Tag Archives: magazine

This edition brings profiles of two Christian Queenslanders who offer radically different perspectives on faith: Ken Ham (page 6) and Val Webb (page 10). While Val emphasises the importance of questioning in faith and brings an unmistakable progressivism to Christianity, Ken has an intense certainty in the Old Testament as literal history and is getting people around the world talking, ...

The Rogers household has a laugh whenever politicians or government bureaucrats talk about ideologically-neutral educational material in schools. If some are so desperate to remove religion from schools, then shouldn’t they prioritise thinking about how the religion of the “state” is presented to children? The way in which government has omnipotent authority to exempt itself from the rules it imposes ...

Welcome to the May edition of Journey and my first in the editor’s seat. I’d like to acknowledge the fine work of my predecessor, Rohan Salmond who produced a magazine that truly lived up to its core mandates: to inspire, to provoke and to engage. The major question I ask myself as I settle in the role is, “What kind ...

The award-winning film Spotlight left viewers wondering why the voices of those who were systematically abused by priests in the Boston archdiocese were not heard for so long. This is a reminder that mainstream voices can easily shout down those who do not fit our preconceptions of what is normal and desirable. This edition has a lingering theme of acknowledging ...

While Christmas is the time we celebrate God dwelling among creation, I would argue Easter is the ultimate expression of Emmanuel—God with us. I attended the Let Them Stay protest at Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in February. That night it wasn’t clear if the immigration department would forcibly remove baby Asha from the hospital, and the demonstration was the largest ...

Lead and share I’ve been fortunate to have grown up in schools and churches that have taken deliberate steps to cultivate and mentor young leaders. It’s been a great help to me over the years. On page four the moderator talks about leadership in a non-hierarchical Uniting Church context. Far from absolving us of the need for strong leaders, it ...

Jesus feminism The Uniting Church is unusual in a number of ways—one of them being its wholehearted embrace of women’s ordination. The Uniting Church has ordained women since union, as did its constituent denominations before that. We stick out among Australian churches in this regard; while other denominations ordain women, few Australian churches match the Uniting Church in their conviction ...

The real work Assembly has come to a close for another triennium, but really the work has just begun. The meeting resolved to undertake all kinds of tasks that will keep us well and truly busy over the next three years. Committees, working groups and task groups have been formed; regulations have been changed and now need enacting; awareness-raising campaigns ...

Church, assemble! On 12 July, the Uniting Church Assembly will gather in Perth to discuss a range of issues affecting the church at the national level. It’s an exciting time for the church; the Assembly meeting is held in a different city every three years, so every meeting has a different flavour. The last time the Assembly met in Perth ...

A church for all God’s people There’s a lot of thought going on at the moment as to how the Uniting Church can do things differently in order to adapt to demographic changes in the broader community. It’s a topic that sparked a lot of conversation during Open Space at the 31st Synod in Session last year. It’s not a ...