Tag Archives: Moderator’s message

After see-sawing for a couple of years, from 2016 we’re back to celebrating Labour Day in May. It got me thinking about the church’s connection to the union movement. One of our founding tradition’s connections goes back to Tolpuddle, in Dorset, England. In the early 1800s, there was a trend of consolidation of land holdings by wealthy landholders that was ...

They say memory may not be housed just in our brains. I remember that some of my training talked about “anchoring”, that a memory, idea, thought, theme or plan, can be physically anchored in another part of our bodies—just as a noise, song or smell takes us back to a memory of life, so also one of these may be ...

This is the first Journey of the New Year, so I want to outline for you again the discernment of the 31st Synod regarding the broad priorities for the church’s life going forward. Synod discerned the following: making our worship accessible and attractive growing our members in their passion and ability to share their faith planting new communities of faith ...

Here we go again, Christmas is coming. Families looking at their budgets, kids looking at catalogues, grandparents looking at new opportunities for indulgence. Some people are looking at options to help them just survive it. Retail stores are looking for the boost that they’ve already accounted for to get to the year’s projected sales. One of the issues for ministers ...

“Well, that’s the question, folks, what’s your response?” This was how Brendan McKeague kicked off a day and a half of discernment for the Synod as it met at Alexandra Park Conference Centre in October. The question was, “Our church is on life support; what’s our call now?” About 70 members of Synod stood up and named an issue they ...

The trouble with the Uniting Church is that we have taken too literally the biblical principle of not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing. Not only that, we are not good at blowing our own trumpet in the community. On the one hand, in Blackall a part-time youth worker is supported by his congregation. Scott ...

The first cash I remember earning was the money we earned as children by picking ginger on the neighbour’s farm. It involved sitting all day in the sun snapping off the green stalks and the ropey roots from the tuber. By the end of the week we had some money that we could use any way we chose. It seemed ...

July is a month when lots of sport happens—rugby league, World Cup soccer and the Commonwealth Games. At our house we will be watching the classic three week cycling event, the Tour de France. People draw life lessons from sport and at times it provides some metaphors for life in the church. The apostle Paul wrote about running the race ...

When our daughter was back in Australia for her wedding in February, her new husband offered to do the grocery shopping. Sitting in front of the computer in our home he made his order online and arranged for it to be delivered to their home in London just a few hours after their plane landed. People now have many choices ...

Sometimes life is not all it is cracked up to be. Dreams are lost. Disappointments occur. Doubts creep in. That is what it was like for the friends of Jesus. Travelling with Jesus was an exhilarating ride. People were healed and the stories he told gave people hope for a better community. They expected him to overthrow the oppressive Roman ...