Pastor Lindsay Ginn has been working as a Uniting Church WA Bush Chaplain in the Remote Area Ministry, Goldfields Patrol for just over a year and has already made some big waves. Frontier Services, a Uniting Church Assembly agency supporting people in Australia’s rural and remote areas, funds the role, which sees Bush Chaplains travelling to remote areas providing a friendly ear, pastoral care and referral to other service providers if needed.
Rev Dr Alison Longworth, retired Uniting Church WA Minister, shares her experience of revisiting Badjaling, while traveling from Perth to Quairading to lead worship.
After the easing of restrictions due to COVID-19, Western Australians were being encouraged to ‘Wander out Yonder’ and I was preparing to travel into the wheatbelt. On the Sunday morning I was committed to lead worship with the Quairading Uniting Church and in the afternoon I had arranged a visit to the Ballardong Noongar community at Badjaling, a few kilometres east of the town.
My connection to Badjaling began in 1987 when I visited the former Mission site with my family. The recently erected memorial plaque acknowledged two missionaries, and the thirty-nine Noongar families who lived on the Reserve near the railway siding from 1930 to 1954. My Great Aunt Mary Belshaw was the founding missionary, hence my initial interest.
When the Uniting Church WA gathers, we often share in a Welcome to Country or an Acknowledgment of Country. Both are significant ways the church can acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, but there are some important differences.
A Welcome to Country is only led by Traditional Custodians; whereas an Acknowledgment of Country can be led by anyone, and acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of that place. A Smoking Ceremony is a process of cleansing and healing, which can also take place with a Welcome.
On the Sunday before Australia Day, Uniting Church congregations across the country hold worship services to reflect upon and lament the effect of the invasion and colonisation of this nation upon First Peoples.
The observance of a Day of Mourning was endorsed by the 15th Assembly arising from a request of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC). All Uniting Church in Australia congregations are invited to hold worship services that reflect on the effects of invasion and colonisation on Australia’s First Peoples and our identity as a nation.
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.
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.
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.
Although Christmas may be different for many of us in this year of pandemic, churches across Australia are joining together once more to share God’s love with our brothers and sisters in need around the world through the Christmas Bowl.
“This year, the coronavirus has changed life for all of us but for vulnerable communities who are already struggling as a result of conflict and disaster, the effects of this crisis are catastrophic,” said said Hannah Montgomery, from Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.
The Uniting Church WA Social Justice Unit has teamed up with the Uniting Church Vic Tas, urging people to write to their local MPs asking for a greater investment in housing energy efficiency upgrades for social housing and low-income households.
The Uniting Church in Australia and the Uniting Church WA have always held particular concerns about the most vulnerable in our community, as well as minimising impacts on the environment. A simple way to address both of these concerns is by ensuring that people in social housing can reduce their electricity and gas costs through the provision of energy-efficient housing design, materials and appliances.