Category: News & Announcements

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News & Announcements

A campsite for the journey

On Saturday 10 December, the newly refurbished Uniting Church Campsite in Busselton was converged upon by people from near and far to celebrate the commissioning of the newly opened site.

This commissioning service has been a long time coming. Since falling into disrepair and closing its gates in 2012 the site has been sorely missed by many Uniting Church WA members. The Moderator, Rev Steve Francis, welcomed those gathered, including distinguished guests Busselton Mayor Grant Henley and Hon Barry house, MLC.

Rev Sealin Garlett, chairperson for the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) WA Regional Office, gave recognition of the land and our Indigenous brothers and sisters. He told a story of visiting the campsite with his family while he was studying at the Perth Theological Hall thirty years ago.

Sealin said that on returning to the site he could feel the spirit in the place and that it was a ‘Koort’ place, a heart place.

It isn’t hard to see that Sealin is right, throughout the time at the campsite, people told their own stories of visiting there in years past and how good it is to have the campsite back up and running.

Rev Hollis Wilson, former convener of the First Third Working Group, acknowledged the work of the Campsite Redevelopment Committee members and volunteers who contributed to the work of refurbishing the campsite.

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Moderator’s column: Do dreams come true?

Recently, I had a bad dream; I woke up suddenly believing that I had been attacked by a large army of cockroaches. Thankfully, when my eyes were fully opened, there was not a cockroach in sight.

No doubt, a good therapist could work out why I had such a nightmare. Maybe it was just the curry from dinner taking revenge on my psyche. Sometimes, thankfully, dreams don’t come true. They are usually the   product of anxious living.

Does God have dreams? Probably not the kind we have. Some Christians, however, think that all the talk in the Bible about ‘the kingdom of God’ is really talk about God’s dream for humankind. Pick up on most of  the Old Testament prophets and you will get this drift. If you read through the long and winding Isaiah or the short and abrupt Haggai, you will catch a glimpse of the hopes and dreams God has for humankind.

Jesus was captured by these Godly dreams when he began his ministry with the words, ‘the time has come, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news’ (Mark 1 v 15). Notice how Jesus connects  kingdom with the words “now” and “arrived.” The waiting was over and it was time for the kingdom to arrive.

It wasn’t, however, what most of Israel expected. They thought kingdom equals a king, land and  citizens. The king meant ditching Caesar or the corrupt local king (Herod Antipas) and replacing him with a Messiah. This new king would sit on the throne in Jerusalem and rule the land. The land would flow with milk and honey and everyone would follow the Torah (the Law). The citizens would love and serve the king and the kingdom would expand.

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UnitingCare Australia welcomes funding certainty but calls for policy reform

UnitingCare Australia has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement of the extension of the Transitional National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH) until June 2018 but says a more comprehensive, long term response strategy is required to address homelessness.

“This $117million commitment now gives frontline services certainty until June 2018 and we appreciate that the Turnbull Government has brought the announcement forward ahead of next year’s Budget,” UnitingCare Australia’s acting national director, Martin Cowling, said.

“However, with the number of Australians accessing homelessness services increasing by eight per cent since 2011-12 to more than 255,000 people in 2014-15, and our frontline services reporting increasing demand and a critical shortage of safe, affordable accommodation to house these people, it is clear that new policy directions are needed.

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Scaling back of aged care funding cuts welcomed

The chair of the UnitingCare Aged Care Network, Geoff Batkin, has welcomed the announcement by the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Ken Wyatt, that the Government had scaled back  some of the more severe cuts to aged care funding.

The Commonwealth Government previously announced $2 billion in cuts to the funding to meet the complex health needs of residents in aged care services. The two tranches of cuts, announced in the May Budget and in December 2015, significantly reduced the funding to the Complex Health Care component of the instrument that funds residential aged care, the Aged Care Funding Instrument.

“Our Network is pleased that the Government has listened to the concerns of aged care providers that the proposed cuts would have a significant negative impact on the care of frail, older people and has made adjustments to reduce the severity of changes to the funding instrument. We are particularly pleased that the Government has reversed the proposed downgrades to funding for the critical areas of pain management and physiotherapy.

“We also welcome the increased supplement to support the viability of rural and remote aged care services. This is particularly important as those services were most likely to be hardest hit by the proposed changes and residents in these areas have fewer choices.

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Bringing people together at Christmas

UnitingCare West officially launched the annual Target UnitingCare Christmas Appeal in WA on Friday 18 November, in Perth’s CBD, at 100 St George’s Terrace Perth. Students from Tranby College helped create a festive environment, singing Christmas carols to those present.

One in eight Australians are currently living in poverty. Many of these people turn to UnitingCare to put food on the table, buy gifts for their children and provide temporary accommodation over Christmas. The  annual Christmas Appeal helps to support people through their hard times.

