Tag: A Helping Hand

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News & Announcements

Sharing God’s love through the Christmas Bowl

“The love of Christ can be made more vivid through Australian Christian concern, on Christmas day, the one great day of sharing.”   Rev Frank Byatt, founder of the Christmas Bowl c. 1956

As Christians, we are called respond to, and faithfully live out, the Gospel call to be generous in our love, and to participate in God’s mission to bring healing, wholeness and hope to those facing hardship and injustice. It sounds like an overwhelming task, but in fact we can reach people in need with the humblest of actions.           

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Stories & Feature Articles

Creating a sense of belonging

Sarah* is a single mother of two children aged six and three. She lives below the poverty line on a government allowance and often doesn’t have enough money left at the end of each fortnight to buy medicine, pay bills, or put a proper meal on the table.

 While many of us are planning holidays, shopping for gifts, or deciding what size turkey we need for Christmas Day, all Sarah wants are the basics – to know the rent will be paid and her kids won’t go hungry. Anything else is a bonus.

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News & Announcements

Editorial: Congratulations GSI!

Good Samaritan Industries (GSI) is one of my favourite parts of the Uniting Church.

I’ve grown up shopping at Good Sammy stores, not only for the bargain but because my mum always taught us to be thoughtful about what we were buying, and that re-using second-hand clothes was better than piling them up in landfill.

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News & Announcements

Uniting Aid unveils the John Ward Resource Centre

Uniting Aid is a caring service providing emergency relief and other services to vulnerable people in the City of Stirling. Years ago, we operated our op shop out of a garden shed at the back of the church’s premises, which comprised just a house converted as best we could into an emergency relief centre.  This garden shed was very small and also very hot, and there were many days during the summer when we could not open the shop because it was too hot to work in.  

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Social Impact

From the paradise of the fair go

This week, from Sunday 14 to Saturday 20 October, is Anti-Poverty Week. Rev Sophia Lizares, Chaplain at UnitingCare West offers Revive readers this reflection. UnitingCare West is a Uniting Church WA  agency providing care and support to many of WA’s most vulnerable people.

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Social Impact

Congregations combine to combat poverty in Sri Lanka

Poverty is a serious issue, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun raising money to tackle it. Members from a range of Uniting Church WA congregations have recently shared in some delicious Sri Lankan curries and danced to Bollywood music as part of a combined effort to raise much needed funds for five preschools in Sri Lanka.

Susy Thomas, one of the event organisers, was particularly glad to see people enjoy themselves.

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Social Impact

Bobby’s first birthday present: the gift of giving

Dianella mother, Alwynn Hynes, wanted to give her son, Bobby, something special for his first birthday, something he could reflect on in later life as an event that helped shape the person he would become. That birthday present was the ‘gift of giving’.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Transform Tranby, transform lives

When ‘Big Kev’ found himself down on his luck and without a place to call home, he turned to UnitingCare West’s (UCW) Tranby Centre. All he wanted was a simple breakfast, a hot shower and someone to listen to his story. He was homeless, but at Tranby he found a spark of hope. That spark became a flame when our team was able to connect Kev with vital government services and eventually, to secure a small unit – his own home.

Fast forward two years and Kev still visits Tranby most days, offering advice and listening to other people’s stories. He is one of a group of people from all walks of life who have, or are still  experiencing homelessness, working with UnitingCare West on an ambitious project to ‘Transform Tranby’.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Bring hope and healing to the world this Christmas

Last year, the ecumenical churches raised an incredible $2.1 million through the Act for Peace Christmas Bowl. Uniting Church members across the country generously contributed over $990 000 to provide food, shelter, medicine and health care to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The theme for this year’s Christmas Bowl is ‘When did I see you hungry? When did I see you sick? When did I see you a stranger?’

Jess Xavier spoke to Rev Stephen Larkin, minister at Nedlands Uniting Church, about what it means to take part in this much loved ecumenical tradition. The Nedlands congregation has been supporting the Christmas Bowl for over twenty years.

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News & Announcements

Challenged to see and hear

The annual Anti-Poverty Week Ecumenical Service was this year hosted by the Uniting Church WA at Uniting Church in the City, Wesley Perth, on Tuesday 17 October. Opening with a free soup lunch provided by UnitingCare West’s Food Rescue program and members of Forest Lakes Uniting Church, the service brought together people of different faiths and Christian denominations to pray and reflect on the issue of poverty in Australia.

The service is an event of the Ecumenical Social Justice Roundtable, including The Salvation Army, Quakers Australia, the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, the Anglican Social Responsibilities Diocese of Perth, the Council of Churches WA, UnitingCare West and the Uniting Church WA Social Justice Commission. It is held each year during Anti-Poverty Week.

Mitchell Garlett, candidate for ministry with the Uniting Church WA and member of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC), delivered the welcome to country.

“I’d like to recognise God for trusting my people to look after the land for all these years,” he said. “My heart is happy that we are gathered here today in this place.”

Amanda Hunt, CEO of UnitingCare West shared the keynote address, highlighting the struggle many people in Australia face as they live under the poverty line on Newstart or Youth Allowance payments.

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