Category: News & Announcements

Uniting Aid celebrates 35 years of caring

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 14, 2016

In 1981, the churches of the Uniting Church Yokine Region Parish conducted a community study to assess how they could serve their community and, recognising the physical needs of the struggling members of their community, they established Uniting Aid at Dianella Uniting Church.

This year is Uniting Aid’s 35th Anniversary and it really is an organisation worth celebrating.

At its inception, Uniting Aid was aphone-in service for co-ordinating community assistance. The services provided then were broad: lifts for people to essential appointments, grocery shopping assistance, moving goods by trailer, and providing occasional respite for in-home carers. These days, Uniting Aid looks different in service, but is similar in spirit. Now operating out of a building in Nollamara, the use of which is donated by the Uniting Church WA, Uniting Aid is made-up of 65 volunteers who undertake a variety of tasks across the week.

Margaret Waller, chairperson of Uniting Aid, said the volunteers are fantastic.

Tags A Helping Hand, Church and Community, Faith In Action, Poverty

News & Announcements

Moderator’s column: Emotionally healthy spirituality

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 12, 2016

Some years ago, I went to a Peter Scazzero seminar. He said something that has stayed with me: “You can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.

“Spiritual maturity is holistic; it involves the mind, heart, will, spirit and body.”

Much of my early training in ministry emphasised an intellectual maturity, growing in thinking and understanding; read lots of books, write smart essays and you will slowly get there. I soon discovered the poverty of this narrow-minded focus.

I began to realise that John Calvin was right when he wrote, “Our wisdom consists of almost entirely two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”

In other words, we need to know ourselves that we may know God. Augustine prayed, “Grant Lord that I may know myself that I may know thee.”In the early days of my faith development I was taught that feelings are unreliable and not to be trusted. They go up and down like a yoyo and therefore they are the last thing we should be attending to.

Daniel Golemen, author of Emotional Intelligence, defines emotions as, “Referring to a feeling and its distinctive thoughts, psychological and biological states, and range of propensities to act.”

Tags Our People and Agencies, Theology and Spiritual Reflections

News & Announcements

Welcome to the Perth Samoan Uniting Church

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 10, 2016

At the Annual Meeting of the Synod of Western Australia 2016, Synod was briefly suspend for a special Presbytery meeting, planned specifically to consider the proposal to officially recognise the Perth Samoan Uniting Church as a new congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia. The proposal was agreed to unanimously.

Rev Bev Fabb and Rev Dr Ian Tozer spoke on behalf of the congregation, explaining that for a large portion of this year they had spent significant time with them, discussing the core values and policies of the Uniting Church, while the Samoan group considered their position in seeking to become a recognised congregation.

Hanamoa Vaitogi is a member of the Perth Samoan Uniting Church.

“I couldn’t explain the feeling we got when we got recognised as a Uniting Church congregation,” she said.

Tags International

News & Announcements

Roaming gnomes for Cambodian youth

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 2, 2016

Emma Oxenburgh, from Trinity North Uniting Church, will be broadening her horizons early next year when she travels with World Vision to visit youth programs in Cambodia. She will travel with ten other Australians, along with five Cambodians, all aged between 18–25.

Emma is currently studying a double major in marketing and international communications at the University of Western Australia (UWA), and has recently done an internship with Reconciliation WA. She has a keen interest in ethical travel and international community development.

She said that the trip is not a ‘voluntouring’ (volunteering plus travel) experience, but rather an opportunity to learn more about Cambodia and the projects that World Vision supports there.

Emma said she’s keen to add some real life experiences and a human perspective to her textbook experiences gained while studying at university.

Tags Church and Community, International, Youth

News & Announcements

Mogumber revisited

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 14, 2016

It is a beautiful piece of our God’s creation. The Moore River meandering by, tall timbers rising up from the valley floor; Indigenous trees and foreign plants make a bold statement. This is Mogumber WA, land of the Yuet people – a people who have long cherished this place since.

Buildings, once alive with human endeavour, lie silent. A testimony to non-Indigenous hopes, with many Indigenous and non-Indigenous dreams, shattered. Amongst the foundations of wholeness and hope arising from the good news of Jesus, there remains a trail of loss and trial.

Earnest human beings (some voluntarily and many involuntarily) investing years of their lives, looking to share and relate in an enabling Christ-like way. There are good stories; there is also much grief.

The Mogumber burial site is a sacred place. Many lives being remembered and honoured. The Yuet people join with Indigenous people from across Western Australia in being custodians of this site, on behalf of many families.

In 2016 we look forward to a casual beginning, of revisiting this special place called Mogumber.

Tags First Peoples

News & Announcements

Theological curriculum for the 21st Century

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 12, 2016

For the last eight years a group at All Saints Floreat and Wembley Downs Uniting Churches have been using the Living the Questions curriculum for their theological education. The material of DVDs and study notes are produced by two American Methodist ministers, of which one (Rev David Felten) spent a year at Perth Theological Hall, Murdoch University. The curriculum is now in use in nearly 5000 churches across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Our churches will be repeating the study again in 2017. Subject to copyright, studies available from Living the Questions which include the DVDs and study notes are being made available for loan at cost through the WA Progressive Network.

The WA Progressive Network has brought leading progressive theological scholars to Western Australia such as Dr Val Webb, Michael Morewood, Dr Greg Jenks, Prof Brandon Scott, Rev Dr Lorraine Parkinson, David Galston, Robin Meyers and locally Rev Prof Bill Loader and the Very Reverend John Shepherd.

Tags Church and Community, Theology and Spiritual Reflections

News & Announcements

A place to be refreshed

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 7, 2016

On Friday 17 June, dozens of women carrying Bibles and notepads converged on Swanleigh Conference Centre for Women’s Weekend Away 2016, themed ‘Me and my God’.

The history of the Women’s Weekend Away spans more than half a century, beginning in 1965 as an initiative of South Perth Uniting Church. Over the decades, this event was a joint initiative between South Perth, the former Como and Manning congregations, at present a number of women from Swan View Uniting Church serve on the board.

Women from 17 congregations attended the Women’s Weekend Away, including Bindoon, Gingin, Trayning and Mukinbudin.

Organiser, Fiona Paice explained that the diversity of attending women is an essential element of the longevity of the event.

Tags Church and Community

News & Announcements

All ages benefit from digging deep in Kununurra

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 29, 2016

Older people are enjoying the fruits of a wonderful new vegetable garden they helped to create with students and international volunteers.

The project sprouted recently at Juniper Kununurra Community Care and was made possible by travel company Rustic Pathways which gives students and volunteers empowering travel experiences that positively impact communities across the world. Juniper is an agency of the Uniting Church WA providing residential and community aged care services.

Three Australian school groups from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney visited the facility along with volunteers from all across the globe including Japan, Spain, Sweden, China and the USA.

Juniper’s community operations manager, Brenda Murray, said clients and staff very much enjoyed the visits.

“Not only do we now have a beautiful garden that will provide fresh vegetables and herbs but we have established a new and hopefully long-lasting relationship with the team from Rustic Pathways,” she said.

Tags Ageing and Community