For the past two years, Margaret River Uniting Church has run an annual Deep Listening Festival. The festival invites people to step outside their normal busy schedule to engage, connect and listen. Through a diverse range of speakers, workshop presenters, musicians and artists, the festival is an opportunity to hear wonderful stories, to inspire and enrich people’s understanding of themselves and the community around them.
Rev Dr Christine Sorensen, Uniting Church WA Presbytery Minister – Formation and Discipleship, asks what does the ‘spirituality of Christmas’ have in common with ‘the spirit of Christmas’?
Spirituality is a word that has gained such currency in our modern world it means everything and nothing. One of the ways we can give parameters to spirituality is to think of spirituality as being a capacity for self-transcendence, and then more narrowly define human, religious and Christian spirituality.
With Christmas just around the corner, these super tasty Tim Tam Balls will be a sure hit with guests. Lay them on the Christmas table or package them up and give them out as gifts.
They could also be quite easily decorated for Christmas; try adding a drizzle of melted white chocolate, or rolling them in desiccated coconut. Or even experiment with other flavours of Tim Tams to try something different.
Simple to make and good to eat!
I began 2020 as your Moderator-elect wondering what would unfold during the course of the year and how I might be guided by God to effectively lead this wonderful Church when I assumed office.
When the day of the Opening Worship of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Synod of WA and my Installation arrived on 11 September, the world was a very different place indeed, unlike any other we have experienced in our lifetime.
Containers for Change officially launched in October in WA, and our own Good Sammy Enterprises is playing a huge part. Good Sammy is a Uniting Church WA agency providing employment opportunities for people living with disability.
As a Super Collector, Good Sammy has 16 collection points for all your used, eligible containers. Bring in your containers and get a 10 cent refund for each, or donate your refund to a registered charity – including Good Sammy.
Christmas can be a difficult time for many people in our community, especially as many more are confronted by hardship for the first time. For people and families facing financial stress, many will struggle to access daily necessities, such as food, essential items, and even a safe space to live. As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt, Christmas this year will be especially hard.
The Target Christmas Appeal has proudly supported the UnitingCare Australia network for the past 29 years, giving customers the chance to support a better Christmas for others. Giving to the Appeal will help brighten Christmas Day for thousands of people and families who might otherwise go without.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, housing was at a crisis point in WA. But now, even more so. With jobs lost and the Australian Government’s JobSeeker payments about to end, there are people falling through the cracks and slipping into homelessness.
John Berger, Executive Officer, Caring Agencies at the Uniting Church WA, is also the Executive Officer of the WA Alliance to End Homelessness. He said Western Australia has come to this point after decades of failing to fund and support social housing in WA.
Cath Taylor, UnitingWorld, shares how gifts from the UnitingWorld Everything in Common catalogue are changing lives.
There are no pigs pictured at the birth of Jesus. Donkeys, yes. Maybe a lamb. Pigs – no. Considered unclean by Jewish people, they’re unlikely to have been among the much romanticised gathering. One fabulous hog, however, has taken centre stage at the birth of a child just to our north, in Bali, Indonesia. The pig is a bit of a symbol for the life changing impact of Jesus’ birth – for everyone.
Like many young adults who’ve recently finished school, Tom Broadbent is figuring out where he wants to head in life. There are three things he knows for sure he wants in that journey though: travel, surfing and Christ.
From his hometown of Busselton WA, Tom spent 2020 merging these three passions – with some limitations to the ‘travel’ part – through a yearlong diploma in leadership through Christian Surfers Australia and Alphacrusis College, based in Sydney. In what could be described as a ‘gap year’, has been a chance for Tom to build his leadership skills, share the gospel and live in the present on some of the world’s best beaches.
The Commission for Education for Discipleship and Leadership (CEDAL) held their End of Year Celebration last week at South Perth Uniting Church.
Rev Dr Anne Wright, Director of Education and Formation for the Uniting Church WA, said that due to an increase in students and candidates for ministry in the Presbytery of WA, this year’s celebration service was held a little differently to usual, with a café style worship.