Queensland Synod News

Entries close soon for Songs that Unite, the song writing competition of the Uniting Church in Australia that is seeking to encourage the development of Australian Christian music for use in congregations. The focus of the competition is congregational (or other group) singing, rather than songs for individual performance and the winning entries will be promoted in congregations across the ...

The life of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, an English Presbyterian instrumental in the creation of the united Church of South India and who played a key role in the World Council of Churches, is being commemorated 100 years after his birth. "Lesslie Newbigin was one of our ecumenical forebears," said WCC general secretary the Rev. Samuel Kobia in a sermon at ...

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Alistair Macrae has pledged the support of the Uniting Church in Australia to support the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma. Macrae’s call has come in response to the continuing tensions between the Methodist Church and the Fijian government, which has seen the arrest and detention of Church leaders and the ...

Blue Care, Australia’s largest not-for-profit provider of community health and residential aged care, has honoured its long-serving staff across Queensland and northern New South Wales. The recent 2009 Blue Care Staff Recognition Night honoured 194 individuals who have reached a career milestone of 20 or more years of continuous service with the organisation across a variety of caring and support ...

In advance of World AIDS Day on 1 December, Kenyans living with HIV gathered at Nairobi’s All Saints Anglican cathedral to send 10 000 Thanksgiving Day postcards to U.S. President Barack Obama. The cards express gratitude for Obama’s support to the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, while urging the U.S. president to take a lead in ensuring increased ...

On 31 December this year it will be the end of an era for a faithful servant. The MV Doulos is the world’s oldest ocean going passenger ship. It is 95 years old, with the hull built in 1914, just 2 years after Titanic. For the last 32 years, Doulos has been a major part of the Operation Mobilisation (OM) ...

The Uniting Church in Australia has written to all federal ALP MPs and Senators, urging them to implement the recommendations made in the report of the National Human Rights Consultation. In its submission to the Consultation, the Uniting Church articulated its commitment to social justice and the achievement of human dignity for all through a Human Rights Act. National Director ...

An exhibition of children’s letters to pharmaceutical companies and governments is going on display at the United Nations in New York as part of a campaign by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and its partners to promote the treatment of children with HIV. "If governments and pharmaceutical companies were to increase access to testing and provide appropriate paediatric treatment for children ...

The Uniting Church in Australia has today welcomed the Federal Government’s formal apology to the Forgotten Australians. President of the Uniting Church, Rev. Alistair Macrae, said that the church had also acknowledged and apologised for its role in any harmful institutional care practices. “Following the 2004 Forgotten Australians report, the Uniting Church apologised for any physical, psychological or social harm ...

AROUND 270 people from Australia, the Pacific, South East Asia and Africa gathered in Canberra for the fourth annual Voices for Justice Conference in Canberra in September. Unlike most Christian conferences the aim of this conference was not to talk to ourselves but to talk to our Australia’s leaders. After a weekend of worship, training and workshops, participants were unleashed ...