Tag: International

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Sea Prayers in Samoa

To raise awareness of the impact of climate change, representatives of churches, ecumenical organisations and the United Nations (UN) stood together in the sea in Apia, Samoa, in prayerful solidarity with  those vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

The prayer was conducted on Thursday 4 September, as part of the OurVoices.net international campaign of people from diverse religious  and spiritual backgrounds who are urging world leaders to agree to  a strong climate treaty at the UN climate talks in Paris in December 2015. Participants in the prayer included representatives of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Samoa Council of Churches (SCC),  the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and the UN.

Many of those praying were in Samoa taking part in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Summit, focusing on a group of countries that remain special cases for sustainable development in view of their  unique and particular vulnerabilities. Former Granada ambassador to the  UN, Dessima Williams, commented that such global actions of solidarity are a reminder that “people around the world care deeply  about those impacted by climate change.”

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Star St fundraising success

For Lent Event this year, Victoria Park and Districts Star Street Uniting Church decided to adopt the Sri Lankan Interfaith Pre-school Program, setting a target of $2400, which will feed 20 children for a year. The Uniting Church in WA agreed at its annual Synod meeting in 2013 to support the program which is run by the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka.

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Learning, leading and passing it on

The chamber is full of representatives from countries located all over the globe. They mingle about the room, negotiating amendments to Resolution 2155  of the United Nations (UN) Security Council: The question of the rules of war. A young man with a suit and pony tail announces it is time to sit back down for the debate, and a representative from China stands and puts forth her case.

I’m sitting in the Legislative Assembly at Parliament House of Western Australia where 15 teams from schools across WA, including three teams from Presbyterian Ladies’ College  (PLC) a Uniting Church in WA school, battle it out in the finals for UN Youth’s Evatt competition – a model UN debate. Sam Herriman, a 19-year-old media and communications  student from the University of Western Australia, strolls around the room making sure everything is running smoothly and occasionally collects notes from members of the Council.

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Travelling with your eyes open

The Hallelujah Chorus with (l-r) John, Ellen and Bill Lemen.
The Hallelujah Chorus with (l-r) John, Ellen and Bill Lemen.

G K Chesterdon, writer and Christian apologist is quoted as having said “The traveller sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.”

Travellers may be regarded as pilgrims – literally those who have come from afar – who are on a journey to a special place. Over the past six weeks I have had the opportunity, while  visiting family and friends in Canada and The Netherlands, to reflect on what I have seen and how this seeing impacts on my sense of, and experience of, church, creator and  creation.

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Wall of destruction

A picture of the Separation Wall, taken through a car window on Cathie Lambert's travels.

As I was about to complete high school, I remember watching footage and seeing photos of jubilant people clambering over what was once the Berlin Wall and taking chunks of cement as souvenirs. At the time I did not understand what this really meant for the people of Germany or what they had been through in the previous four decades. My recollection is only the smiles of joy and the moments of reconciliation. Little did I know that, in my life time, I would see another wall, twice as high and four times longer, constructed for similar reasons in another part of the world. In my travels to Israel and Palestine Territories last August I saw the monstrous wall of separation and heard stories of its impact upon the people.

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More than a guest

Following a visit to Scarborough in 2012 from UnitingWorld representative Lee-Anne Burnett, the Scarborough and Waterman’s Bay Congregations agreed to sponsor a student  from the Indonesian province of Papua to be a part of a group of students undertaking a three-month intensive English language course in Perth early in 2013. A good grasp of English enhances the employment prospects for Papuans.

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Pilgrimage finds partners on a shared path to unity

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Prof Andrew Dutney, and a delegation of Uniting Church leaders attended a historic series of meetings with leaders from the China Christian Council (CCC) in four Chinese cities from 16–24 September.

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On the road to Jericho: A tour of the Holy Land

Jeni Goring wading in the sea of Galilee.
Jeni Goring wading in the sea of Galilee.

When I told people I was going to the Holy Land, those who had already been there told me I would never be the same again. In Israel, I was where Jesus was – where he was born,  walked, talked, taught, healed, preached, died and rose again. The experience was real and surreal: collapsing 2000 years of history from Jesus’ human life on this earth into 21st century Israel.

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