Tag: Training

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Education & Training

Enthusiasm and hope for education and formation

Rev Dr John Squires was inducted into the role of director of Education and Formation in the Uniting Church WA, on Friday 24 February at Uniting Church in the City, Wesley Perth. John’s role also includes being the principal of the Perth Theological Hall (PTH).

The service also celebrated the commencement of PTH.

John was ordained as a minister of the Word in 1980, since serving in a wide variety of placements. He has served in city and rural congregations, and as the vice principal at the United Theological College, Sydney.

As well as having published articles and book chapters on a range of topics, John has also completed doctorate study at Yale University in the USA, and has been a research scholar at Durham University and the University of Cambridge in the UK. He has also been the associate head of campus at Charles Sturt University.

Rev David de Kock, general secretary of the Uniting Church WA preached at the service.

In his response, John acknowledged the local Nyungar people and shared that Australians have a lot to learn from our Indigenous people in the areas of caring for country, honouring the land and welcoming the stranger.

He then recited the words agreed to at the 2009 Synod which established the Commission for Education for Discipleship and Leadership (CEDAL) and said he has enthusiasm and hope for his new role.

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Education & Training

Inspiration to connect

summer-spiritRev Dr John Squires and Rev Elizabeth Raine will be the keynote speakers at next year’s Summer Spirit. John is also the new director of education and formation for the Uniting Church WA, and will take up his role in February 2017.

John and Elizabeth have a passion for doing church in new ways, and have spent much of their recent ministry helping churches creatively connect with their communities. John is currently in a placement with Wauchope and District Uniting Church, NSW, and Elizabeth is serving an Intentional Ministry Placement in Canberra. They have also worked in shared placements, including as Presbytery ministers with the Mid North Coast Presbytery of the Uniting Church NSW/ACT, encouraging others in engaging and new ministry.

With the Summer Spirit theme of ‘Being church in new ways,’ John and Elizabeth will share their knowledge and experience of these ministries, much of which has been spent encouraging congregations to experiment with different ways of connecting with their communities. John said this has happened in various ways, such as community gardens, projects with local schools,  Messy Church, community markets and a nonreligious youth group.

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Stories & Feature Articles

Stepping up to employment with GSI

Since 1958, Good Samaritan Industries (GSI) has been focused on providing employment opportunities for people living with disabilities. This year, GSI has established a new program addressing the transition from school to post school employment for young people living with disabilities.

The program is called the School Transition Employment Program – or STEP. This initiative is co-ordinated by STEP project manager, Tanya Matulich, with Danielle Congden since April of this year, having received a grant from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Under STEP, 100 work experience places were created within the various arms of GSI, a number that has quickly bloomed to 150 placements within the first year of the program’s inception.

According to the most recent report on labour force participation among people living with disabilities, produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2012, from 1993–2012 the rate of labour force participation for working age people with disabilities has remained relatively stable at just above 50%, whereas labour force participation for working age people without disabilities has increased by over 6%.

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News & Announcements

Lay ministry as important as ever

With more and more Uniting Church WA congregations finding themselves without an ordained minister minister, lay ministry is continuously recognised as an important part of the life of the church.

In rural areas, lay ministry has become especially vital. In WA there are currently only three ordained Uniting Church ministers in inland rural placements; Northam, Wagin and Merredin.

Rev Alistair Melville, a member of the Rural Ministry Team for the Uniting Church WA, recently supported a group of people to enrol in Certificate IV in Ministry and Theology with the Australian College of Ministry (ACOM). There are currently eight Uniting Church members enrolled in the course, and three recently graduated in July. Students are supported financially by their congregations and, through an arrangement between the Uniting Church WA and ACOM, receive a reduced course fee.

Jenny Pollard from Narrogin Uniting Church recently completed Certificate IV in Ministry and Theology. Designed as a three-year course, Jenny managed to complete it in two. Working as a YouthCARE chaplain at Narrogin Senior High School, she earned credits towards the coursework through her employment experience.

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Events

Summer Spirit: stop, look and listen

Over a hundred people gathered at All Saints Floreat Uniting Church on Saturday 27 February for the Uniting Church’s annual Summer Spirit event. Guests spent much of the day considering God’s call on their lives.

Rev Michelle Cook, presbytery minister – mission development from the Uniting Church Presbytery of Tasmania, was the key note speaker. She challenged those present to think beyond doing things simply because it is what has always been done, and discovering new ways to live out their faith in the church.

