Scoop

I had an inspiring time last week at “Love Wraps”, a ministry of West Ashgrove Uniting Church in Brisbane. The congregation had nominated the coordinator of the program, Robyn Carmichael, for a Moderator’s Community Service Medal.   Robyn coordinates more than 25 women who for the last 12 years have knitted rugs for those in need. She has networked throughout the ...

Week in review Rewriting the fairy tales of disability This article describes a book that is as unusual as it is timely. It is at once both autobiography and social history. In the book, Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space, Amanda Leduc considers the way in which fairy stories (and their modern kin: Disney films, superhero and fantasy ...

Rev Graham Slaughter, minister for the Leichhardt Patrol in the Presbytery of the Downs, describes his experience with mental health for Queensland Mental Health Week. As a patrol minister, I regularly visit with people living on properties and in rural communities. Some of the people I visit suffer from a mental illness although this is seldom immediately obvious and might ...

What’s coming up Mosaic – annual Brisbane multicultural festival Join Multicultural Development Australia and the Brisbane Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support (BRASS) Network this Sunday 13 October from 10am–5pm, for #MOSAIC: a world music, dance and cultural spectacular that celebrates the creative and rich talents of our diverse communities. The MOSAIC Festival celebrates who we are in Queensland through dance, ...

What’s coming up Acknowledgement and lament – childhood sexual abuse The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly is calling on faith communities to mark the anniversary of the National Apology to Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. This can be done by holding a service of acknowledgement and lament on or near 20 October using the resources. Against Our Oath This ...

Queensland Synod Moderator Rev David Baker writes from India as part of what has become a regular trip to the Church of North India. I’ve had the privilege of being back in the diocese of Amritsar, Church of North India, for the past week. The church here has many challenges, but they are—mostly—the challenges that arise from being the church doing ...

James O’Callaghan reports on a member of the Nambour Uniting Church who has been recognised for the heroic efforts of his parents during the Second World War. Gerry Zwart of Nambour received a shock earlier this year when he was contacted regarding the actions of his parents some 80 years earlier. During the 1940s the Zwart family lived in the ...

Rev Moira Dodsworth, minister at Coolum Beach Uniting Church describes the aftermath of the recent fires on the Sunshine Coast. It is always a frightening experience to be in or near an out of control fire. In the afternoon of 9 September, many of us who live in the area of Coolum Beach and Peregian travelled home—saw the smoke—then the ...

Rev David Hawke, minister at Beaudesert and Districts (Canungra) Uniting Churches, describes how the recent fire crisis unfolded in the Scenic Rim Region of South East Queensland. Nearly three weeks ago on a Tuesday night I was standing in the yard outside the home where our young adults meet. The fire front was young and heading slowly north towards the ...

It’s been an extremely difficult time for farmers and for small country towns and communities.   In many places, there has not been a so-called normal season for three or many more years, and the unrelenting drought continues to grind people and the environment into the dust. A progression of negative superlatives are required to describe the situation—serious, very serious, desperate and ...