Month: October 2014

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Stories & Feature Articles

The time is now: A new way is a must

This year, Revive is following a major undertaking of the Strategy and Mission Planning Commission for the Uniting Church in WA. This is the fifth article in the series.

Rev David Kriel, mission planner for  the Uniting Church in WA presented to the Annual Meeting of the Presbytery and Synod on its first day of business. As has previously been reported in Revive, David has  been conducting a serious review of the Presbytery in response to drastic changes in the church. He painted a picture of the world we live in today. We produce 140,000 cars per day and 3.3 million  mobile phones. In this same world, 26,000 people die per day of hunger and 700 million people are without safe drinking water.

We are now living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

“We’re past the industrial age,” David said. “We will not see that again. We now face the digital age. We are called in this world to be God’s people.”

In our churches, we are facing a surging decline and need to act now.

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News & Announcements

Corporates clean up at Juniper Rowethorpe

Juniper’s Corporate Volunteers program has enlisted recruits from Bankwest to help give our gardens a welcome spring clean.

A strong team of staff from the company descended on Juniper Rowethorpe in Bentley recently to weed, plant and clean up around the site, much to the residents’ delight.

Juniper’s Volunteer Program Coordinator, Verity Quill, oversees a 500-strong volunteer workforce who help deliver services to thousands of older people throughout Perth and in regional WA.

“Our volunteers undertake many different activities, from office work to home visiting and companionship, driving, gardening, and therapy and activity assistance,” she said.

“Juniper’s volunteers give an invaluable boost to the care we provide to more than 4,000 older Western Australians and without their help many of our services would not be possible.”

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Stories & Feature Articles

Sea Prayers in Samoa

To raise awareness of the impact of climate change, representatives of churches, ecumenical organisations and the United Nations (UN) stood together in the sea in Apia, Samoa, in prayerful solidarity with  those vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

The prayer was conducted on Thursday 4 September, as part of the OurVoices.net international campaign of people from diverse religious  and spiritual backgrounds who are urging world leaders to agree to  a strong climate treaty at the UN climate talks in Paris in December 2015. Participants in the prayer included representatives of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Samoa Council of Churches (SCC),  the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and the UN.

Many of those praying were in Samoa taking part in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Summit, focusing on a group of countries that remain special cases for sustainable development in view of their  unique and particular vulnerabilities. Former Granada ambassador to the  UN, Dessima Williams, commented that such global actions of solidarity are a reminder that “people around the world care deeply  about those impacted by climate change.”

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Stories & Feature Articles

Movers in thier prime

For Monica Phillips, life was not meant for slowing down. Chair of the Gosnells Uniting Church Council, at 82 years of age, Monica leads three Prime Movers classes each week – including at the most  recent Regional Gathering for the Metro East Region of the Uniting Church in WA, where Monica led those present in a mini-class to help energise people for the day ahead. Prime Movers is a voluntary organisation running exercise classes for the over 55s.

Monica became involved in leading the classes 15 years ago, after her husband passed away. While he was alive, the couple spent their lives volunteering with the church, including a large involvement in youth work. After joining the classes as a member, however, Monica found that volunteering with older people was a natural progression. As for the fitness side of things, her health has never been better.  Despite having arthritis and sometimes having to take time away from the classes for treatment, she is always itching to get back.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Uniting Church in Australia: Part of the fastest growing church on earth

The view from the pew in an Australian Uniting Church isn’t always inspiring. Many long-term congregation members are all too aware of empty seats, voices that waver on beloved hymns and the lurking spectre of a budget committee meeting when the service ends…

It’s true that church attendance in Australia is in decline, as it is throughout much of the Western world. But that’s not the full story. Globally, and particularly among our Asian neighbours, Christianity is still the world’s largest and fastest growing religion. In China, three new churches have been either re-opened or newly built every single day for the past thirty years. And as a global church, partnering with brothers and sisters throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific, we’re renewed by this growth.

Through an historic new partnership with the China Christian Council, we’re also faced with a unique opportunity to shape the future of global Christian leadership.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Church in WA divests from fossil fuels

The Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Western Australia has decided to divest from companies involved in mining, exporting, or energy generation from fossil fuels. Instead, the Church will seek to invest in companies which reduce the impact on the environment through power generation from renewable sources.

The Church’s investment policy has always been guided by ethical principles. Since its inception in 1977, the Uniting Church has expressed its concerns for the environment. Over time, this call has only become more urgent, with the Church making many statements on the need to act on climate change. The Church recognises that divestment from fossil fuels is important in transitioning to a renewable energy future. The Church is committed to promoting renewable energy as a priority in responding to the challenge of climate change.

The Uniting Church in Australia, national Assembly, as well as the Uniting Church in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, have also recently committed to divesting from companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels.

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Education & Training

Faith formation in a digital age

The John Roberto Faith Formation conference was held from 22-23 August in Perth and was hosted by the Uniting Church in WA’s First Third team and the Commission for Education for Discipleship and Leadership (CEDAL) in association with Anglican Youth Ministry and Catholic Youth Ministry. John guided participants through a weekend of building faith formation in their communities – including  online. Here’s what some of the attendees thought.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Christians and Muslims: 100 years of love

Uniting Church leaders from across Australia have joined interfaith and ecumenical friends in a statement of solidarity with Australia’s Islamic community. Uniting Church in Australia President, Rev Prof  Andrew Dutney, is one of thousands of faith and community leaders who’ve signed on to a declaration that “We’ll Love Muslims 100 Years.”

The statement was 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.”

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News & Announcements

Pilgrimage to Living Waters

On Friday 15 August, nine intrepid ‘pilgrims’ set out from the Dongara Uniting Church to follow a trail around the Irwin River and estuary. The weather was glorious and the setting magnificent. Our planned route included trekking across the bar, but this was adjusted as the river mouth was open. Having the Shire bus to help transport those not able to walk the full distance meant the whole group could instead move together from the lookout on Church Street to the boardwalk in Ocean Drive. We were delighted to have Jess Rowe and her daughter Sue with us and our friend Viv, who had walked with us last year, as well as several first-time pilgrims.

‘Water For Life’ was the theme of the event this year, celebrating the wonderful and amazing qualities of the gift of water for this water-dependent planet. A pilgrimage booklet was available for every person, with text extracted from the book Downstream From Eden by David L Knight. This booklet also contained portions of some of the psalms and wisdom writings from the Bible. Further reflections came from a book of modern Psalms written by a New Zealand woman. At each of seven ‘stations’ along the way the group stopped and shared in readings from the pilgrimage booklet which opened insights into the complex nature of water. Here we expanded our understanding of how amazing this substance is, how chameleon-like it can be, changing in appearance and quality according to characteristics of surrounding air and earth.

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News & Announcements

WA’s newest faith community

With joy, members of the recent Annual Meeting of the Synod and Presbytery recognised and welcomed the Eaton Millbridge Community Project (EMCP) as the  Uniting Church in WA’s newest faith  community.

Almost three years ago, a fresh expression of church, the EMCP was planted as a form of church for our changed culture and primarily, for the benefit of people who currently have no connection to the  church. The EMCP practices incarnational mission through acts of loving service, listening and  radical hospitality in the community of Eaton and Millbridge. Regular events held in local parks, such as  Easter egg hunts, Movies by Moonlight, Christmas events and most recently a Spring Fiesta draw in crowds from the local community.

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