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 ...
Read More »Tag Archives: Queensland Synod
Peculiar things we do: Conferences
Why travel to Sydney when you can watch a webinar? Ashley Thompson explores. In Australia, many Christians wait in anticipation for annual gatherings. We go to great lengths, spending precious leave and flying interstate to listen to keynote speakers whose content is often easily accessible online or in their latest book. We attend conferences for a variety of reasons, such ...
Read More »Together on the way
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 ...
Read More »Prepare to meet your maker
Are you prepared to die? New research shows Australians are dropping the ball and not planning ahead. Ashley Thompson explores the world of life before death. Twelve years ago a palliative care unit at Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital did not exist. Today, Ward 4A buzzes with nurses and chaplains committed to journeying with patients through the end of life phase. UnitingCare ...
Read More »Never give up
Dianne Jensen talks to Dave Andrews, Charles Ringma, Lin Hatfield Dodds and Sue Hutchinson about why they keep working for social transformation. “Many people start out with the fire in their belly to set the world alight when they are young; but very few people still have the fire in their belly when they are old,” says Dave Andrews. The ...
Read More »July Journey now available
The July edition of Journey magazine is now available in PDF. You can download this edition and all previous editions back to 2005 on the download page. Keep it up! You know that feeling you get around the beginning of July? A creeping realisation which suddenly hits with a bittersweet epiphany—the year is half over! How did that happen? The previous six months ...
Read More »Number crunch: Does the Uniting Church have a future?
Data from the 2013 census of the Uniting Church in Australia has been released just in time for its 37th anniversary. It reveals an organisation facing some tough decisions. Dianne Jensen reports. Thirty-seven years down the track, Australia’s first home-grown church is facing a mid-life crisis familiar to any adult wondering where the kids have gone and what lies ahead. ...
Read More »June Journey now available
The June edition of Journey magazine is now available in PDF. You can download this edition and all previous editions back to 2005 on the download page. Okay, what’s next? Have you ever had one of those moments when something happens or you find out something new and all you can do is ask, “Well what do I do now?” Coming to faith ...
Read More »Here’s a fishy scoop
The Queensland Government has urged Australians to boycott American company Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for supporting the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) save the reef campaign. In a media statement yesterday, Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the company has damaged the reputation of the reef and jeopardised jobs and tourism dollars. “Another company has signed up to the campaign of ...
Read More »Uniting Church condemns South Sudan violence
The Queensland Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia strongly condemns the recent violence in South Sudan. Children were among the dozens of internally displaced persons attacked by gunmen on 17 April while sheltering at a UN site in the central South Sudanese town of Bor, capital of strife-torn Jonglei state. In recent months thousands of people are believed to ...
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