Robert Watson, Past Moderator of the Uniting Church WA, recently stepped down from his longterm role as Chair of the UnitingCare WA Forum. He spends 5 minutes with us to share some reflections.
Author: revivewa
On the first Thursday of the recent school holidays, the Uniting Generations Network held a Music Jamboree event at Nedlands Uniting Church which was very much an intergenerational afternoon.
With 12 children attending, there was also one teen aged helper, along with parents, grandparents, and leaders of varying ages.
During its Mission Planning process in 2018, one of the disturbing learnings for Star Street 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.
Months ago, Dr Fiona Bush, a heritage consultant, contacted Cannington Uniting Church as she was interested in two stained glass windows that were installed in our building during its construction in 1963: one depicting the Methodist Youth Fellowship and the other depicting the Rays, which were a Christian group of young girls.
In May this year, Dr Deidre Palmer, who at the time was the President of the Uniting Church in Australia, invited young adults of the Uniting Church WA to join her for a conversation. This would be one of eight entries into her project, ‘Around the Table’, which aimed to collate and represent the direct experiences of young people across the Uniting Church in Australia.
Living in a time of video calls and social distancing, it’s easy to feel unsure about what the future holds. Earlier this year many speculated about life on the other side of COVID-19.
Nine months on, that future remains uncertain. But for some members of our community, this precariousness has lasted much longer. For many refugees, a chance at a new life in Australia can mean living in uncertainty for eight or more years without knowing if they’ll be allowed to make their home here, or forced to return to the violence they sought safety from.
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Reconnect with the Covenant
The Uniting Church WA, through the Social Justice Commission, has released a Covenanting resource for its congregations.
A Guide to Congregations in Walking Together as First and Second Peoples encourages and supports councils of the church to re-commit to the Covenant with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC), to engage and deepen covenantal relationships, and to inspire the church to take action for creating change.
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Introducing Rob Douglas
The Uniting Church WA Thrive Mission Committee introduces Rev Rob Douglas as the new Presbytery Minister (Mission).
Rob is a Baptist Minister, with experience in regional WA, as well as with Baptistcare.
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Recipe: Chicken Casserole
Anti Poverty Week will be held from Sunday 17 to Saturday 23 October.
Uniting Aid is a caring agency of the Uniting Church, supporting those receiving Centrelink payments in the City of Stirling. It started its life 40 years ago out of Dianella Uniting Church, offering donated food from the church vestry. Uniting Aid now operates out of church premises in Nollamara and helps families, single people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, those with disabilities, the culturally and linguistically diverse, those experiencing homelessness, and the elderly. The agency supports people with food every three months and with utility bills once every twelve months.
Uniting WA is thrilled to have opened the doors to its transformed Tranby Engagement Hub (Tranby), Perth’s first co-designed and purpose-built crisis intervention space for people experiencing homelessness.
Minister for Community Services, Simone McGurk, officially launched the newly renovated Tranby, made possible by a $1.7m grant from Lotterywest, at an event in June.