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Stories & Feature Articles

Review: When we Pray

The future of common prayer, Edited by Stephen Burns, and Robert Gribben, Coventry Press, 2020

The keyword in the title of this book is ‘we’. What is going on when we gather together and pray in unison?

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News & Announcements

Review: Reflections on Faith

Inspired by COVID and Inspired by Seniors By Phil Ridden, Edwest Publishing, 2020

I recently read two of the volumes from Dr Phil Ridden’s ‘Reflections on Faith’ series: Inspired by Covid and Inspired by Seniors. Phil is a retired Head Teacher and now works as a consultant and writer, based in Joondalup, Perth WA.

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News & Announcements

With love in an app

With Love to the World: A Daily Bible Reading Guide, first published in 1976, is now available as an app that includes access to the daily biblical texts and commentary in an easy-to-use format.

Many people seek meaning, encouragement, and hope for life. With Love to the World has been meeting these needs for the past 46 years with its daily commentaries on lectionary and associated Bible passages, prayer suggestions, and questions for individuals and groups.

Designed to help users prepare for Sunday worship, nurture their faith, and strengthen us to live faithfully amidst the hopes and hurts of everyday life, With Love to the World is a resource for individuals, as well as for leaders of worship and small groups. It is widely used in the Uniting Church across the country, and in other churches.

“With Love to the World is an inspiring Australian resource which supports the daily practice of prayer and reflection on Scripture and the light it shines on our daily lives,” said Dr Deidre Palmer, President of the Uniting Church in Australia.

“I commend this resource to local churches and individual members of the Uniting Church.”

To subscribe to the app visit the App Store or Google Play Store. The cost is $24 per year. For booklets, email wlwuca@bigpond.com or call (02) 9747 1369. Visit the website at withlovetotheworld.org.au or email the Editor, Dr Peter Butler, at editorwlw@bigpond.com.

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News & Announcements

Vale Rev Chris Ridings

We are saddened to hear of the death of Rev Chris Ridings in Sydney, NSW, on Tuesday 29 June.

Chris was born in South Australia, and lived for some time in WA.

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News & Announcements

KCO dreaming

This year, Kids Camp Out (KCO) was postponed in March due to significantly lower registrations. Unfortunately, this was not unexpected as the number of campers have been noticeably declining over the past five years due to Uniting Church WA children growing up and being in high school, with some now being young adults.

KCO has been a Presbytery wide event for primary school aged children in the Uniting Church WA for around 40 years.

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News & Announcements

Thanksgiving and passing the baton

On Sunday 18 April, the worshipping community of Uniting Church in the City, Wesley Perth celebrated a unique combination of achievements and milestones in a very moving ceremony, toward the end of our Sunday morning service.

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Social Impact

Sharing stories for healing: NAIDOC Week at BKI

Beananging Kwuurt Institute (BKI), a Uniting Church WA Aboriginal community services organisation in Queens Park, Perth, held a NAIDOC Week storytelling event on Wednesday 7 July. Guests were invited to listen, learn, share, and enjoy kangaroo stew and damper together. This year’s NAIDOC theme is ‘Heal Country!’

In the 1930s, the site where BKI now stands was set up as Sister Kate’s Children’s Cottage Home, an institution for Indigenous children taken from their families, who are now known as the Stolen Generations.

Auntie Helen Skiadas, Board Member of Beananging Kwuurt Institute, spoke saying they are hoping to bring healing to people with a past connection to the site.

“We hope that as we slowly restore some of the land, it will heal some of the dark past,” she said. “We haven’t stopped dreaming of change here at BKI – and renewal – and we hope for happier times of joy and gladness for all our people.”

After a Welcome to Country by Kevin Fitzgerald, Board Member at BKI, and the raising of the Aboriginal flag by Tramaine Dukes, RAAF Indigenous Liaison Officer Flt Lt, Jo Abrahams shared some of the history of Beananging Kwuurt Institute and her personal connection to the place. Jo is a Ngarluma woman with ties to Roebourne. She has worked with the WA Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, and has spent the last ten years reconnecting with her past.

Jo’s grandmother and great uncle were taken as children from their parents in the Pilbara region to be raised at the Sister Kate’s site. She said that Sister Kate’s intentions for the mission were well meaning, but with AO Neville’s government policy at the time, this is not how things played out.

“Children were selectively chosen for this place based on the colour of their skin,” Jo said. “Almost white children were actively targeted and slated for removal. These children were thought to have the best chance for assimilation into the dominating European culture.

