Category: News & Announcements

Mustard Seed expanding knowledge

Post author By revivewa
Post date November 12, 2014

Mustard Seed, at Glen Forrest Uniting Church, is a program offering computer classes for people in the local community. A reference to the Biblical mustard seed, the program is all about big things growing from the small. Five sessions are run each week during school terms helping people learn more about tablets – such as iPads – iMac, Windows, printing and scanning as well as assisting with any questions or troubleshooting people might be experiencing with their computers.

Running since 2001, Brian Hassell, coordinator of Mustard Seed, said that they are one of the most well-equipped computer learning centres in the region. Operating out of the back room at Glen Forrest Uniting Church, they have 22 computers available for use, including laptops and desktops as well as a digital projector, tablet computers, scanners, still and movie cameras, an audio recorder and a CD/DVD copier.

The building is also equipped with wireless internet for people who bring their own devices. Each session costs $3 a person and the program has been fortunate enough to receive grants from the Uniting Church in WA and the Mundaring Shire. It has been an extremely popular program, mostly with retirees in the area, attracting over 90 enrolments each year and a waiting list of people trying to get into the classes.

Tags Church and Community

Corporates clean up at Juniper Rowethorpe

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 29, 2014

Juniper’s Corporate Volunteers program has enlisted recruits from Bankwest to help give our gardens a welcome spring clean.

A strong team of staff from the company descended on Juniper Rowethorpe in Bentley recently to weed, plant and clean up around the site, much to the residents’ delight.

Juniper’s Volunteer Program Coordinator, Verity Quill, oversees a 500-strong volunteer workforce who help deliver services to thousands of older people throughout Perth and in regional WA.

“Our volunteers undertake many different activities, from office work to home visiting and companionship, driving, gardening, and therapy and activity assistance,” she said.

“Juniper’s volunteers give an invaluable boost to the care we provide to more than 4,000 older Western Australians and without their help many of our services would not be possible.”

Tags Ageing and Community, Juniper

News & Announcements

Uniting Church in WA divests from fossil fuels

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 19, 2014

The Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Western Australia has decided to divest from companies involved in mining, exporting, or energy generation from fossil fuels. Instead, the Church will seek to invest in companies which reduce the impact on the environment through power generation from renewable sources.

The Church’s investment policy has always been guided by ethical principles. Since its inception in 1977, the Uniting Church has expressed its concerns for the environment. Over time, this call has only become more urgent, with the Church making many statements on the need to act on climate change. The Church recognises that divestment from fossil fuels is important in transitioning to a renewable energy future. The Church is committed to promoting renewable energy as a priority in responding to the challenge of climate change.

The Uniting Church in Australia, national Assembly, as well as the Uniting Church in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, have also recently committed to divesting from companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels.

Tags Environment

News & Announcements

Pilgrimage to Living Waters

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 12, 2014

On Friday 15 August, nine intrepid ‘pilgrims’ set out from the Dongara Uniting Church to follow a trail around the Irwin River and estuary. The weather was glorious and the setting magnificent. Our planned route included trekking across the bar, but this was adjusted as the river mouth was open. Having the Shire bus to help transport those not able to walk the full distance meant the whole group could instead move together from the lookout on Church Street to the boardwalk in Ocean Drive. We were delighted to have Jess Rowe and her daughter Sue with us and our friend Viv, who had walked with us last year, as well as several first-time pilgrims.

‘Water For Life’ was the theme of the event this year, celebrating the wonderful and amazing qualities of the gift of water for this water-dependent planet. A pilgrimage booklet was available for every person, with text extracted from the book Downstream From Eden by David L Knight. This booklet also contained portions of some of the psalms and wisdom writings from the Bible. Further reflections came from a book of modern Psalms written by a New Zealand woman. At each of seven ‘stations’ along the way the group stopped and shared in readings from the pilgrimage booklet which opened insights into the complex nature of water. Here we expanded our understanding of how amazing this substance is, how chameleon-like it can be, changing in appearance and quality according to characteristics of surrounding air and earth.

