Month: October 2016

God’s creative vision: a welcome celebration for the Perth Samoan Uniting Church

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 17, 2016

The Perth Samoan Uniting Church was celebrated and welcomed as a new Uniting Church WA congregation on Friday night, 14 October at Advent Park Maida Vale. It was agreed during a special meeting of the Presbytery at the Annual Meeting of the Synod that the congregation would be received into the Presbytery.

The celebration coincided with the Uniting Church Samoan National Leaders’ Conference, which was held over the weekend in Perth.

To a packed house, including guests from the national and local Samoan community, as well as other churches in Perth, performances from the congregation’s youth choir helped to create an upbeat atmosphere, full of joy.

Rev Steve Francis, moderator of the Uniting Church WA welcomed the Perth Samoan Uniting Church into the flock.

“One of the great gifts of the Uniting Church is that we are a multicultural church,” he said. “And we are celebrating that tonight.”

Tags Church and Community, Multi-Cultural, Multicultural

News & Announcements

Mission for vision

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 16, 2016

Members of Rockingham Uniting Church have a proud outward looking tradition of supporting causes well beyond the local church.

Over the last 12 months we have risen to the challenge of no less than four special appeals. Our latest venture was in support of the Lions Eye Institute (LEI) in memory of my wife, the late Kaye Hogg for research into blinding Inherited Retinal Diseases and Macular Degeneration. Our efforts resulted in a donation of $3 000 going to the work of Associate Professor Fred Chen at LEI.

Kaye was a loved member of our congregation who inherited Retinitis Pigmentosa which eventually took her sight. Legally blind by the age of 50, it was her long held desire to donate her eyes to medical science upon death.

When diagnosed with a non responsive high-grade lymphoma and given 12 months to live, Kaye and I approached Associate Professor Fred Chen at LEI concerning her desire. Fred’s immediate response was, “Kaye, this is a unique opportunity to advance the research into Retinitis Pigmentosa that I am doing.”

He went on to explain that to be an organ donor, it is necessary to die in hospital, where organs and tissue can be harvested and preserved within one hour of death. When Kaye died in Hollywood Hospital in April 2015, Professor Chen came immediately and collected the eyes, and some skin. He already had her DNA.

Tags Church and Community, Faith In Action

News & Announcements

Uniting Aid celebrates 35 years of caring

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 14, 2016

In 1981, the churches of the Uniting Church Yokine Region Parish conducted a community study to assess how they could serve their community and, recognising the physical needs of the struggling members of their community, they established Uniting Aid at Dianella Uniting Church.

This year is Uniting Aid’s 35th Anniversary and it really is an organisation worth celebrating.

At its inception, Uniting Aid was aphone-in service for co-ordinating community assistance. The services provided then were broad: lifts for people to essential appointments, grocery shopping assistance, moving goods by trailer, and providing occasional respite for in-home carers. These days, Uniting Aid looks different in service, but is similar in spirit. Now operating out of a building in Nollamara, the use of which is donated by the Uniting Church WA, Uniting Aid is made-up of 65 volunteers who undertake a variety of tasks across the week.

Margaret Waller, chairperson of Uniting Aid, said the volunteers are fantastic.

Tags A Helping Hand, Church and Community, Faith In Action, Poverty

News & Announcements

Moderator’s column: Emotionally healthy spirituality

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 12, 2016

Some years ago, I went to a Peter Scazzero seminar. He said something that has stayed with me: “You can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.

“Spiritual maturity is holistic; it involves the mind, heart, will, spirit and body.”

Much of my early training in ministry emphasised an intellectual maturity, growing in thinking and understanding; read lots of books, write smart essays and you will slowly get there. I soon discovered the poverty of this narrow-minded focus.

I began to realise that John Calvin was right when he wrote, “Our wisdom consists of almost entirely two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”

In other words, we need to know ourselves that we may know God. Augustine prayed, “Grant Lord that I may know myself that I may know thee.”In the early days of my faith development I was taught that feelings are unreliable and not to be trusted. They go up and down like a yoyo and therefore they are the last thing we should be attending to.

Daniel Golemen, author of Emotional Intelligence, defines emotions as, “Referring to a feeling and its distinctive thoughts, psychological and biological states, and range of propensities to act.”

