Queensland Synod News

Catholic Health Australia and Catholic Social Services both gave mixed reactions to last night’s Federal Budget but Vinnies’ President, Syd Tutton, expressed grave concern over those left out in the cold. Catholic Health Australia chief executive Martin Laverty said the health and aged care sectors will have to do the maths on changes to private health insurance and the age ...

MORE THAN 16 years after World Vision introduced the LINC program to Australia, a handful of faithful volunteers still offers Love In the Name of Christ. Vera Otto of Petrie is one of the original LINC members and said the movement was about knowing what you could do to help and what works for you. LINC sees six local churches ...

It was at OM’s New Horizons Dinner on April 3 that OM Australia’s National Director, Jonathan Rodwell, welcomed Andrew Carnell to the role of State Director, Queensland. Andrew comes with 15 months’ experience in the OM Ships’ ministry. While continuing theological studies at Malyon College, Andrew will lead the Queensland team. It has been an exciting start to the year ...

The Uniting Church has today expressed its total dismay at the Federal Government’s decision to further delay and weaken the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. National Director of UnitingJustice Australia, Rev Elenie Poulos, said the global economic crisis is not an excuse to back away from proceeding with positive, constructive climate change policies. “As the Uniting Church has been saying for ...

Manila, 30 April (ENI) A Protestant pastor and a farmer have given testimony before the United Nations in Geneva that they have faced torture in the Philippines, giving lie to the government’s claims about its human rights record. "Inside [a] van, I was blindfolded and handcuffed. I was brought to a ‘safe house’ where I was tortured. I was threatened ...

Hong Kong, 30 April (ENI) Christians in Hong Kong, who experienced the deadly SARS epidemic that killed nearly 300 people in 2003, are showing their empathy with the swine flu victims in the Americas, by praying for them. Mexican missionary priest, the Rev. Gabriel Altamirano Ortega, has urged Christians in Hong Kong to pray for those infected with swine flu, ...

The full list of 2008 OP figures, released by the Queensland Studies Authority today, shows private girls’ school Moreton Bay College tops the state for academic achievement in schools that have more than 50 OP-eligible students. The bayside school had 97 per cent of eligible students achieve an OP 15 or better. All Hallows’ School in inner Brisbane followed closely behind ...

THE NEW Wesley House building in the centre of Brisbane City has been awarded a Five Star Green Star rating for “Australian Excellence” by the Green Building Council of Australia. The boutique nine-storey building, officially opened in March, was recognised for its leading edge environmental advances implemented by Fulton Trotter Architects, Brisbane and Architectus Sydney, and Matrix Constructions, Brisbane. The ...

THE 12TH Assembly Cato Lecturer has been announced as Los Angeles-based Biblical theologian, author, and Quaker Dr Daniel Smith-Christopher. The purpose of the Cato lecture is to present an international theologian who will inspire the Uniting Church Assembly body with a new perspective. President-elect Rev Alistair Macrae is excited about hearing Dr Smith-Christopher again. The first time Mr Macrae heard ...

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has flown to the Solomon Islands to launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modelled on the body he chaired in South Africa to tackle crimes and injustices under the former the apartheid regime. The Solomon Islands dissolved into chaos and violence from 1997 to 2003, chiefly as a result of conflict between gangs from the islands ...