Month: August 2014

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News & Announcements

Memorial plaque for servicemen and women

On Sunday 9 February at Guildford Uniting Church, Wesley Chapel, a special Dedication Service was conducted for the Sumatra Memorial Plaque. The dedication was preparatory to the plaque’s approaching placement in the Changi War Museum in Singapore, beside many other Regimental and commemorative plaques, on Saturday 22 February. A couple of years ago, Nola Elizabeth Hudson who turned 101 in April, made contact with family members to enquire how she could commemorate both family and friends who were lost and/or incarcerated  during the Malayan campaign of 1942.

Nola’s grandchildren took up her cause and after extensive consultation with the Australian Branch of the Malayan Volunteers Group and the Changi War Museum, a plaque was  developed to commemorate the British, Australian, Dutch, New Zealand, Chinese and Eurasian men, women and children and the Allied servicemen and women who suffered severe  deprivation during three and a half years captivity at Muntok on Banka Island, and in Palembang and Loeboek Lingau camps on Sumatra from 1942–1945, as well as the many people who were killed in the evacuation of Singapore. An overall feeling of the fortitude and bravery shown by those held captive in the many camps within Sumatra was apparent to the congregation.

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Going further together

The Eastern Wheatbelt Uniting Churches welcomed their new minister, as Rev John McKane was inducted into the region on Sunday 24 August at Mukinbudin Uniting Church. John is now the new minister at Muckinbudin, Merredin, Bruce Rock and Southern Cross Uniting Churches.

John has come to the region fresh from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had been serving as a minister to the Linden Presbyterian Church. He said that he considers the local church to be the hope of the world.

“If you want to go fast, you go alone,” John said. “If you want to go far, go together.”

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Zak shares ministry and mission with Bicton

Rev Zak Cronje was inducted into Bicton Uniting Church on Sunday 10 August. Zak moved to Australia from South Africa in 2001 and has previously served in ministry with the Eastern Wheatbelt and Maylands/Mt Lawley Uniting Churches. He has also been involved with various councils within the church including in ecumenical and community settings. He was ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa in 1979.

Rosemary Hudson Miller, acting general secretary of the Uniting Church in WA said at the induction “Zak comes to Bicton today with a great sense of passion for Jesus as his Lord. He knows well the power of God at work in people’s lives and enjoys sharing in the ministry and mission of God with others and together seeing positive change take place.

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Stories & Feature Articles

The fullness of life in the hardest of soils

‘I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance’. (John 10.10)

‘What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.’ (John 1.1)

What is it about what we know of Jesus’ life that some of the closest people around him made these sorts of claims? That he ‘gave life’; that his ways among people were ‘lifegiving’? And of  course within this, remembering that some of the more powerful and influential people around him experienced him as death-dealing. One of the most poignant and paradoxical stories of Jesus’ life as a life-giver is the story of his time in the wilderness – a place symbolically devoid of life – and the spiritual and physical  challenges he faced there. The stories depict Jesus emerging from there ready for ‘life’. These truths or wisdoms now forged deeply within his soul, undergirded a way of life by which he  ‘gave life’. These were not easily come by.

Is it possible that in the place of death-dealing wilderness, Jesus learned the secrets of ‘life-giving’? Contemplating the profound questions of  sustenance, the nature of relationship and spirit? Are these the questions we must contemplate when considering what might be life-giving for our souls, and where and how we search  for that? And what might come from ways of being in our spirits, being in our relationships and being in the world that are life-giving?

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We’ll love Muslims 100 years

Brad-Newspaper-Masthead-WA-Tearsheet

Uniting Church leaders from across Australia are joining interfaith and ecumenical friends today in a statement of solidarity with Australia’s Muslim community.

Uniting Church in Australia President Rev Prof Andrew Dutney is one of more than 150 faith and community leaders who’ve signed on to a declaration that “We’ll Love Muslims 100 Years.”

The statement is a reference to the banner headline in the Weekend Australian on 9 August “We’ll Fight Islam 100 Years.”

“Recent public statements and media coverage about Muslim-Australians in some sections of the Australian media have been inflammatory and divisive,” said Andrew.

