Month: July 2018

And God saw it was good…

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 20, 2018

At the very beginning of our scripture, we find God creating a world that is ‘very good’. It is clear from the first chapter of Genesis that God created a world for humans, plants and animals alike. God saw to it that all the creatures and human beings were provided for, with the human being charged with being a steward of God’s good creation. This is particularly clear in Genesis 1–2.

Keeping the creation as ‘good’ can be reasonably interpreted as not poisoning or polluting it, as giving due care to the natural needs of domestic food animals, and as preserving the habitat of wild animals. This is further reinforced in Genesis 8, where God makes the same covenant with animals as humans, promising never to destroy the earth again.

It is a sad truth that in our modern, civilised world, we have not kept the creation good. We have allowed synthetic created chemicals to poison our air and our waterways; we have destroyed natural habitats so animal and plant species face extinction; Indigenous peoples have been driven off their land to satisfy large corporations requiring mono crops and oil supplies; and we have allowed the over-fishing of many species.

Tags Theology and Spiritual Reflections

News & Announcements

Freedom to decide on marriage

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 16, 2018

The 15th Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia has agreed to hold two equal and distinct views on marriage to honour the diversity of Christian belief among its members.

Meeting for the first time since last year’s change to Australian marriage laws, members of the church’s national decision-making body, the Assembly, resolved to allow its ministers the freedom to conduct or refuse to conduct same-gender marriages.

“This decision follows many years of reflection, prayer and discernment, and I want to thank Assembly members for the way they have responded with grace to what is a difficult conversation for many people of faith,” said Uniting Church President Dr Deidre Palmer.

Tags LGBTQIA

News & Announcements

Review: Joy Interrupted: A memoir of depression and prayer

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 13, 2018

by Geoffrey Lilburne, Garratt Publishing, 2018

Statistics say about one in eight men and one in six women in Australia experience depression at any one time, and this number rises in older people. Yet, many sufferers feel shame, even in the church.

The stigma about depression in the wider community is also present in the Christian community. This ought not to be. Depression exists and people live with it, still having full and accomplished lives.

In his book, Geoffrey Lilburne shares his story of depression and how he has managed as a Christian. Geoffrey frames his discussion in the context of faith and shapes his reflections using Psalms. Many Psalms allow a person suffering from depression to find, in Scripture, familiar feelings and thoughts.

Tags Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes

News & Announcements

New residential care delivered in Perth’s south east

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 5, 2018

Juniper, a Uniting Church WA agency providing residential and community aged care, has opened its latest residential aged care service in one of the metropolitan area’s most rapidly ageing suburban areas.

Vaughan Harding, Juniper Chief Executive, said in the next 20 years the number of people aged over 70 years in the Gosnells-Armadale area is expected to grow by more than 115 percent to nearly 26,000.

Opening Juniper Hayloft residential care facility in Martin yesterday, Vaughan said the new centre brings 100 much-needed additional high care beds to Perth’s south-east.

“The Gosnells-Armadale area takes in more than 177,000 people or 7.2 percent of WA’s total population with an annual population growth of 58 per cent in the south-east, exceeding the 40 percent growth predicted for Perth and the remainder of the State,” he said.

Tags Ageing and Community, Our People and Agencies

News & Announcements

Uniting Church gives thanks for long and dedicated service

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 4, 2018

A service to mark the conclusion of employment of Dr Suzanne Boorer and Dr Nancy Ault with the Uniting Church WA was held on Friday 29 June at the Murdoch University Worship Centre. After the withdrawal of the Uniting Church WA from the Perth College of Divinity, Suzanne will continue as Academic Chair Religion and Nancy as Senior Lecturer in Religion at Murdoch University.

Suzanne and Nancy asked Rev Margaret Tyrer to preach at the service, on Proverbs 8:22-32 and John 1:1-18.

In a sermon called ‘Grace and Truth’, Margaret noted the importance of truth-telling that is not self-justifying to both the Wisdom of God in Proverbs and the Word of God in John. There can be no true reconciliation with it.

Tags Our People and Agencies

Stories & Feature Articles

A mandarin is not a failed orange

Post author By revivewa
Post date July 2, 2018

What do Katanning WA and Lincoln NZ have in common?

During April, both hosted gatherings of people passionate about ministry in rural settings. One over-arching message is: small and rural matters!

Setting the scene for the 100 delegates in Lincoln for the International Rural Churches Association (IRCA), Dr Rosemary Dewerse told us the story of Parihaka. This Maori village was being claimed by colonisers. In 1881, as armed cavalry rode in they were met first by children sitting in the road singing, then teenage girls skipping and then gifts of food. Eventually two Maori chiefs, Te Whiti and Tohu, along with many others, were imprisoned, but their commitment to nonviolent resistance did not waver.

Te Whiti’s conviction was that taking up arms would lead to more deaths, so instead they persistently pulled up surveyors’ marker pegs, built their own fences and ploughed up the settlers’ roads.

Tags Church and Community, Ministry, Remote and rural communities