Tag: Remote and rural communities

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York celebrates 165 years

On Sunday 20 August 2017 York Uniting Church celebrated 165 years of a worshipping presence in the Avon Valley town. A fairly chilly day, so typical of winters in York,  the congregation joined with many friends to celebrate and give thanks. And what a celebration!

We began with our normal 9.30am worship service which was led by Rev Ruth Vertigan, who is part of the Rural Ministry Team and is our regional co-ordinator. Ruth attended the York Wesleyan Methodist Church (as it was then known) as a child so it was fitting that she come and lead the worship service on the morning of the anniversary. After morning tea we rushed home to gather the ‘good food’ for the afternoon tea which was to follow our planned ‘Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Concert.’

This anniversary concert is a very popular event in York, and this year at 2.00pm the church rang with the sound of 130 people singing Advance Australia Fair – a rousing start to the program organised by June Dawson.

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Innovative aged care services hub milestone in the Kimberley

Creation of an innovative aged care service hub in Kununurra has taken a big step forward.

Juniper, a Uniting Church WA agency providing community and residential aged care, has announced that Pindan Contracting, an experienced construction company, has been appointed to build the organisation’s new 30-place care facility.

Juniper chief executive, Vaughan Harding, said the project was a boost for Kununurra, delivering important infrastructure and services to the town and wider community.

“The commencement of construction is a significant milestone and we will see over the coming months the creation of a modern facility that will serve as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for aged care services designed to meet community needs and aspirations,” he said.

“The project will help stimulate local employment, career pathways and opportunities for student placements.”

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New national director for Frontier Services

Jannine Jackson has been appointed as the new national director of Frontier Services.

Jannine comes to the role with extensive experience in fundraising and marketing in the faith and non-profit sectors, both in New South Wales and nationally.

Her background includes senior leadership positions at the McGrath Foundation, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Mission Australia. She is a member of Toongabbie Anglican Church in Sydney’s west.

The general secretary of the Uniting Church in Australia Assembly, Colleen Geyer, said she was looking forward to working with Jannine.

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Support for communities affected by Cyclone Debbie

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Stuart McMillan, has asked church members to lend their support to Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) appeals for communities suffering in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

“Our Church will be there to support people in need and help Queensland and northern NSW recover,” said Stuart.

“Please continue to pray for the safety and the welfare of all affected communities, as they come to terms with their losses.”

“I ask all UCA members to please try to support our appeals, which go to support ministry in these communities.”

Cyclone Debbie made landfall on the Whitsunday Coast as a Category 4 storm with winds of more than 260 kilometres an hour on Monday 28 March causing extensive damage.

Five days later water, shelter and communications are still limited into towns of Ayr, Bowen and Proserpine.

Torrential rains from the weakening cyclone have also seen rivers in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales reach record peaks, causing major flooding in Beaudesert, Lismore and the Tweed Valley.

Tens of thousands of residents had to be evacuated.

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Belonging in Port Hedland

The Port Hedland community is often called a working town, a community in isolation, whose main focus is work. This makes for a community that is transient and, particularly in the current economic climate, unstable. This dynamic is reflected in the church community. We find ourselves experiencing ‘belonging’ with a completely different group of faces and personalities every 12 to 18 months.

The people, while they are in Port Hedland, work, at times, long hours and long weeks without a break. Those who work in community services work hard, long hours. This church community is one like I have never experienced before. We are small, but we are made up of such different people with rich and disparate beliefs, creeds, and philosophies which inspire and guide our lives.

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On-site chaplaincy

It is no secret that the mining boom in Western Australia is over. The resource industry has slowed and hundreds of former fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers are struggling to adjust to life after FIFO, still more remain on resource projects in remote Western Australia. So how do FIFO workers who are still on projects deal with the pressures of a slowing industry, along with isolation and increasing money problems?

Rev John Dihm provides services as a chaplain to FIFO workers at a number of Rio Tinto mining camp sites in the Pilbara, with the Uniting Church WA’s Remote Area Ministry, Tom Price. John moved to Tom Price three years ago from South Australia where he ministered to people living on stations.

“I thought I’d be doing station work again, and very little mining work. I met the mining manager here and we became very good friends,” he said.

Three months into his time there, his manager friend called John to ask for his help; one of the mine workers at the site had died by suicide. This was the beginning of John’s ministry to FIFO workers in the Pilbara.

According to John, “FIFO workers talk to you about three things: one is their relationships back home, two is about their financial situation, and the third one is about their anxiety of being on site.”

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Boyup brook support for BlazeAid

On behalf of the combined churches of Boyup Brook in the south west of WA, a cheque for $2,055.30 will be presented to BlazeAid, an organisation which assists people in rural Australia after disaster.

The churches, including members of local Uniting, Baptist, Catholic and Anglican Churches asked for donations of second hand books and items for a jumble sale held during the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival.

Volunteers spent many hours sorting the books into various classifications and marking each book with a bargain price. St Saviour’s Anglican Church, located within the area of the street market during the festival, provided the ideal site for the book sale. Volunteers from the local churches thank Boyup Brook Country Music Festival organisers for their support.

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Esperance bands together in bushfire aftermath

Two months on from devastating fires in the Esperance region, the town is beginning to recover. Many people have experienced property damage, and four lives were tragically lost. Recovery efforts have been difficult however, due to another fire which spread along approximately 50km of the coast in early January, burning at the same time as serious fires in the south west.

While no serious damage was reported after the second fire, firefighters and volunteers were under extreme pressure as resources were spread across the state. Fear and uncertainty also took over as smoke was once again hovering through the town, with many locals on high alert.

Rev Robert Dummermuth, minister at Esperance and Condingup Uniting Churches, is working tirelessly to help support the local community. As a volunteer with the SES, Robert as on the frontline while the fires were burning. Now as the recovery process begins, he is providing pastoral support and community building opportunities for the local people.

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Recovery for the long-term

Rev Dr Stephen Robinson, national disaster recovery officer with the Uniting Church in Australia, visited WA’s south west in late January to help local Uniting Church congregations and members work out strategies that will best help people affected by serious fires in the area.

Two people lost their lives in Yarloop when fires destroyed most of the town and threatened areas around Harvey and Waroona. While there is no Uniting Church congregation in Yarloop, congregations in surrounding areas will be offering support to those affected.

Stephen said that recovery is a long-term process. While other agencies are best at assisting as crisis hits, the Uniting Church is committed to, and well resourced, to help with long-term recovery, which could take two to three years.

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The great Wise Guys search

wise guysAn article in Eternity magazine about some churches in Geelong carrying out a community ‘Nativity Search’ project was the inspiration for Dongara Uniting Church to develop and present ‘A Great Search For the Wise Guys’ in our community during Advent 2015. Planned for children and families, the event included the making and ‘hiding’ around town of knitted wise men figures, a nativity photo booth where children and families could dress up as characters from the story and take photographs, and a free film at our church ‘theatre’, in December.

In June and July 2015 local knitters were recruited to make individual ‘Wise Guys’ using patterns downloaded from the internet. There was a good degree of enthusiasm from church and non-church folk for this part of the project. By the end of September we had 26 Wise Guys assembled and ready for the next stage of the plan. By this time, a variety of dress-up costumes had also been collected and constructed by our keen wardrobe mistress Margaret Bromfield. These were for people to use in the nativity photo booth during December when the Great Search was in full swing.

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