Category: Stories & Feature Articles

Harmony: the odyssey of salvation

Post author By revivewa
Post date March 10, 2016

Although the word ‘harmony’ does not appear in the Scriptures even though it existed in Greek diction at the time when the New Testament was written, a cognate or synonym is used frequently in the Scriptures. That word is ‘reconciliation’. Though the word itself is not used, the idea of harmony is central to the history of salvation.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself…” (2 Corintians 5:19) could be rendered “God was in Christ harmonising the world with himself.”

I do not propose to talk about the mystery of reconciliation. Despite our best theological explanations it still remains a mystery. It is a truism that all our talk about God (theology) tells us more about ourselves than about God. So, let me reflect on the idea of harmony in relation to ourselves.

The term itself is a musical one. It denotes the agreeable effect of the apt arrangement of parts to form a harmonious whole. To harmonise, everyone vocalising, or playing an instrument, has to be playing or singing from the same music score. To use a contemporary idiom, they need to ‘be on the same page.’ Each may be playing a different instrument or part, but the music score has to be the same. Each part compliments the others to form a harmony. So, differentness is essential to harmony; and harmony is the result of the reconciliation of diversity.

Tags Theology and Spiritual Reflections

Stories & Feature Articles

A woman of influence: Deaconess Dr Cath Ritchie

Post author By revivewa
Post date March 8, 2016

This International Women’s Day, Revive asked three Uniting Church leaders to share their stories of the women who have influenced their lives. Rev Bev Fabb writes:

The woman who has had the most profound impact on my life is Deaconess Dr Cath Ritchie. Born to a farming family in Gippsland, Victoria in 1909, educated in a one teacher rural school, she eventually graduated from the University of Melbourne. Raised in a Scottish Presbyterian family, her Christian faith was always central in her life. In 1937 she responded to a call from the Foreign Missions Department to serve as a teacher missionary in Korea, then under Japanese rule. When Japan entered the war in 1941, all Australian missionaries were recalled from Korea. Cath dreamed of returning once the war was over, but this was not to be. After a time as a youth worker in rural Victoria, riding her bicycle between towns, she was asked to become Principal of Rolland House, the Presbyterian Deaconess and Missionary training college. She remained in this position for 23 years.

Tags Our People and Agencies

Stories & Feature Articles

A woman of influence: Mary Belshaw

Post author By revivewa
Post date March 8, 2016

This International Women’s Day, Revive asked three Uniting Church leaders to share their stories of the women who have influenced their lives. Rev Dr Alison Longworth writes:

My childhood recollection of Great-Aunt Mary Belshaw is of an old woman who was losing her memory. Ironically, I almost forgot Aunt Mary, and yet her influence in my life has grown since 1986 when my Mother showed me an article describing the unveiling of a memorial stone at the site of the former Badjaling Mission. The plaque commemorated two missionaries, Mary Belshaw and May McRidge and the thirty-nine Nyungar families who lived at Badjaling from 1930 – 1954. The following year I visited the site with my family. It was the beginning of my research in Australian religious history, focused initially on Belshaw and her encounters with Nyungar people.

Tags Our People and Agencies

Stories & Feature Articles

A few great women: reflections on women of influence

Post author By revivewa
Post date March 8, 2016

This International Women’s Day, Revive asked three Uniting Church leaders to share their stories of the women who have influenced their lives. Rosemary Hudson Miller, associate general secretary (justice and mission), writes:

International Women’s Day always gives me a chance to reflect on the women who have influenced me. My maternal grandmother Kathleen Annie so wisely spread the message of ecumenical tolerance in a time of great sectarian divide in country Australia of the 1950’s when my parents came from different denominations. She took up this stance well before Vatican 2 and continued to support her grandchildren as we engaged in a range of ‘Protestant’ activities.

Tags Our People and Agencies

Stories & Feature Articles

Why I’m chuffed our daughters are still part of church – and why we haven’t invited you to come

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 29, 2016

If you ask my youngest daughter why she goes to church, up until pretty recently morning tea will have figured high on the list. Memorable moment – our three year old clinking communion glasses with her father and declaring loudly: “Cheers.”

My eldest daughter would probably tell you she goes because her two best friends from primary school are there, along with a couple of uni students she gets along with particularly well. The seven or eight of them sit out the back most Sundays and have a good old convo about everything from feminism to asylum seekers to human rights and whether the Bible even matters. (They have mixed feelings on this, I’d say. From those who can quote the Scriptures and read it every morning to those who are indignant about quite a lot of it, they feel safe to speak up. They know one another well enough to argue. Sometimes hotly.)

So what is this thing we’ve got them mixed up in? Picton Uniting Church is possibly a bit different to churches as you’ve known or grown with them. Not on the outside – it’s pretty bog standard there – and for an hour on a Sunday morning, it probably seems pretty typically ‘church’ on the inside too. People sit in rows, there’s singing, someone talks about something after bits are read out of the Bible, we pray, we collect some money, we pray a bit more, we head out the back for a cuppa. If you’ve suffered through a church service before, no surprises there.

Tags Youth

Stories & Feature Articles

Church partnerships making a difference in Fiji

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 27, 2016

My husband, John, and I recently went to Fiji to see the partnership at work between the Uniting Church in Australia – through UnitingWorld – and the Methodist Church in Fiji. We travelled with two families from NSW; making a party of 12, with six adults and six young people aged between 12–19. We were very ably led by our team Leader, Megan Calcaterra, UnitingWorld’s projects and administration officer.

