Month: June 2017

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Social Impact

Sewing the seeds of change in West Papua

“I just wear my second pair of pants and stay in my house until it is over.”

This was the response from one of the young West Papuan women when asked what she usually does when she gets her period.

In many countries and regions, including West Papua, it is not uncommon for women and girls to withdraw from school, employment and social connection when they are menstruating. This can put them persistently behind in their education, risk their income security and place unfair stigma upon them. Coupled with poor hygiene practices and limited access to appropriate sanitary materials, girls can end up falling well behind in many of the development outcomes that groups like the UN suggest we should be trying to improve.

Enter Ann Gobby and Days for Girls.

Ann is a Uniting Church member and part of the Black Pearl Network that supports the development work of Uniting Church partner church, Gereja Kristen Injili Indonesia di Tanah Papua (GKI-TP).

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Stories & Feature Articles

Papuan students on learning, living and language

The 2017 Australian-Papuan Cultural Exchange Program (APCEP) cohort are on a mission to make their world a better place.

A group of students from from Papua and West Papua, where English is a valuable skill, have recently spent 12 weeks in Perth learning about Australian culture whilst studying English language.

“Learning English and being able to converse in English will open many doors for the students. They get to bring back their knowledge and share it with their community,” said APCEP program co-ordinator and host family volunteer, Lee-Anne Burnett.

APCEP began in 2010 and is managed by volunteers from the Black Pearl Network (BPN), a sub-group of the Creative Living Centre, part of Trinity North and Floreat Uniting Churches. The  program is in partnership with the Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Celebrating 40 years

UJ_40 Year Anniversary Logo_v4

Uniting Church groups around the country have celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia. Enjoy this gallery of pics from celebrations at Floreat, Trinity North and Rockingham and Rowethorpe Uniting Churches, as well as Good Samaritan Industries (GSI).

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News & Announcements

2016 Census: Church in transformation

The 2016 Census figures released yesterday show that a majority of Australians (57.7%) still identify as Christian amid a long term trend of falling religious affiliation.

When asked to list their religious affiliation, more than 13.5 million Australians chose Christianity, almost twice as many as chose the No Religion response.

More than 870,000 people – 3.7% of all respondents listed their religious affiliation as Uniting Church. This 2016 figure is down by a total of 195,611 from the 2011 Census – and down from 5% as a total of all respondents in the 2011 survey.

It is the first time in the Uniting Church’s history that the Census figure has slipped below one million, although other major Christian denominations have also experienced drops in membership in line with the generally ageing demographic profile of Australian Christians.

Despite the drop, the result will most likely see the Uniting Church in Australia maintain its position as the third largest Christian grouping in Australia and the third largest religious grouping overall.

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Stories & Feature Articles

From the Archives: Noonkanbah 1980

This year the Uniting Church in Australia celebrates its 40th anniversary. Throughout 2017, Revive will feature significant events in the life of the church during that time.

The Uniting Church is often talked about for its commitment to social justice. Over its 40 years, the Uniting Church WA has spoken and acted on a range of issues. In recent years, members of the Uniting Church have marched for refugee rights, action on climate change, marriage equality, pride and more. Church members have also spoken out on Indigenous rights and even the right to protest itself.

One of the earlier involvements of the Uniting Church WA in political actions was to protect land from mining at Noonkanbah Station, in the Kimberley, WA. In 1976, the land was pegged for oil exploration, causing tension with the State Government and the traditional owners of the land, the Yungngora people, over the desecration of sacred sites.

Members of the Noonkanbah community had asked the church to support them in their cause, resulting in the Uniting Church working closely with the Yungngora people during this time. A number of rallies were held in WA in support of the traditional owners of the land.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Connecting with church, community and God

A lot of people struggle with turning 40. Perhaps the thought of walking over the hill and into the unknown is a little daunting for some. In a society where aging is seen as something to be feared, rather than valued, you can’t blame people for feeling this way.

I must say, however, that when I turned 40 a few years ago, I was in a great space. I felt very comfortable in my own skin and felt positive about walking over that ridge into the next stage of my journey. Somehow the connections between my upbringing, my experiences in life and my hopes for the future started to gain clarity at this time in my life. I lived with less fear and more peace with the person I had become.