“Generations of Aboriginal families in this state existed on a knife’s edge. The colour of a child’s skin making them a target of removal. Neville’s obsession with skin colour resulted in insulting, painful and ludicrous practices. Especially given that siblings of the same mum and dad could be graded differently by his designation, not actually by their bloodlines.

“Under his policies of assimilation, Aboriginality was something to be escaped, denied, watered down and eventually bred out. It sowed seeds of shame and guilt, self loathing and lostness.”

This policy of removal stayed in place until 1964, with amendments.

“What do we do now in WA with the hangover from previous generations? What have we inherited that needs to be disinherited?” Jo asked.

“One thing Neville didn’t factor on, is me and many others like me who are so proud of their Aboriginality. And that Aboriginality has got nothing to do with colour, and all to do with bloodline. We’re proud of our bloodline and where we’ve come from and the people who’ve come before us.

“There are still Aboriginal people who believe the lies that were told in this place – that they don’t matter. Be patient and understand there is a deep brokenness that’s hanging over from places like this.

“We don’t need more police officers in this space, we need more grief counselors to help us to deal with our brokenness, and support to give us spaces where we can come together and heal with each other.

“It’s a shared experience and understanding that brings space for healing.”

Susy Thomas, Moderator of the Uniting Church WA, blessed the gathering, before guests enjoyed a lunch of kangaroo stew and damper.

“May God bless you and guide you, and help us to walk alongside with you,” she said.

A Dreaming Session for BKI will be held on Wednesday 21 July, 10.00am to 4.00pm. Guests are invited to come along and share their dreams for what they would like to see happen at Beananging Kwuurt Institute, 188 Treasure Rd Queens Park, into the future.

Heather Dowling

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Stories & Feature Articles

Mission Plan starts with community connection

During its Mission Planning process in 2018 one of the disturbing learnings for Star St Uniting Church in Carlisle was that we were virtually invisible in our local community.

While our building is on a busy intersection, it is not immediately identifiable as a church – many locals thought it was part of a nearby nursing home, or a business or offices. A few years ago an attractive mural to symbolise our church had been created on an outside wall, but it was clear we needed more. Few local residents knew about our church, what we did or what we stood for.

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News & Announcements

India’s ‘Corona Tsunami’

India’s COVID-19 surge has overloaded its struggling heath system and is causing thousands of deaths per day.

Uniting Church partners, the Church of North India (CNI), are not immune. Battling to keep people fed as a second lockdown wreaks havoc, and spreading critical health information to help beat the spread of the disease, they’re on the front-line of the response in their communities.

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News & Announcements

Uniting WA turns fifteen

In September 2005, the Uniting Church WA decided that eight of its community services agencies and parish missions would come together to form a new community services agency. UnitingCare West (now Uniting WA) commenced operations on 1 July 2006.

Now, on its 15th birthday, Uniting WA reflects on a history that goes back to the roots of the Uniting Church in WA, and the legacy of those pioneering visionaries.

The merger of Fremantle Wesley Mission, Mofflyn, Rainbow Project, Trinity Outreach Services, UCA Outreach Services, Uniting Community House Midland, UnitingCare Kwinana and Wesley Mission Perth into UnitingCare West provided a strong governance structure and more strength in adapting to the changing community services sector. However, many were worried that the unique and necessary programs provided by the smaller agencies would be lost in a bigger organisation.

Uniting team member Joanne Goodwin originally worked for Mofflyn, starting in 1996. “It was a very scary time when the organisation formed. There was lots of change. We went from being a tiny little program at Mofflyn to being part of a big organisation.”

All of the organisations that merged to form Uniting WA had begun in response to unmet needs in the community, and most had long histories of working to support vulnerable West Australians. The 2002 Marketing Plan for Wesley Mission Perth said, “Our programs of support focus on the gospel examples of empowerment. Empowerment is best achieved by identifying and working with people’s own natural strengths — working through the difficulties they are experiencing using these strengths to solve their problems.”

The Uniting Church also pledged in the 1977 Inaugural Statement to the Nation ‘to hope and work for a nation whose goals are not guided by self-interest alone, but by concern for the welfare of all persons everywhere.’
UnitingCare West was formed with these values at its core. And while it’s changed its look to become Uniting WA, it’s still the same at heart.

“There’s been so much change for the better since the organisation formed,” said Joanne, who’s still supporting vulnerable families after all these years. “We can definitely provide a better service for the people we support. We can link them to other services and give them wrap-around support.”

It’s exciting to be able to mark this next phase of Uniting WA with the recent relaunch of the Tranby Engagement Hub for people experiencing homelessness — still with the goal of bringing services together to support people, but now with an updated, co-designed, purpose-built space.