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.
Hundreds of wildflower specimens drew a steady stream of visitors to the 93rd Busselton Wildflower Exhibition, held from Thursday 4 to Friday 5 October.
The exhibition provides wildflower enthusiasts an opportunity to learn more about the local varieties with advice from botanists on site or visitors can just enjoy the sights and smells of the exhibition as they wander through the exhibition.
At midnight on Thursday 26 July this year, seven Scotch boys and two staff flew out from Perth enroute to Papua New Guinea to embark on the world-famous Kokoda trail.
All the months of preparation were over, there was no chance to fill in the gaps, and in reality, most of us had very little understanding of the challenges that lay ahead. Seven days later, we walked through the trail’s finishing arch in the town of Kokoda. The physical and emotional challenges faced throughout the seven days of trekking had left an indelible and lifelong imprint on the spiritual psyche of us all.
As a General Practitioner in the medical field, Dr Sue Wareham has long held compassion for her fellow human beings. When she began learning of the effects and scale of global nuclear weapons in the late 70s and early 80s, she became passionate about ridding the world of them.
Since then, she has worked tirelessly to campaign for the abolishment of nuclear weapons through the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Sue has been awarded an Order of Australia, and last year, ICAN was recognised with a Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr Sue Wareham will be one of the speakers at the upcoming conference, ‘Making Peace: exploring the practice of peace in today’s world’, held from Saturday 10 to Sunday 11 November, at St George’s Cathedral, Perth. The conference is organised by the Social Justice Commission of the Uniting Church WA, and will be held over the centenary of the Armistice of the First World War.
Sue has been involved with MAPW since its foundation in 1981. She said the aim of the association is to draw attention to the health implications of warfare and armed conflict.
“We draw attention particularly to the health impact on civilians, partly because civilians form the majority of the victims of war these days,” Sue said. “When we go to war, modern warfare is often an attack on civil society itself. So it’s absolutely imperative to find other ways to resolve conflicts.”
It looked more like a concentration camp than a residential school for Aboriginal children.
Back at their dormitory the girls were trying to snuggle down in their cold, uninviting beds. Molly, Daisy and Gracie began to talk normally amongst themselves, not whispering, but speaking in their own relaxed manner.
“You girls can’t talk blackfulla language here, you know,” came the warning from the other side of the dorm. “You gotta forget it and talk English all the time.”
Text taken from Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence, by Nugi Garimara, 1996.
Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence tells the true story of three girls who escaped the Moore River Native Settlement in 1931.
For two weeks in May I had the marvellous privilege of exploring a fascinating and beautiful country, rich in history and struggle, a place almost undiscovered by tourists: Armenia. When I told people I was off to Armenia on a self-funded trip most people looked puzzled and said, “Where exactly is Armenia?”
Armenia is in the South Caucasus region, sharing borders with Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The capitol is Yerevan, a city of over a million people, with the awesome snow peaked mountains of Mt Ararat dominating the skyline. The mountain forms an impressive background to Armenia’s ancient past.
The Busselton Wildflower Exhibition is set to welcome hundreds of visitors when it opens it’s doors for the 93rd time this spring to showcase the best wildflowers from the region. The exhibition is organised each year by Busselton Uniting Church.
The South West corner of Western Australia is renowned for having one of the richest and most diverse flora in the world and attracts visitors from around the state, Australia and overseas.
The Busselton Wildflower Exhibition gives those unable to ‘go bush’ an opportunity to see a great variety of specimens. Wildflower enthusiasts can learn more about the local varieties with advice from botanists on site or visitors can just enjoy the sights and smells of the exhibition as they wander through the exhibition.
The Uniting Church in Australia has today published an additional marriage liturgy that will allow same-gender couples to get married in Uniting Churches from Friday 21 September 2018.
The liturgy was approved by the Uniting Church’s Assembly Standing Committee which met in Sydney from 24 to 26 August.
The publication of the Uniting Church in Australia Additional Marriage Liturgy (2018) follows the decision by members of the Fifteenth Assembly Meeting in July to hold two equal and distinct statements of belief on marriage to honour the diversity of Christian belief among Uniting Church members.
Dr Deidre Palmer, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, has issued a Pastoral Letter to church members, to reassure people about the additional liturgy.