“In our multi-faith society, Jesus’ call to love your neighbour means that Christians are called to meet, befriend and care about our neighbours who are Muslim.”

“Because of this, we can’t just stand by if they are unfairly insulted or marginalised.”

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Sue Ash awarded Order of Australia

UnitingCare West CEO, Sue Ash, was recently awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) is awarded for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or humanity at large. Sue’s award recognises her “distinguished service to the community, particularly in the area of social policy development, reform and implementation, and to the provision  of services to people in need”.

As CEO of UnitingCare West, Sue brings a deep and passionate commitment to UnitingCare West’s mission. This commitment has been shaped over a lifetime by Sue’s strong Christian ethos, and by her desire to ensure people are heard and provided with access to life-enhancing opportunities. Sue has been a part of the community sector for over 45 years and is  passionate about building a civil society for future generations.

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Church leaders hold prayer vigil inside Josh Frydenberg’s Melbourne Office

Advocates for children suffering in detention welcome today’s decision to release SOME of the children from detention, but intend to stay until they have a timetabled commitment from the Government for ALL children to be released.

Christian leaders concerned about all vulnerable children in Australia’s detention centres are holding a prayer vigil inside the Camberwell electorate office of Josh Frydenberg, Liberal Member for Kooyong and Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The group entered Mr Frydenberg’s office at 10.00am and say they intend to remain until they get a timetabled commitment from the Government that all children will be released from immigration detention centres.

The group welcomes today’s decision by the Government to release a small contingent of children and celebrate this as victory for the whole movement and is a step forward in the right direction.  However, there are still grave concerns for the 662 children outside the criteria of release who will remain in detention and we will not stop until every last child is released from the cruelty of detention. 

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U-Team competes and connects

This year, Nedlands Uniting Church, in partnership with Mt Pleasant and Billabong Uniting Churches, embarked on the 28th annual State Youth Games. State Youth Games is run by  Youth Vision (Churches of Christ WA) and is a sporting weekend for young adults aged 16-28. The Uniting Churches (known as ‘The U-Team’) took over 30 competitors to Bunbury for the annual June long weekend event. Tournaments are held in a range of sports including netball, soccer and basketball, as well as genuine sports such as Uno, chess, dodge ball and even  tenpin bowling.

The U-Team placed 9th out of 20 different churches and were among the smallest teams in the top ten. We placed first in four events and in the top five in a total of eight events. We  finished first in badminton and indoor soccer for the second time in our four years of attending, as well as first in tenpin bowling for the fourth consecutive year. We also won the inaugural orienteering competition.

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West Australian Church Groups say: “Renewables not Uranium, Minister!”

Church groups in Western Australia have called upon the Hon Bill Marmion, Mines and Petroleum Minister to embrace renewable energies instead of thinking of uranium as the fuel of the future. The group said Mr Marmion’s recent comment was ill-informed and dangerous. All of the groups have expressed deep and abiding concerns about the social and environmental costs of uranium mining and the nuclear industry into which Western Australia’s uranium would be sent.

Spokesperson for the group Rosemary Hudson Miller, Associate General Secretary Justice and Mission, Uniting Church in Western Australia said, “Nuclear technologies that utilise non-renewable resources such as uranium, while at the same time producing toxic by-products that have been proven to interfere with human and ecosystem health, are not a sustainable way of providing energy for human consumption. Renewable energy technologies need to be given primacy instead.

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Thinking big and breaking silos

Since the last edition of Revive, Rev David Kriel, mission planner at the Uniting Church in WA, has collected and analysed all the data from interviews with people around the church and the Listening Workshop, held in April. Some changes have been made to the process. The original plan of Scenario Planning has been postponed until after John Roberto’s visit to Perth, where some of his methods will be adapted to meet the needs of the Uniting Church in WA. The process is now moving to a method of System Thinking.

Using the data collected, David has discovered four key issues which members of the Uniting Church feel the church needs to focus on. They are: communication, lay education and leadership, community services and evangelism and discipleship. The next step is to identify the relationships between these issues, creating ‘loops’ of ‘cause and effect’. David has  created four loops all with interdependent relationships to each other. In responding to these loops, David said the church needs to be proactive, rather than reactionary.

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