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Journey’s last-minute Christmas gift guide

With Christmas less than two weeks away, news reports suggest Christmas spending is at its weakest in four years as shoppers struggle to find the must-have presents to put under the tree. Some blame economic factors such as rising utility costs and slow income growth, others cite the lack of new toys and trinkets in the market to stimulate demand ...

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Christmas in the Longreach region of the outback

Rev Jenny Coombes—Longreach Uniting Church minister—reflects on what Christmas means for the Longreach region of the outback and what people around the state can do for those impacted by drought. It’s a time when communities manage to come together regardless of how good or bad the year has been. Christmas lights and decorations start to appear on houses in town; ...

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Friday’s religion wrap

Photo of a magnifying glass over an open Bible.

The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week.   Red Cross without the cross leaves some seeing red The Christian Post reveals calls for some Belgian branches of the iconic organisation Red Cross to remove the red cross from its buildings due to fears the Christian symbol could offend non-Christians. The Provincial Committee of the Red Cross in Liege asked ...

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Releasing the church for change

Journey asked three young Uniting Church members for their radical game-changing idea to create a vibrant contemporary Christian community. Here’s what they said.  Joshua Harbort My name is Joshua Harbort, I attend Rosewood Uniting Church and I am a PhD student at the University of Queensland in the field of biophysics. Besides my interests in the future of church and ...

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Friday’s religion wrap

Photo of a magnifying glass over an open Bible.

The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week.   Bringing the Good Book by hook or by crook The Christian Post profiles a 33-year-old Vietnamese Christian man who has allegedly distributed over 100,000 children’s bibles to families throughout Vietnam putting him at great risk in a nation which is very hostile towards Christians. Finding God amidst a suicide crisis, the ...

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Book review: The Cross

It is arguably the most famous item in Christian iconography but Robin Jensen’s book The Cross attempts to uncover the history behind the crucifix and the controversy behind the symbolism. Nick Mattiske reviews. We associate the cross with Christianity, so it is surprising to note, as Robin Jensen does in this elegantly produced book, that for the first decades, even ...

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Friday’s religion wrap

Photo of a magnifying glass over an open Bible.

The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week.   If the numbers go down a new nickname for town? The Advertiser crunches the numbers of religious Census data and suggests that Adelaide’s reputation as the “city of churches” may need to be reconsidered given traditional religions are declining in popularity in South Australia. While mainstream Christianity is declining, Sikhism, Hinduism, ...

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Book review: Not for the Faint-Hearted

For many Australians former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was a love-him-or-loathe-him figure and his career as leader of the Labor Party was anything but smooth sailing with infighting and leadership challenges eventually engulfing the later years of his parliamentary career. Nick Mattiske reviews his autobiography.   You’d be forgiven for thinking that the title, Not for the Faint-Hearted, refers to ...

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Friday’s religion wrap

Magnifying glass over an open Bible.

The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week.   A foreign third loving the Word ABC News reports that more than a third of Australian churchgoers were born overseas and that first and second generation migrants are making up “an increasingly significant segment of the churchgoing population”. The Uniting Church is featured prominently in the article: Rev Fie Marino is ...

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