Whilst there we met with the president of the Methodist Church of Fiji, Rev Dr Tevita Banivanua and the general secretary, Rev Epineri Vakadenavosa, who spoke about the new changes and challenges within Fiji. The church has a new Constitution, and a new Code of Conduct to be implemented in 2016, and the changes to the logo are more in keeping with their ‘New Exodus’ theme as they move forward.

Due to the disruptions of Military Coups, there were no Conferences – their annual gatherings – allowed to be held in 2009, 2010 or 2011. Succeeding Conferences were of shortened duration, but now with a more stable Government, there is a strong emphasis on appropriate change as they look to the future. There is also a conscious effort to increase the involvement and training of women for and in ministry.

At Davuilevu Theological College we met the principal, Rev Anil Reuben, who is the first Fijian of Indian decent to be elected to that position. The college has one Bachelor of Divinity class and three Diploma of Theology classes and we were told that they can only take 25 new students each year, sometimes from 200 applicants.

Tags Faith In Action, International

Stories & Feature Articles

Moderator’s column: Seeking to live in harmony

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 14, 2016

How easy are you to live with? How often do you disagree with someone? Have you ever felt frustrated that some people’s views, opinions, lifestyles or values are very different to your own?

German philosopher, Schopenhauer, once said that human beings are like porcupines on a winter’s night. They draw close together only to find that in the process of unity they end up moving apart and hurting or needling each other.

Living together harmoniously is one of life’s great challenges. Ask a parent of a teenager or a teenager with a parent. Ask a mother with a two-year-old or the chairperson of a church council.

We humans are a complex and paradoxical bunch. We are made in the image of God, how glorious is that, and yet we are fragile and broken beings, with a tendency towards self-interest, the enemy of harmony. We may hold strong convictions about what is right and wrong; yet in doing so we can see our own view of the world with 20/20 vision while suffering from blind spots when trying to see another’s viewpoint.

Tags Theology and Spiritual Reflections

Stories & Feature Articles

Uplifted in faith and hope

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 9, 2016

To coincide with International Women’s Day, Tuesday 8 March, Bindy Taylor shares with Revive the story of Khadija Gbla, executive director of No FGM Australia. Khadija will also be the keynote speaker at the UnitingWomen conference to be held in Adelaide this April.

Spending time with Khadija Gbla is an uplifting experience – she is as passionate and as vocal one-on-one as she is speaking to a gathering of 1,000 people. Khadija has squeezed a lot of life into her 27-years, and she feels compelled by God to share her life experiences, both the ups and the downs, to instill hope in others.

At the age of nine, Khadija underwent female genital mutilation (FGM), an unnecessary and cruel act of violence. At the time, Khadija had no idea what was happening to her, but she is now able to name it for what it is – human rights abuse, child abuse and sexual abuse. It is an experience she wants no other girl or woman to go through.

FGM, also known as female circumcision, has no known health benefits and is largely practiced in countries within Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Common reasons given for performing FGM include social acceptance, hygiene, ideas relating to female sexuality, purity and modesty, religion, and cultural identity. While it has been restricted or outlawed in many of the locations where it is practiced, FGM procedures continue to be performed. The dangerous act can lead to ongoing health problems, inability to conceive a child and complications during childbirth.

Tags UnitingWomen

Stories & Feature Articles

Seeing with new eyes from the holy land

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 7, 2016

Pilgrims in the holy land at Wadi Rum, Jordan.

During Advent, a group of young adult Christians from Perth became pilgrims in the holy land. A month after their return, they gathered to reunite, filling the room with reflection and laughter as they shared stories, experiences, memories and photos from the trip.

The pilgrimage was led by Rev Dr Ian Robinson, chaplain at the University of Western Australia, and a group of volunteers, and was organised in partnership with Christian Pilgrimage – a Perth based organisation offering Christian pilgrimages in the holy land throughout the year.

The young adults, from a range of churches around Perth, including Carey Baptist Church, Nedlands Uniting Church and Uniting Church in the City, visited a range of ancient and holy sites as well as experiencing life in modern Middle Eastern cities such as Amman in Jordan and Israel’s Jerusalem. They visited churches covered in ancient mosaics, also spending time at a mosaic workshop, learning about a program which gave employment opportunities to people who may not otherwise be able to find employment. They explored the ancient city of Petra, walking around and inside houses painstakingly carved into rocks thousands of years ago, and went four-wheel driving through the Jordanian desert.

Tags International, Theology and Spiritual Reflections

Stories & Feature Articles

Busselton living life to the full

Post author By revivewa
Post date February 5, 2016

Busselton Uniting Church held its inaugural Christmas Carols BBQ in December 19 and, given the response, it seems set to become an annual event.

A major focus for our church this year has been to better integrate the various parts of our church family, and the carols gathering showed we are on the right track. The 100-plus crowd consisted of Sunday morning regulars, Messy Church and Boppin Totts families, plus volunteers and friends from our various outreach activities (community café and op shop.)

As the sausages sizzled, Rev Brenton Prigge, First Third specialist for the South West Region, told the Christmas story, even using some of the children as live ‘props.’ Each part of the story was interspersed with carols, led by a band of young people from church.

Tags Church and Community