Queensland Synod News

The Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod has a new moderator after Rev David Baker was inducted at the opening service of the 31st Synod held at Unity College in Caloundra, beginning his term with the theme A charge to keep. In front of hundreds of people from across the life of the Uniting Church, the scarf of responsibility was ...

Rev Kaye Ronalds will finish her three-year term as Moderator at this month’s 31st Queensland Synod meeting. Mardi Lumsden explores what others appreciated about Kaye’s time in the role. Kaye’s term as Moderator can be characterised by a comment she made at her induction service: “We need to become better at working together and remembering that there are many kinds ...

An ecumenical group which held a peaceful prayer vigil in federal Health Minister Peter Dutton’s office in September was removed by police. Journey reports. Eleven priests, nuns, ministers and Christian lay leaders were removed by police from the Strathpine office of federal Health Minister, the Hon Peter Dutton on 9 September. The ecumenical group was holding a peaceful prayer vigil ...

Representing the Uniting Church in Queensland, Journey magazine won four prizes at the 2014 Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) awards in Canberra over the weekend. Judges loved the redesign Journey underwent in 2013, awarding gold for best cover (April 2013) and most improved hard copy publication and silver for overall best design. Special congratulations also go to Ashley Thompson for ...

A container deposit scheme involves a consumer paying a deposit on a beverage container at the time of purchase and later redeeming the deposit from a beverage container collector (possibly a retailer or the operator of a collection depot) by surrendering the empty beverage container. The history Container deposit legislation (CDL) is in place in South Australia and the Northern ...

Strong concerns have been expressed about some of the provisions in the Mineral and Energy Resources (Common Provisions) Bill 2014 put to state parliament by Hon Andrew Cripps Minister for Natural Resources and Mines on 5 June. The Bill proposes to replace five existing pieces of legislation (which govern the energy and resources sector) with a single, common resource Act ...

May is the month of Chaplaincy Sunday and National Volunteer Week. Ashley Goetze speaks with two Uniting Church volunteer chaplains about their sector’s needs. Health care, aged care, education, police and emergency services, defence, tourism, human services and sport and recreation are the seven formal sectors of chaplaincy found within the Uniting Church. Need and calling draw out volunteer chaplains ...

As coal seam gas mining spreads across rural Queensland, landholders are feeling the stress.  Bruce Mullan reports. A third generation farmer from the Darling Downs looks across the land his grandfather cleared of brigalow scrub in 1908 to see his precious intensive grazing acres cut by roads, pipelines, open trenches and coal seam gas (GSG) mining development. The Chinchilla farmer, ...

The Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia strongly condemns the recent violence in South Sudan. Children were among the dozens of internally displaced persons attacked by gunmen on 17 April while sheltering at a UN site in the central South Sudanese town of Bor, capital of strife-torn Jonglei state. In recent months thousands of people are believed to ...

The Downs Presbytery of the Uniting Church in Australia has called for a moratorium of six months on further issue of any Coal Seam Gas (CSG) exploration permits and production licences. The Presbytery which covers the Darling Downs and South West Queensland region wants the moratorium so governments, communities, scientists, environmentalists, and the CSG industry can take stock of the ...