Tags Church and Community, Remote and rural communities

News & Announcements

WA’s newest faith community

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 8, 2014

With joy, members of the recent Annual Meeting of the Synod and Presbytery recognised and welcomed the Eaton Millbridge Community Project (EMCP) as the Uniting Church in WA’s newest faith community.

Almost three years ago, a fresh expression of church, the EMCP was planted as a form of church for our changed culture and primarily, for the benefit of people who currently have no connection to the church. The EMCP practices incarnational mission through acts of loving service, listening and radical hospitality in the community of Eaton and Millbridge. Regular events held in local parks, such as Easter egg hunts, Movies by Moonlight, Christmas events and most recently a Spring Fiesta draw in crowds from the local community.

Tags Church and Community

News & Announcements

How do you travel around the world in seven days?

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 5, 2014

You go to the World Folk Festival in Springville, Utah!

In July this year, eight students from the Gorna Liyarn Indigenous dance group of Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) spent two weeks in America to attend the World Folk Festival. Whilst there, they shared their culture with people from all over the world, including spending time with a Native American group. Hanna Chulung shares her experience.

I am so honored to have represented my country and culture at the World Folk Festival in Utah. It was an incredible experience shared with many other countries. And to be able to do so through songs, stories and dance was just unbelievable.

It was such a humble experience to have collaborated with the Native American group, Morning Star, at the festival and to have performed for the public and the owners of the Chumash Museum in Los Angeles (LA). I was able to find out some of the history of Native Americans and compare Aboriginal culture with theirs. It was interesting to see how they lived, what their customs were, their beliefs and so much more. I had a lot of fun at the Chumash Museum because we were given a tour around the land that they owned and we were given special access to see a cave, where villagers would have gone on a hot day or where pregnant women would have gone to give birth.

Tags First Peoples, PLC

News & Announcements

Planting trees strengthens life and community in Metro West

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 25, 2014

The Metro West Region held their first Church and Community Tree Planting Day in 2012. It was less than three months after I started as the First Third specialist in the region. I needed an event that would be intergenerational and active, that could involve the local community and which would build relationships between people in my group of churches as well as making a difference. I settled on planting trees at Lake Claremont with the help of the Friends of Lake Claremont, who are conducting a major volunteer revegetation program at the lake.

On the day, about 25 people showed up to help restore the wetland and provide habitat for local fauna. Some of the children participating had never planted trees before, but they dived in with energy. Everyone played their part. The ministers helped to plant, families worked together, children too young to plant collected the empty pots, and some older church members who couldn’t plant brought delicious baked goods for the friendly morning tea afterwards.

Tags Church and Community, Environment

News & Announcements

Scarborough smoking ceremony

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 23, 2014

Sam Dinah, prison chaplain and member of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) recently conducted a smoking ceremony at Scarborough Uniting Church. Ben Tanner, congregation member, said, “It was a very moving ceremony and had the congregation examining their thoughts on the place of our Aboriginal brothers in our church and society today. Our love and prayers are for Sam and the work he has committed himself to at the prisons.”

Tags First Peoples

News & Announcements

Memorial plaque for servicemen and women

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 31, 2014

On Sunday 9 February at Guildford Uniting Church, Wesley Chapel, a special Dedication Service was conducted for the Sumatra Memorial Plaque. The dedication was preparatory to the plaque’s approaching placement in the Changi War Museum in Singapore, beside many other Regimental and commemorative plaques, on Saturday 22 February. A couple of years ago, Nola Elizabeth Hudson who turned 101 in April, made contact with family members to enquire how she could commemorate both family and friends who were lost and/or incarcerated during the Malayan campaign of 1942.

Nola’s grandchildren took up her cause and after extensive consultation with the Australian Branch of the Malayan Volunteers Group and the Changi War Museum, a plaque was developed to commemorate the British, Australian, Dutch, New Zealand, Chinese and Eurasian men, women and children and the Allied servicemen and women who suffered severe deprivation during three and a half years captivity at Muntok on Banka Island, and in Palembang and Loeboek Lingau camps on Sumatra from 1942–1945, as well as the many people who were killed in the evacuation of Singapore. An overall feeling of the fortitude and bravery shown by those held captive in the many camps within Sumatra was apparent to the congregation.

Tags Church and Community