Tags Our People and Agencies, Theology and Spiritual Reflections

News & Announcements

Welcome to the Perth Samoan Uniting Church

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 10, 2016

At the Annual Meeting of the Synod of Western Australia 2016, Synod was briefly suspend for a special Presbytery meeting, planned specifically to consider the proposal to officially recognise the Perth Samoan Uniting Church as a new congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia. The proposal was agreed to unanimously.

Rev Bev Fabb and Rev Dr Ian Tozer spoke on behalf of the congregation, explaining that for a large portion of this year they had spent significant time with them, discussing the core values and policies of the Uniting Church, while the Samoan group considered their position in seeking to become a recognised congregation.

Hanamoa Vaitogi is a member of the Perth Samoan Uniting Church.

“I couldn’t explain the feeling we got when we got recognised as a Uniting Church congregation,” she said.

Tags International

Stories & Feature Articles

Walking together over the Rainbow

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 7, 2016

Over cups of tea, bickies and cake in a beautiful old Nedlands home, three dedicated women shared with me their passion for creating supportive, safe and open places for people living with mental illness, through the Rainbow project.

Rainbow runs in five locations around Perth offering, fortnightly or monthly social gatherings, including lunch and a time of sharing.

Ruth Reid has been patron of Rainbow in WA since it began in 1998, and still offers her time each month, despite ageing into her 90s. Marian Hillam is the co-ordinator for the Claremont/Nedlands Rainbow group, which has been running for around 11 years, and Sarah Robson is a new recruit, having recently started volunteering at Claremont/Nedlands.

Ruth and Marian are members of Nedlands Uniting Church, while Sarah found Rainbow through Volunteering WA. Sarah loves cooking, and was looking for a way to be able to share her gifts with people in the community – Rainbow provided that perfect space. Rainbow now comes under the umbrella of UnitingCare West, after its formation in 2006. Volunteers take on a range of roles and all receive mental health training.

According to Ruth, the Rainbow journey all began with a phone call from Rev Joyce Wilkins, who was minister at Manning Uniting Church at the time. Joyce and Ruth, along with Audrey Frances, another Rainbow pioneer, got together to discuss how to offer friendship and support to people in congregations, and the wider community who were feeling isolated, as a result of mental health issues. Ruth said that it started as a place of friendship, which hasn’t changed.

Tags Church and Community, Mental health

Stories & Feature Articles

Moving from tolerance to acceptance

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 4, 2016

Cultural barriers were demolished and stereotypes quashed when girls from the Australian Islamic College (AIC) spent a day at Methodist Ladies’ College in April, and MLC girls paid a return visit in August.

Eleven teenagers from the school in the northern Perth suburb of Dianella spent a day with their hosts discovering that they were more similar, than different.

MLC Principal, Rebecca Cody, also met with AIC’s Principal, Wahaj Tarin. She said the relationship between the two schools gives the students the opportunity to move beyond stereotypes.

“I think that all great schools learn from each other, so this is merely an example of a learning conversation between two schools. It’s also an opportunity for our girls, and Mr Tarin’s girls, to seek to understand each other,” Rebecca said.

The relationship between the schools was borne out of discussions between MLC Chaplain, Rev Hollis Wilson, and AIC Islamic Study teacher, Fazida Razak, at a series of interfaith meetings over a few years.

Tags Intercultural, interfaith, Schools, Youth

News & Announcements

Roaming gnomes for Cambodian youth

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 2, 2016

Emma Oxenburgh, from Trinity North Uniting Church, will be broadening her horizons early next year when she travels with World Vision to visit youth programs in Cambodia. She will travel with ten other Australians, along with five Cambodians, all aged between 18–25.

Emma is currently studying a double major in marketing and international communications at the University of Western Australia (UWA), and has recently done an internship with Reconciliation WA. She has a keen interest in ethical travel and international community development.

She said that the trip is not a ‘voluntouring’ (volunteering plus travel) experience, but rather an opportunity to learn more about Cambodia and the projects that World Vision supports there.

Emma said she’s keen to add some real life experiences and a human perspective to her textbook experiences gained while studying at university.

Tags Church and Community, International, Youth