Tag Archives: Rev David Baker

This edition marks 30 years of Journey magazine. Mardi Lumsden explores the past, present and future of church communications. Leafing through newsprint is a fast-disappearing luxury. The dusty 30-year-old pages of the Journey archives are filled with stories of the church at work in the world, calling out injustice and celebrating global, national and local milestones. This is a record ...

Jesus gave unequivocal instruction about the importance and care of children. Journey explores how this is enacted in the Uniting Church today. While the church has been at the forefront of caring for children from the earliest days of rescuing abandoned orphans to pioneering widespread education, recent investigation and reporting has demonstrated that churches and church institutions have not always ...

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on Earth? “We are as guarded and concerned about our place here as we ever have been. Some in our community are not sure if we’re welcome,” says a Queensland Muslim leader. “We are reaching out to our young men who are vulnerable —without work, from broken homes, seeking to ...

“Preparation for married life begins the day you are born.” It was one of those new thoughts that made such common sense that as a 34-year-old, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before. I still remember the time and place it was said 23 years later! We learn what married life is about by observing and modelling. The ...

Experts confirm that hardcore pornography is the biggest source of information about sex for young people. Ashley Thompson explores how its entrenchment in mainstream society has warped sexual expectations—leaking lies into the hearts and minds of our youth. It’s not like you have to go looking for pornography, today it comes looking for you. In 2011, the University of New ...

For about a year, when I was a young bloke, a mate and I used to go to King George Square once a week on a Tuesday, walk up to people having their lunch break, and ask them, “If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?”  This was seen in my circles at the time to be ...

Everyone tells us that the country is a real picture in a good season. But as the moderator Rev David Baker, Central Queensland Presbytery minister Rev Brian Gilbert and their Uniting Communications sidekick meet with church members in Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall, the talk is all about the iron grip of the drought. Dianne Jensen reports. Over three days barrelling ...

Church leaders from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in Brisbane last month. Rohan Salmond reports. The annual trans-Tasman gathering of church leaders took place in Brisbane in April, bringing together the six moderators from Uniting Church synods, the president of the Uniting Church Assembly, the president of the Methodist Church of New Zealand and the moderator of the Presbyterian ...

The last two editions of Journey have elicited comment regarding the May edition cover, and articles and letters about same-gender marriage, homosexual orientation and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The Uniting Church, through its Basis of Union, commits itself to be a church open to the world, in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ, as attested ...

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 ...