Author: revivewa

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Stories & Feature Articles

Kids are not the future of the church

What? Children and young people are our future, right? Well, if you simply mean that they’ll be on the Earth after we’re all dead, then yeah, the kids around now will be adults in the future.

But no, children are not the future of the church.

Why? Because children and young people are our present. They are here right now giving life and witness to the church.

Richard Telfer, First Third specialist for the Uniting Church in WA, recently returned from an Intergenerational Faith Formation Symposium led by John Roberto in Connecticut, USA. He believes this phrase is holding us back from being a truly intergenerational church.

A multi-generational church is one which has members from different age groups who mostly stick to themselves, not really interacting with others outside their own age group. A crossgenerational church is one where the dominant age group invites other age groups to participate in their activities.

An intergenerational church probably doesn’t know it’s intergenerational. It has members from different age groups who naturally learn from each other and grow together.

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News & Announcements

A day of great moral failure

The Uniting Church in Australia has expressed its dismay at changes passed to the Migration and Maritime Powers Acts which will cause greater suffering for those vulnerable people seeking refuge in Australia.

“Today is a day of great moral failure for Australia,” said Uniting Church President, Rev Prof Andrew Dutney, in response to legislation that passed the Senate in the early hours of Friday morning.

“The Federal Government has now made it legal to punish the strangers that Jesus called Christians to welcome, simply for seeking our protection.”

These measures will only cause more suffering for refugees who have already suffered so much,” said Andrew.

The Uniting Church has long-standing concerns about the policies of successive governments which aim to punish and deter rather than protect people in need.

The legislation passed by the Senate grants unprecedented powers to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, placing the Minister’s decisions out of reach of the courts and giving him permission to act contrary to international law.

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News & Announcements

GKI on the move

One of the outcomes of our recent Annual Meeting of the Presbytery and Synod of the Uniting Church in WA was the commitment to continue our partnership with the Indonesian Christian Church (GKI).

The partnership began over two decades ago and has led to the growth of the GKI Perth Uniting Church congregation in Mosman Park and a special Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that points to various ways we can co-operate and learn from each other.

IMG_0043Rosemary Hudson-Miller, acting general Secretary of the Uniting Church in WA, and I, moderator of the Uniting Church in WA, were very privileged to be able to visit Indonesia in September to  attend the GKI West Java Synod and sign the MOU. This was a tremendous privilege and richly rewarding for us. We were able to witness a church that is growing and dynamic in many areas of its life.

We stayed in the climatically cool Zuri Resort and Convention Center, owned by GKI, about three hours out of Jakarta, near Bogor in the mountains. It was very special being part of their synod  meetings. About 270 members attended from eight presbyteries across West Java.

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News & Announcements

A letter from Australian religious leaders to the ABC

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Professor Andrew Dutney has joined with 28 other Australian religious leaders and their supporters to protest against the ABC’s cuts to religion programs.

As the ABC’s Board meets today to consider the proposed cuts to staff and programs, leaders such as the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne the Most Revd Dr Philip Freier and the Grand Mufti of Australia Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed have sought an urgent meeting to discuss how the proposed cuts will affect the place of religion on the national broadcaster.

In a letter to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott and Chairman Jim Spigelman, the leaders say they believe, “the faith and values we hold will always occupy a central part in the formation of our Australian national identity.”

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Social Impact

Uniting Church Minister explains why he protests

Anti-coal activists at the controversial open-cut coal mine at Maules Creek, near Narrabri, are at times surprised to find themselves accompanied by a Uniting Church Minister. Rev John Brentnall joined a blockade for the third time on 26 November, together with three Buddhists and another Christian, this time at the gate of a coal processing plant in Gunnedah. On a previous occasion he was arrested.

Why would a Christian Minister work in such unlikely ways? John explains: “Like many other Christians, I interpret the word ‘neighbour’ to include not just the people who live next door but all of humanity. Not just the ones who are alive now, but the ones in the generations to follow. I also include all living creatures.”

John cites the various objectionable impacts of the coal mine. He is concerned about the health impacts of toxic dust; the mine’s heavy use of water in a drought-prone agricultural area; the destruction of the last remaining intact Box Gum grassy woodland, habitat for dozens of endangered species; and the destruction of various sacred sites of Gomeroi Traditional Custodians.

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News & Announcements

Church women say “Love Makes a Way!”

Eleven female church leaders were arrested at the electoral office of WA Senator Michaelia Cash, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women and Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection on Monday 24 November.

The women refused to leave the office until Senator Cash committed to a date when all 726 children in Immigration Detention Centres will be released. The women did not disrupt the business of the office, engaging in quiet prayer.  This sit-in was part of the Love Makes a Way movement which has seen more than 100 Christian leaders arrested this year.

