Tag: Youth

Kids’ Camp Out (KCO) was once again a great success. The overnight camp was held from Saturday 10 to Sunday 11 March at Advent Park in Maida Vale. Junior leaders began their camp on Friday 10 March, as they helped to prepare for the arrival of campers.

Children, junior leaders, camp leaders and volunteers came together from all over the Uniting Church WA to explore this year’s theme, ‘Wilderness,’ through craft, games, activities, food, worship and play. With a night of rough winds, campers had to move from their tents into on-site cabins, however that didn’t detract from all the fun.

KCO is an annual event of the Uniting Generations team at the Uniting Church WA. Thanks go to all the Uniting Church WA volunteers who help make KCO possible.

This is an exciting year for Girls’ Brigade Western Australia (GBWA): in 2018, the vibrant community organisation celebrates 125 years of mission.

To kick-off 125 years with a bang, GBWA hosted its national Girls’ Brigade camp Fonomarae (Fono) at Woodman Point in Perth, with over 100 people from across the nation attending. The week was filled with challenging activities and fun ones too, such as a photo scavenger hunt in Perth city.

The Fono camp is the start of birthday celebrations. GBWA State Commissioner, Nikola Lewis is enthusiastic about preparations to celebrate in a big, but meaningful way.

On 9 December last year, five young adults and three leaders gathered at the Uniting Church Campsite in Busselton for the very first Deep End Camp. The overnight camp was for young adults between the ages of 16–25 years old, and provided the opportunity for people to explore and get closer to their faith, and to dive deeper into their religion and relationship with God.

Together, we enjoyed some great food, great company, and great unique ways to look at our faith and how our lives connect with kingdom and covenant.

Across the weekend we had three Bible study sessions, some time at the beach, Sunday morning worship with Busselton Uniting Church and a lot of frisbee and card games.

The camp was co-ordinated by Janine McDonald, Uniting Generations Officer, who, like all of us, was very excited for this camp to kick-off the brand new Uniting Generations ministry.

Uniting Generations is officially the new intergenerational ministry model adopted by the Presbytery of WA.
At the recent meeting of the Presbytery of WA, held on Saturday 5 November, members agreed to the new
model which will encourage and resource churches to engage in intergenerational activities.

Moving on from First Third Ministry, which was adopted in 2007, Rev Luke Williams, a member of the First Third Committee, believes Uniting Generations is the obvious next step.

“I think the first ten years of First Third Ministry gave us an opportunity to go from very little focus on ministry with and to young people, to an opportunity to try and do something,” Luke said.

The 2016 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey, which released its  findings in February this year, found that Australian school principals are increasingly under stress due to their workloads. YouthCARE, a WA organisation providing chaplaincy in our public schools, is looking to address this problem through its new pilot program aimed at providing chaplaincy to principals.

There are currently two School Principal’s Chaplains employed in this program, both in regional areas of WA. Jill Clements is one such chaplain, working in the mid-west region; the other is based in the Great Southern. The pilot program began in term three of 2016 and will run until the end of2017, when it will be reassessed.