Month: September 2016

Towards a theology of welcome

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 25, 2016

The city of Birmingham in the UK is perhaps one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Some years ago, in response to the question “Is Birmingham a welcoming city?” the city developed a social inclusion process giving hope to locals.

Places of Welcome describes themselves as “a network of small community organisations, including faith communities, who offer an unconditional welcome to local people for at least a few hours a week.”

The program has a set of guiding principles, known as the 5 Ps:

Place: An accessible and hospitable building, open at the same time every week.

People: Open to everyone regardless of their circumstances or situation, and staffed by volunteers.

Presence: A place where people actively listen to one another.

Provision: Offering free refreshments (at least a cup of tea and a biscuit) and basic local information.

Participation: Recognising that every person coming to a Place of Welcome will bring talents, experiences and skills that they might be willing to share locally.

Tags Theology and Spiritual Reflections

Stories & Feature Articles

Manifesto for Renewal: The shaping of a new church, new edition, fully revised and expanded, by Andrew Dutney

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 19, 2016

This book, first published in 1986, was based on Dutney’s thesis, The Development of the Understanding of Ministry in the Australian Church Union Negotiations 1957-1971.

He identifies strongly with the Joint Commission on Church Union (JCCU)’s reports and Proposed Basis of Union. He remains uncritical of the reports’ arguments and negative about the uniting churches.

Dutney’s picture of how the JCCU’s thought developed from 1957 to 1963 is a useful guide to that period of its work.

He writes informatively about discussion of the Proposed Basis in the uniting churches, but concentrates on individual contributions, does not consider each denomination’s detailed response, and plays down the significance of those official responses for the JCCU’s work from 1967 on.

Tags Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes

News & Announcements

Mogumber revisited

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 14, 2016

It is a beautiful piece of our God’s creation. The Moore River meandering by, tall timbers rising up from the valley floor; Indigenous trees and foreign plants make a bold statement. This is Mogumber WA, land of the Yuet people – a people who have long cherished this place since.

Buildings, once alive with human endeavour, lie silent. A testimony to non-Indigenous hopes, with many Indigenous and non-Indigenous dreams, shattered. Amongst the foundations of wholeness and hope arising from the good news of Jesus, there remains a trail of loss and trial.

Earnest human beings (some voluntarily and many involuntarily) investing years of their lives, looking to share and relate in an enabling Christ-like way. There are good stories; there is also much grief.

The Mogumber burial site is a sacred place. Many lives being remembered and honoured. The Yuet people join with Indigenous people from across Western Australia in being custodians of this site, on behalf of many families.

In 2016 we look forward to a casual beginning, of revisiting this special place called Mogumber.

Tags First Peoples

Social Impact

WA needs to show its support for asylum seekers

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 14, 2016

At its annual meeting held over the weekend, the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Western Australia decided to step up its advocacy for people in Western Australia who are seeking asylum.

The Synod agreed to write to the West Australian Premier and Opposition Leader expressing their dismay that some children in WA are not automatically entitled to enrol in state schools while their families are making an application for asylum. The church will also write to Uniting Church schools in WA, requesting them to consider education programs for asylum seekers and refugees.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires Australia to recognise the right to education of everyone under the age of 18 years. Australia is therefore committed to making education compulsory and free for all and the Western Australian government needs to make sure our public schools are providing that service. While arrangements have been made with the Catholic Education system, this is not always an appropriate solution for students, especially if they live far from allocated schools.

The Uniting Church WA will also request that asylum seekers and refugees without sufficient income will be granted concession status for use on public transport in WA. Other states already provide these basic education services and transport concessions to include asylum seekers, but Western Australia does not.

Tags Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Social Justice

News & Announcements

Theological curriculum for the 21st Century

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 12, 2016

For the last eight years a group at All Saints Floreat and Wembley Downs Uniting Churches have been using the Living the Questions curriculum for their theological education. The material of DVDs and study notes are produced by two American Methodist ministers, of which one (Rev David Felten) spent a year at Perth Theological Hall, Murdoch University. The curriculum is now in use in nearly 5000 churches across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Our churches will be repeating the study again in 2017. Subject to copyright, studies available from Living the Questions which include the DVDs and study notes are being made available for loan at cost through the WA Progressive Network.

The WA Progressive Network has brought leading progressive theological scholars to Western Australia such as Dr Val Webb, Michael Morewood, Dr Greg Jenks, Prof Brandon Scott, Rev Dr Lorraine Parkinson, David Galston, Robin Meyers and locally Rev Prof Bill Loader and the Very Reverend John Shepherd.

Tags Church and Community, Theology and Spiritual Reflections

News & Announcements

A place to be refreshed

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 7, 2016

On Friday 17 June, dozens of women carrying Bibles and notepads converged on Swanleigh Conference Centre for Women’s Weekend Away 2016, themed ‘Me and my God’.

The history of the Women’s Weekend Away spans more than half a century, beginning in 1965 as an initiative of South Perth Uniting Church. Over the decades, this event was a joint initiative between South Perth, the former Como and Manning congregations, at present a number of women from Swan View Uniting Church serve on the board.

Women from 17 congregations attended the Women’s Weekend Away, including Bindoon, Gingin, Trayning and Mukinbudin.

Organiser, Fiona Paice explained that the diversity of attending women is an essential element of the longevity of the event.

Tags Church and Community

Stories & Feature Articles

Honoured for many years of service

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 4, 2016

In April, Anne Steed, from Kalamunda Uniting Church, was honoured with life membership of The Leprosy Mission Australia in recognition of her work supporting and serving people living with leprosy. The award was presented by The Leprosy Mission Australia CEO, Sheldon Rankin, who was the keynote speaker for an information afternoon tea.

Anne’s passion for helping leprosy sufferers began more than four decades ago when in 1968 she pursued a Methodist federal youth project placement to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Her placement was at Gemo Island, an isolation hospital for sufferers of leprosy and of tuberculosis. Anne’s initial placement was for one year, but she was so moved by her experience that she applied for a six-month extension.

“I had only just finished my training as a laboratory technologist and we’d had two lines on leprosy in our lecture notes. The little hospital really didn’t have a laboratory, so I had to set-up a simple laboratory when I got there,” Anne explained.

The first cure for leprosy was made available in the 1950’s, since which time millions of patients have been cured. However, in countries without suitable healthcare infrastructure many leprosy sufferers did not receive the medication that would have cured them and prevented further complications.

“We were actually doing a lot of surgery at that time too, and I assumed that this was just part and parcel of leprosy work. It had been continuing for a number of years until I discovered, quite some years later, that surgery hadn’t come into PNG until about 1965. So they were trying to catch up with the backlog of the many people who need surgery,” Anne said.

Tags Faith In Action

Stories & Feature Articles

Meditate and create!

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 1, 2016

A mandala is a spiritual symbol, in the shape of a circle. Creating a mandala can be a meditative process; a journey towards a work of art. With six kids participating, both from the church and the wider community, the day was full of craft, tasty food and reflection.

This is the second time Margaret River Uniting Church has run a mandala workshop for kids, the first being in July 2015.

Cathie opened the workshop with an introduction to mandalas, explaining that pizza can be a mandala. So the group made pizzas before getting stuck into creating their own craft mandalas using a range of materials such as paint, textas and paper. While they created, the pizzas were baked and enjoyed for lunch.

Cathie said the participants all responded to their craft in unique ways.

“I encouraged them to use things they hadn’t used before and a lot of them did that,” she said. “They were quite adventurous really. Some of them were quite abstract. Others had symbols and words in there that meant things to them.”

Tags Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes, Youth