Churches and their agencies in WA have offered to accommodate and support children and families in the community while their claims are being processed. This offer was rejected by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Seeking God’s shalom for the world

For followers of Jesus, when it comes to speaking up for the rights of the marginalised, our voice should be as bankable as the presence of dreadlocks and bongo drums at a G8 rally. Proverbs 31:8-10, Psalm  82:3, Isaiah, 1:17 and Luke 4:18-19 are just some of the Bible verses that make our responsibility clear. However, in my opinion, it is not the verses that are compelling, so much as the vision for life that lies  behind them.

Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggemann suggests that in the pages of the Hebrew scriptures we see God’s chosen people, the Israelites, constantly faced with ‘either or’ decisions. In other words, they  can live according to the standards and values of the world around them or they can live according to God’s alternative reality – life with God at the centre where justice, humility and mercy are valued. This alternative vision for life finds its full expression in the person of Jesus. He demonstrates what life to the full looks like; life with God at the centre which he invites us to join in. This is the crux of the  Gospel. American theologian, Ron Sider says, “The vast majority of New Testament scholars today, whether evangelical or liberal, agree that the central aspect of Jesus’ teaching was the Gospel of the  kingdom of God.”

We don’t talk about kingdoms much these days, so the term can lack meaning, but the concept is pretty straight forward. A kingdom literally means a ‘king’s domain’ – it’s where the king’s values, attitudes  and ways of doing things hold sway. So what does God’s domain look like? The short answer to that question is, shalom.

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Social Impact

Manea College a sea of purple

Students from Manea Senior College in Bunbury rallied together on Wear it Purple Day to support sexually diverse peers and raise money for UnitingCare West’s True Colours program. Wear it Purple Day  was held on Friday 29 August, building awareness around issues that many young sexually diverse people might face.

The College became a sea of purple as students were invited to dress up for the occasion. They also held a presentation at lunchtime including information on the concept behind the event, performances, a  best dressed competition and berry smoothies made by the college’s Health Committee throughout the day.

Lauren Baxter, youth worker at the college, said that the year 12 Student Executive Team wanted to be proactive on the issue and run the event to highlight to the community that they offer an inclusive  environment.

“It was student led and it just makes it more relevant to the students,” Lauren said. “We’re aware that there are going to be students that are sexually diverse and we want the students to know that we are  supportive and there are services in Bunbury that they can go to.”

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Social Impact

Update: 5 Christian leaders arrested at MP Kevin Andrew’s office in Doncaster after prayer sit-in

Advocates for children suffering in detention have been arrested after sitting in the office of MP Kevin Andrews to request the release of all children and families from immigration detention.

Five church leaders have been arrested after a prayer sit-in in at Cabinet Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews’ electorate office. The group were requesting a timetabled commitment for the release of all children and families from immigration detention centres.  They asked that Kevin Andrews become a public champion for the immediate release of children and families. Despite an invitation to respond to their message, Kevin chose to remain silent and decided to arrest the church leaders and close his office early today at 3pm.

Those arrested included local clergy and Christians from different denominations. One of those arrested, former disability nurse Leonnie Wickenden had this to say about her participation in today’s action: “I’m here today because the evidence of over 15 years of bipartisan asylum seeker policies, show us that vulnerable children continue to be put at immeasurable and unacceptable risk of life-long developmental disruption. Having over 20 years of service to people with disability, my faith determines that we owe children immediate freedom from detention so they can thrive in all aspects of their development, away from the bars of hopelessness and despair.”

The group made this request of Kevin Andrews because he is both a Cabinet member and a vocal public advocate for children’s welfare.

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Social Impact

Christian leaders hold prayer sit-in inside Kevin Andrews’ Doncaster office

Advocates for children suffering in immigration detention intend to stay until they have a timetabled commitment from the Government for all children and families to be released.

5 Christian leaders are right now holding a prayer sit-in inside current Minister for Social Services and former Minister for Immigration Kevin Andrew’s Melbourne electoral office calling on the Federal Government for the immediate release of all children and families from immigration detention centres.

The group, comprised of church leaders from Pentecostal, Church of Christ and Uniting Church backgrounds entered Kevin Andrew’s office at 11am and say they intend to remain there until they get a timetabled commitment for the release of all children and their families.

The group is making this request of Kevin because he is both a Cabinet member and a vocal public advocate for children’s welfare. In his recent address for National Child Protection Week, Kevin said that “child protection is a unifying issue in a place where we are so often divided. It’s one of those things that should be bigger than the to-and-fro of partisan politics.”

Speaking of the governmental “duty to protect,” he stated, “At the end of the day, the best interests of the child must always be pre-eminent and paramount. There should never be ambiguity on this question.”

However Kevin Andrews has been silent regarding the harmful effects of the detention of asylum seeker children.

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