I wonder whether communities go through this same angst in certain seasons of their life. As the Uniting Church in Australia turns 40, do we approach the next chapter with trepidation or with strength and conviction? As I hear people talk about the church in today’s world, I certainly hear a great deal of fear, but also much hope and anticipation.

At the beginning of May, I attended the SacredEdge Festival at Queenscliff Uniting Church in Victoria. Being my second year at the festival, I was particularly looking forward to the great sense of community I had experienced in 2016.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Making a bold statement

It is forty years this month since the Uniting Church in Australia was formed. The coming together, on 22 June 1977, of three denominations (Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian) was  the culmination of many years of prayer and hard work. Rev Dr John Squires, Director of Education and Formation at the Uniting Church WA, celebrates this union and explores some of the Uniting Church’s founding documents.

The Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches joined together as one Uniting Church in response to the prayer of Jesus, which is reported biblically in John 17: “May they be one.” There, Jesus prays for his earliest disciples, and then he prays for those followers who come after them, “that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me  and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

The unity of the church gives expression to this final prayer of Jesus and bears witness, to all people, of God’s love for the world. This prayer is also important for the international ecumenical  movement around the world. Not only was the Uniting Church formed in Australia in 1977, but last century also saw the formation of the United Church of Canada (1925), then the Church of   South India (1947) and the Church of North India (1970), the Church of Pakistan (1970), the United Reformed Church in the UK (1972) and the Indonesian Christian Church (1988).

The worldwide umbrella organisation for churches, the World Council of Churches (WCC), was formed in 1948, and this body includes churches from the Anglican Communion, many Orthodox  churches, the Lutheran Church and many other Protestant Churches (including the Uniting Church). The Roman Catholic Church is not an official member, but sends observers to each meeting of  the WCC.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Church WA says uranium is best left in the ground

Rev Steve Francis, Moderator of the Uniting Church WA, says that he is very disappointed that the Western Australian Labor government will allow the four inherited uranium proposals to proceed. While Rev Francis welcomed the reintroduction of a ban on all future uranium mines, allowing the existing proposals to proceed was still a matter of great concern.

“For a Labor government to allow uranium mining to proceed while it maintains a moral and ethical opposition to the approval of new uranium proposals is, in our view, a hollow moral position.”

The Uniting Church in Australia is committed to the development of environmentally benign, renewable energy sources and the cessation of uranium mining. Recognising the complexity of the issues the Uniting Church has called on individuals, churches, industry and governments to work together to end involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle.

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News & Announcements

President’s 40th anniversary message: established in love

The Uniting Church in Australia will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Thursday 22 June. Stuart McMillan, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, shares his 40th anniversary message.

People of the Uniting Church in Australia, you have been planted with roots deep into the good soil of the gospel: you’ve been established in love. May the love of Christ dwell in your hearts and may this love that surpasses knowledge enable you to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I’m Stuart McMillan the National President and this is my prayer for you, the people of God of the Uniting Church in Australia. On this our 40th Anniversary, God’s word of grace to us from the Basis of Union is: Christ constitutes, rules and renews his church.

The reconciliation and renewal of the whole creation – this is the mission of God and in Christ we are collaborators.

I’m here in Kurrajong on the lower slopes of the Blue Mountains in Sydney’s north-west. I want to pay my respects to the Kurrajong Clan Nation, their elders past and present and all descendants of these sovereign First peoples.

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News & Announcements

To be a witness: Indonesian National Conference

The Indonesian congregations of the Uniting Church, with different ethnicities and backgrounds, gathered here in Perth for the 14th Indonesian National Conference.

GKI Perth Uniting Church (Indonesian) in Mosman Park, the only Indonesian speaking congregation within the Uniting Church WA, was given the privilege to host this important biennual  conference. It ran from 5 to 7 May, attended by eight Indonesian speaking congregations from multiple Australian states. We all came to share stories and brought messages from our home congregations.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘To be a witness.’

“Have we become a witness of Christ in our family, in our church, and in our community?”

That is the message that was given by Rev Thresi Mauboy, the Moderator of the Uniting Church NT, in the evening devotion on the first day of the conference.

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