This year, Target and UnitingCare are hoping to raise $1.5 million, which will go towards running many of UnitingCare’s community services. Leave an unwrapped gift underneath the Christmas tree at  participating Target stores, and you could be helping women and children fleeing domestic violence, people seeking emergency relief or children in foster care.

At the launch, Sue Ash, CEO of UnitingCare West, explained what the Target UnitingCare Christmas Appeal means for UnitingCare West.

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Swan View Uniting Church wins environmental award

Swan View Uniting Church was recognised for its community garden and environmental efforts on Sunday 30 October in a special service and celebration.

The church was recognised with a Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate for their water saving native garden; solar hot water system and solar photovoltaic panels; community green waste collection, chipping and compost program; educating their church and community about gardening, compost and sustainability; and their community garden, which was established in partnership with the Swan View Community Association.

Five Leaf Eco-Awards founder Jessica Morthorpe visited Swan View Uniting Church to present the award to Neil Butcher and Rosemary Smith, who were representing the church and community garden, and to congratulate the congregation on their achievements. This presentation makes them the 9th church in Western Australia to achieve a Five Leaf Eco-Award and the 26th in Australia, with many more working towards completing the criteria.

“The Swan View Community Garden is truly impressive, and has previously been recognised with several grants and awards,” Jessica said.

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People, Places and Planes: Presidential Field Notes and Reflections, by Rev Dr Andrew Dutney

people-places-and-planesRev Dr Andrew Dutney was the president of the Uniting Church in Australia from 2012– 2015. This book is a chronological account of his very readable reflections and statements during those three years.

One theme is the Uniting Church’s inclusiveness and therefore diversity. Indeed Dutney regards inclusiveness as one of the Uniting Church’s best characteristics.

Second, the congregations continue to decline. The broader context in which those congregations developed has itself changed: Australia is now a “multicultural, multi-faith, hyper-capitalist, globalized, digital  civilization”. Therefore the Uniting Church is having to find a new way of living in a new world.

An interesting statistic is that the Uniting Church has more than 2 000 congregations – more than twice the number of McDonald’s outlets. So it still has a large base from which to begin its reinvention for the new  era.

Finally, the saga of the iconic Frontier Services dominated much of Dutney’s time as President. He was there for the centennial events in 2012 and two years later for the transfer of much of its work to other Uniting Church agencies. Frontier Services had become over-extended (especially in aged care). Dutney handled the process well.

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Voices raised for our Pacific neighbours

Over 200 Christians from all around Australia, representatives of Pacific communities and members of Parliament gathered in front of Australian Parliament House this morning calling on Australia to be a better neighbour to our Pacific brothers and sisters. The gathering was part of Micah Australia’s Voices for Justice event.

Speakers from Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati shared their experiences of climate change, and the effect it is having on their lives and communities. They called on politicians to make a greater commitment to climate change action and aid focussed on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for developing nations in our region. Prayers were said for our churches, our nation, our nation’s leaders and our world.

Rev James Bhagwan, a leader from the Methodist Church of Fiji, greeted the crowd with a traditional greeting – “Bula!” – as a reminder of the importance of place and relationships.  He called on the Australian government to love and care for all people, including our Pacific neighbours.

“To love and care for only a few is not to love at all,” he said.

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Christians march with Pride

Northbridge lit up with glitter and colour on Saturday night, 19 November, as Perth’s annual Pride Parade, a celebration of the LGBTI community, took to the streets. Marching through the centre of Northbridge, the party went into the night, with the theme Love Wins.

Faith groups joined the parade including Jews for Pride and Christians with Pride. A passionate group of Christians marched, mostly members from the Anglican Diocese of Perth or the Uniting Church WA.

Fr Peter Manuel, from St Andrew’s Anglican Parish Subiaco, said it was important for Christians to march in the parade to show their support for the LGBTI community.

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Hope and healing for Mogumber

In October, those with a connection to the closed Mogumber Native Mission site gathered to share stories of the past and hopes for the future of the site. The site closed in 1974, but prior to this was a government settlement housing Indigenous Australians, many who were part of the Stolen Generations.

Bev Port-Louis, one of the main organisers of the gathering, is a Nyungar elder with strong connections to the site at Mogumber; her grandmother is buried there. Bev is a member of the Bringing Them Home Committee WA, of which the Uniting Church WA is also a member.

“The area where Mogumber sits is in Yuet country and that’s where I grew up,” Bev said.

Bev was approached by Rev Dennis Doust, a retired Uniting Church WA minister, and others who had previously worked at Mogumber, about holding a day for healing. She felt that many of the staff who worked at Mogumber also needed healing, as some felt concerned that they had been part of a hurtful past.

“A lot of the staff now are in their 60s and early 70s and they were teachers there and had other positions. I didn’t want them to have a conscience to think that they did anything wrong because it’s not their fault how the place got set up,” she said.   

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