“When I was younger there seemed to be a certain path in using gifts,” she said. “First of all you went to youth group, then you we asked to be a youth group leader, then you may have been trusted to lead worship, then perhaps you became an elder was able to be part of the decision making of the Church Council. Although these things are worthy in themselves, my mother had the same experience 30 years before.

“I see that same thing happening now. We’re looking to fill already established holes in leadership.

“Where is the room for the new things that God is doing? Where’s the room for the fresh words and deeds that the Basis of Union calls us to?”

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Education & Training

A lesson in fruitfulness for Candidates for Ministry

The service for the commencement of the academic year for candidates for ministry at Perth Theological Hall was held at Uniting Church in the City, Wesley last Thursday 25 February.

The intimate service began with Rev Craig Collas acknowledging the Nyungar heritage of the land on which the service was held, followed by a call to worship from Psalm 63 and the voices of the attendees rising in worship through the historic rafters of Wesley Church.

After the singing of worship and a prayer of praise and confession, the candidates were brought forward to be prayed for by Craig and Rev Prof Bill Loader. The candidates present were Justine Wall, Paul Montague, Sophie Lizares-Bodegon and Judy Sanderson; Reuben Edmonds joined the candidates on stage for prayer as he enters his period of discernment.

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Education & Training

Passing the Baton: be inspired

Passing the Baton is a training day and expo for people working in children’s ministry. It is a chance to be inspired in ministry, network with others in the field and learn about new resources relevant to the role. It’s a great way to be refreshed and to renew a commitment to children’s ministry and is suitable for anyone involved with Sunday school, kids clubs, YouthCARE, family camps, holiday programs or children’s outreach services.

Tammy Tolman will be the keynote speaker at Passing the Baton this year. She has been training children’s ministry leaders for around 20 years around the world and has also written training modules and a range of worship music.

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Education & Training

Summer Spirit: Growing in discipleship

Craig Mitchell’s workshop at Summer Spirit in February was both inspirational and entertaining. Craig is the national director of Formation, Education and Discipleship for the Uniting Church  in Australia.

His two sessions looked at congregations as learning communities and mission-shaped discipleship. Effective ministry leadership was about building relationships both within the congregation  and in the larger community. Examples of how to do this were shown in video clips from a Formation, Education and Discipleship (FED) study: Creative thinking was necessary even when it  challenged people’s comfort zones. I liked the example given of a minister who shook up his Church Council meeting by hiring a bus and taking them all to dinner in a city restaurant. They had a  bird’s eye view of the casino carpark and the minister challenged them to think about how to get the church carpark just as full.

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Education & Training

Diaconal ministry: Faith at work in the everyday

While kangaroo tails are cooked and smoke billows above an inner city church courtyard on a balmy summer’s evening, stories are told by indigenous people. During morning worship, chairs are stacked in a haphazard pile to express sorrow over injustices experienced by the marginalized. Encouragement is given through Biblical stories of women and men who show their faith in Christ by listening, serving and forming new worshipping communities.

These are a few examples of the diverse and enriching experiences of the Deacon Intensive (for candidates) and the national DUCA (Diakonia in the Uniting Church in Australia) Conference that was held in February in Adelaide over two weeks.

The candidates were a diverse group, including two indigenous leaders, an Irish pastor, a Filipino journalist and an African-American woman, as well as several Australians, all with long experience of diaconal ministry. The candidates in the first week participated in worship, Bible studies, discussions, and immersion visits to a prison, refugee place of welcome and a community garden. Evening sessions, facilitated by Rev Dr Steve Taylor, Principal of Uniting College and Senior Lecturer at Flinders University, further extended their engagement with mission and community service.

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Education & Training

Faith Formation follow-up

In a follow-up from John Roberto’s visit to Perth last year for the Faith Formation 2020 workshop, Craig Mitchell, national director of Formation, Education and Discipleship (FED) at the Uniting Church in Australia, will be holding a workshop in  Perth designed to refresh and build on what was learnt. Due to the onset of technology, there have been significant  changes to the way we communicate and learn. We now live in a ‘mobile revolution’ where mobile devices have changed the  way we access information, making it portable and personal. Thanks to social media, anyone can now be a ‘content creator’ and engage in online conversation on any topic.

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