mission shaped ministry (MSM), the innovative course from the UK challenging the way we think about church, will be rolled out to more Queensland Uniting Church members in 2016. “A mission shaped church is a church fundamentally ...

Last month, Christian political practitioners and academics gathered to unpack the presence of faith in public office. Ashley Thompson reports. To what extent should people that hold high public office constrain the expression of their personal faith and its inevitable influence over the performance of their public duties? Toowong Uniting Church member and director of Emmanuel College’s Centre for the ...

Last month over 80 church members from across four presbyteries within the Queensland Synod gathered to discuss the outcomes of Dr Keith Suter’s thesis “Does the Uniting Church in Australia have a future?” Ashley Thompson reports. Since its release last year, Dr Keith Suter’s four possible scenarios for the Uniting Church’s future has received mixed reviews, causing fear in some ...

Whenever two or three people gather to eat and drink together as part of worship, café church is happening. Dianne Jensen talks to three Queensland congregations exploring fresh forms of this ancient model of being church. It’s family friendly, low key, and a lot harder to slip into the back row unnoticed. Café church is a contemporary reimagining of a ...

New resources will help Uniting Churches to create safe spaces to talk about mental health. Dianne Jensen reports. The most powerful conversations are often the hardest to begin, and Synod research officer Sue Hutchinson understands that mental health is a confronting topic for church communities. Sue has coordinated the new Called to care suite of mental health resources for Uniting ...

Active planning for safety can help us meet our mission goals and reach out to the community. It’s absolutely critical that every church is a child safe church. Here’s five tips that will help make that happen. Share guardianship Every person engaged in the life of the church needs to grow a culture of shared guardianship of children. The Child ...

Jesus gave unequivocal instruction about the importance and care of children. Journey explores how this is enacted in the Uniting Church today. While the church has been at the forefront of caring for children from the earliest days of rescuing abandoned orphans to pioneering widespread education, recent investigation and reporting has demonstrated that churches and church institutions have not always ...

Last month, 15 leaders of North Queensland Presbytery’s annual kids’ campout embarked on the mission to create a counter-cultural camp community. Ashley Thompson reports. Children from congregations as far and wide as Ingham, Charters Towers, Townsville and Burdekin gathered for the North Queensland Presbytery annual kids’ campout in August. Organised by volunteers from local congregations, 15 adults gave up their ...

An appeal to replace the church at Mapoon which was burned in 1963 has been launched. Rohan Salmond writes. A new appeal to rebuild the church at Mapoon has been authorised by the 14th Assembly. Mapoon, on Cape York in far north Queensland was originally a Presbyterian mission. Bauxite was discovered in Mapoon during the 1950s, making the area of ...