Month: June 2017

Categories
Education & Training

Uniting leaders growing the church

Uniting Leaders 2017 (UL17) is a conference providing opportunities for Uniting Church members to grow in their leadership skills and connect with other church leaders who are passionate about evangelism, mission and growing the church.

Geared towards all lay and ordained leaders in the life of the Uniting Church in Australia, it is also the second President’s National Minsters Conference for 2017. It will be held at Hope Valley  Uniting Church in Adelaide from Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 August. UL17 will feature worship, keynote addresses and workshops with guest speakers, and opportunities for peer learning, networking and connecting with others in church leadership.

Continue reading “Uniting leaders growing the church”
Categories
News & Announcements

All-inclusive games for emerging youth

Having taken part in State Youth Games for a number of years, the Uniting Church team, U Team, this year also took part in the Emerging Youth Games on 22 April at Warwick Stadium, Perth.

While State Youth Games is a weekend event in Bunbury for young people aged 16 and over, Emerging Youth Games invites kids in years 7–10 for a one-day all-inclusive event. Ten people joined  the U Team this year, coming from Nedlands, Mt Pleasant and The Billabong Uniting Churches, with around 20 teams taking part.

Emerging Youth Games is organised by Youth Vision, a division of the Churches of Christ in WA. Churches from across the state put together teams who compete in a range of games designed to  include people of all abilities.

Continue reading “All-inclusive games for emerging youth”
Categories
Stories & Feature Articles

Unearthing gold and God in the west

A recent advertisement in a church newsletter for free accommodation in return for providing Sunday services sparked an adventure from Queensland to regional WA. Ruth Duncan reflects on her experiences moving westward and how she struck gold in the faith community.

A small advertisement in a newsletter from the Uniting Church Queensland late last year popped up the day after hearing my last lecture in New Testament within the Lay Preacher’s course at Trinity College Queensland. The ad offered free accommodation in Kalgoorlie in return for providing Sunday services. What a great opportunity to see a different part of Australia and practise  what I’d been learning over the course.

Among the jaw-dropping from my local congregation members, they managed to ask questions like, “Where will you stay?” and “What is the congregation like?”

To these questions and more, including those that were in my mind, I had to say, “I don’t know.” I just heard the voice of God saying, “Come and see.”

Continue reading “Unearthing gold and God in the west”
Categories
News & Announcements

Moderator’s column: Celebrating 40 years and asking the hard questions

Some people who hit 40, experience a midlife crisis; if they are affluent they might buy a red sports car or go on a big European trip. But, 40 years of living often also prompts us to look back with thanks and gratitude and it can be a time to ask oneself some hard questions.

For some, the questions are about weight gain, career dissatisfaction, parenting struggles or financial worries. For others, it is a time to deal with regrets, missed opportunities, failed relationships and broken dreams. After the big 40 celebrations are over, midcourse evaluations begin and new hopes for the future start to emerge.

This year marks 40 years since the Union of the Uniting Church, and it is first and foremost a time to celebrate. Forty years ago, we tended to be defined by which denomination you came from  (Methodist, Presbyterian or Congregational). Now, that is in the past and is not as important as who we are in the present: Uniting.

Continue reading “Moderator’s column: Celebrating 40 years and asking the hard questions”
Categories
Stories & Feature Articles

Hope for a promised land

Rev John Barendrecht, Manager of Pastoral and Placements for the Uniting Church WA, is retiring from his placement on Sunday 30 July, after taking long service leave from Friday 9 June. As the Uniting Church in Australia approaches its 40th anniversary, John reflects on his 39 years of ministry.

I began my training for ministry as a student from the Congregational Church, and finished with the Uniting Church. My first placement was at Dalwallinu in 1978.

After 39 years of active ministry I will retire in July 2017, meaning I have been in placements for nearly all of the forty years that the Uniting Church anniversary celebrates this year.

I began my journey of ministry with all the hope and enthusiasm that the church I was part of was indeed a hopeful sign of how to live the message of Jesus in a contemporary way. Those who have been in the Uniting Church as long as I have will remember early days where the mainstream and church-based press referred to the Uniting Church as the ‘Australian’ church.

My ministry has always been both as an outsider who is looking in, and at the same time, an insider looking out.

Called into ministry with a congregational setting, I felt like an outsider within my own faith tradition. I saw worship styles and ecclesiastical habits which made no sense to me, yet mattered more than life itself to my congregations. Tradition mattered more than mission, and to this day I still don’t understand why.

Continue reading “Hope for a promised land”
Categories
News & Announcements

Calls for leadership on climate agreement

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) have called on Prime Minister Turnbull to show leadership in commitment to the global climate agreement, which is our best chance for the stewardship of the world around us.

NCCA President, Bishop Philip Huggins said “this momentous climate deal is bigger than just one country, one person or a handful of climate sceptics. It is about the urgent survival of humanity, the ability for all children to be able to born into and live in a world with clean air and clean water.

Sr Elizabeth Delaney, General Secretary of the NCCA, said “Prime Minister Turnbull, a man of faith, will understand that Australians are looking to him for leadership on one of the biggest threats facing us and future generations.

Continue reading “Calls for leadership on climate agreement”
Categories
Stories & Feature Articles

Amanda Hunt: Connecting passions and building potential

Amanda Hunt has always been passionate about community services. As a 16-year-old, she volunteered with a Catholic agency providing care for people living with an intellectual disability. From there began a lifelong passion for creating difference in people’s lives; a passion which has led her to become the new CEO of UnitingCare West, the Uniting Church WA’s community services provider.

Following a career in arts management, Amanda has 20 years of experience working in the community sector, having come to UnitingCare West from the role of State Director at Mission Australia  for WA and SA. She has also been CEO of Gowrie WA, an early childhood organisation, and the Recreation and Sport Network, now known as Inclusion WA.

Amanda’s passion became cemented further when family illness showed her the importance of community care. While working with Recreation Network, Amanda’s dad became unwell with Parkinson’s disease, a battle which lasted 12 years. After an accident resulting in a head injury, he became frail and the family rallied around to support him.

Continue reading “Amanda Hunt: Connecting passions and building potential”