In a sign of solidarity and friendship with the Muslim community of South East Queensland, the Queensland Synod has hosted its first Iftar dinner with Muslim partners. Synod research officer Sue Hutchinson reports. Ramadan is a significant and sacred time for Muslims, marked by fasting from sun-up to sunset. The Iftar meal is the daily “breaking of the fast” during ...
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The Journey team selects stories that got us talking this week. Lent for Gen Y: junk food and tweets get the goodbye ABC News explores Lent for millennials and what they’ll be giving up for the season. While some have chosen to abstain from drinking alcohol to mark the occasion, many young Christians are choosing to boycott social media, junk food and even ...
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A new forum to explore outside-the-box thinking was a smashing success at Synod. Journey reports. Hundreds gathered for Unchained, a half-day festival held during Synod in Session to air dangerous ideas about how the Uniting Church might re-imagine itself and its place in the world. The event evolved from a suggestion first made by the moderator that the Synod needed ...
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A visit from the Dalai Lama brought Brisbane’s civic and religious leaders together in June at a multifaith service of prayer for world peace. Rohan Salmond reports. The moderator of the Uniting Church Queensland Synod has gathered with the Dalai Lama along with Brisbane’s other religious and civic leaders at St Stephen’s Cathedral for a multifaith service of prayers for ...
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The Uniting Church in Australia mourns the deaths of those caught up in the hostage-taking incident in a café in Sydney’s Martin Place. Moderator of the Uniting Church in NSW and the ACT Rev Myung Hwa Park has offered prayers and condolences on behalf of the Church. “We continue to pray for those caught up in the terrible events at Martin ...
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Anti-coal activists at the controversial open-cut coal mine at Maules Creek, near Narrabri, New South Wales are at times surprised to find themselves accompanied by a Uniting Church Minister. Rev John Brentnall joined a blockade for the third time on 26 November, together with three Buddhists and another Christian, this time at the gate of a coal processing plant in ...
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Since the activities of the so-called Islamic State have made the news, anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia has been at an all-time high. Rohan Salmond speaks to some interfaith activists working to build understanding across religious lines. A black silhouette wielding a knife stands over a man kneeling in an orange jumpsuit. It’s an image so powerful it has reached around ...
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A number of general proposals were passed by consensus during the 31st Synod in Session, many focussing on the church’s call to love our neighbour as ourselves. Constitutional recognition A proposal brought to the Synod by UnitingCare Queensland CEO Anne Cross and Calvary Presbytery Minister Rev Dennis Corowa called the church to join UnitingCare Queensland in being official partners of ...
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Uniting Church leaders from across Australia joined interfaith and ecumenical friends on 22 August in a statement of solidarity with Australia’s Muslim community. Uniting Church in Australia President Rev Dr Andrew Dutney is one of more than 150 faith and community leaders who has signed on to a declaration that “We’ll Love Muslims 100 Years”. The statement is a reference ...
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The Holy Land is stitched into the fabric of the Christmas story. Could Mary and Joseph make their way to Bethlehem in today’s conflict-ridden West Bank? Mardi Lumsden explores hopes for peace in Israel and Palestine. From its beginning, Jerusalem has been a city in conflict, and the regions around have been conquered and fought over for centuries. Despite this, people of ...
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