Tag Archives: Rev David Baker

My June column was about the opportunities and challenges presented by reflection on the church turning 40. If it is a time to give up that which no longer helps us live life in all its fullness, and to take with us that which still provides such a life, what should we take forward? What should we let go? There ...

For most of the members of the Uniting Church, our own personal 40th birthday is a distant memory! Some of us may wish that we were there again, wistfully believing that we’d do the years after 40 differently if we had that time again. If we don’t have some sense that we would have done things differently, maybe we haven’t ...

At Christmas, we celebrate an interruption to our ordinary existence and to what we had planned for life. The birth of Jesus was a disruption for Mary and Joseph: a challenging one that threatened their relationship and their standing in their community. Yet it was a disruption that gave them purpose, hope and fulfilment like they had not known, nor ...

Abortion can be a notoriously difficult topic to discuss in the faith community, but proposals to reform abortion laws introduced to the Queensland Parliament this year have once again put it under the spotlight. Ashley Thompson meets four women who share their personal encounters with pregnancy, abortion and faith, and examines where the Uniting Church in Queensland stands on the ...

Sunday-best clothes, church, roast lunches and lazy afternoons are Sunday memories for many older Christians. Dianne Jensen explores whatever happened to the Sabbath. For most Australians, the measured pace of Sunday has given way to the frenetic demand for unlimited access to entertainment, sport and commercial services. We are willing participants, giving way to the insidious tug to constantly check ...

October, the month the jacarandas come out, when students see the signs and start studying for exams, when storms roll across the land. It’s the month when we start planning for the end of the year and look forward to what we will focus on in the new year. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will ...

Generally, in Australia anyhow, Father’s Day seems more important to automotive goods stores and Harvey Norman than anyone else. And fathers don’t seem too upset about that. A pat on the back, and a “Thanks, Dad” is enough for most; we’re mainly low-key about fathers. In a lot of television sit-coms since the 1960s they’ve pretty much played the standard ...

In the July 2016 edition of Journey, we explored the issue of religious instruction (RI) taught in Queensland state primary schools. It was a hot-topic following various media reports on RI and a school principal suspending the program at a Brisbane state school. A state government review into the management of RI in state schools and the Connect RI curriculum ...

It’s 2016, the working world has changed and “traditional” marriage roles no longer exist. Ashley Thompson explores what it means to be today’s face of the minister’s partner. It was difficult to find people willing to speak to Journey about the challenges of being a minister’s spouse. Understandably, those who aren’t retired were not comfortable publicly voicing the strains ministry ...

For anyone interested in the wider world, the windows we have to it each has its own perspectives. In terms of the mass media, the press and TV and radio channels all bring their own proclivities to their choices not only of what we see and hear, but their interpretations of what it means. The narrower, pervasive views that are ...