Tag: Youth

Agents of Change reunite

Post author By revivewa
Post date December 24, 2016

In January 2017 it will be 10 years since the Uniting Church WA invited young people from all around the Uniting Church in Australia to come to Perth for NCYC 2007: Agents of Change.

The organisation of such an event was supported by congregations of the Uniting Church WA. Hundreds of volunteer hours were given, from dedicated staff and committee members to realise the dream of bringing NCYC to Perth.

If you were part of NCYC 2007 in any way, you are welcome to attend a picnic in the park on Saturday 14 January for a reunion. More information will be available closer to the date and First Third Ministry is endeavouring to contact everyone involved.

Tags Uniting Church, Youth

Stories & Feature Articles

Stepping up to employment with GSI

Post author By revivewa
Post date December 6, 2016

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%.

Tags Our People and Agencies, Training, Youth

News & Announcements

Greenwood Girls’ Brigade celebrates 40th anniversary

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 28, 2016

This year is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Greenwood Girls’ Brigade, formerly known as 3rd Perth.

Captain of Greenwood Girls’ Brigade, Sarah Menaglio said, “Over many years, Greenwood Girls’ Brigade has contributed to the community by developing responsible young members of the community, providing a safe environment for girls to develop a range of life skills and build lasting friendships, and building confidence in girls.

“There were no activities for children in the Greenwood area in 1976. Elizabeth Stokes had a background in Girls’ Brigade and was keen to establish a group in Greenwood.”

Beyond learning life skills, Sarah explained that the aim of Girls’ Brigade is, “To help girls become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through self-control, reverence and a sense of responsibility find true enrichment of life. This has remained the same over time, though the way in which this is delivered to the girls has been adapted to changing times.”

Tags Church and Community, Youth

Stories & Feature Articles

Moving from tolerance to acceptance

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 4, 2016

Cultural barriers were demolished and stereotypes quashed when girls from the Australian Islamic College (AIC) spent a day at Methodist Ladies’ College in April, and MLC girls paid a return visit in August.

Eleven teenagers from the school in the northern Perth suburb of Dianella spent a day with their hosts discovering that they were more similar, than different.

MLC Principal, Rebecca Cody, also met with AIC’s Principal, Wahaj Tarin. She said the relationship between the two schools gives the students the opportunity to move beyond stereotypes.

“I think that all great schools learn from each other, so this is merely an example of a learning conversation between two schools. It’s also an opportunity for our girls, and Mr Tarin’s girls, to seek to understand each other,” Rebecca said.

The relationship between the schools was borne out of discussions between MLC Chaplain, Rev Hollis Wilson, and AIC Islamic Study teacher, Fazida Razak, at a series of interfaith meetings over a few years.

Tags Intercultural, interfaith, Schools, Youth

News & Announcements

Roaming gnomes for Cambodian youth

Post author By revivewa
Post date October 2, 2016

Emma Oxenburgh, from Trinity North Uniting Church, will be broadening her horizons early next year when she travels with World Vision to visit youth programs in Cambodia. She will travel with ten other Australians, along with five Cambodians, all aged between 18–25.

Emma is currently studying a double major in marketing and international communications at the University of Western Australia (UWA), and has recently done an internship with Reconciliation WA. She has a keen interest in ethical travel and international community development.

She said that the trip is not a ‘voluntouring’ (volunteering plus travel) experience, but rather an opportunity to learn more about Cambodia and the projects that World Vision supports there.

Emma said she’s keen to add some real life experiences and a human perspective to her textbook experiences gained while studying at university.

Tags Church and Community, International, Youth

Stories & Feature Articles

Meditate and create!

Post author By revivewa
Post date September 1, 2016

A mandala is a spiritual symbol, in the shape of a circle. Creating a mandala can be a meditative process; a journey towards a work of art. With six kids participating, both from the church and the wider community, the day was full of craft, tasty food and reflection.

This is the second time Margaret River Uniting Church has run a mandala workshop for kids, the first being in July 2015.

Cathie opened the workshop with an introduction to mandalas, explaining that pizza can be a mandala. So the group made pizzas before getting stuck into creating their own craft mandalas using a range of materials such as paint, textas and paper. While they created, the pizzas were baked and enjoyed for lunch.

Cathie said the participants all responded to their craft in unique ways.

“I encouraged them to use things they hadn’t used before and a lot of them did that,” she said. “They were quite adventurous really. Some of them were quite abstract. Others had symbols and words in there that meant things to them.”

Tags Books, Films, Art, Awards and Recipes, Youth

News & Announcements

Messy gifts of the spirit

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 13, 2016

Rev Greg Ross, minister with the Wellington Regional Mission, has recently returned from the Mission Shaped Ministry Intensive and the International Messy Church Conference in England, UK. While there, Greg, with travel companion Rev David Kriel, mission planner for the Uniting Church WA, spent time with Dave Male, national adviser for pioneer development for the Church of England and also a member of the Fresh Expressions team, and Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church.

Both conferences were run by Fresh Expressions, an ecumenical organisation resourcing new ways of being church.

Bunbury St Augustine Uniting Church, part of the Wellington Regional Mission, has been running a vibrant and popular Messy Church congregation for the last seven years.

Messy Church is a welcoming gathering for people of all ages inviting people to explore Bible stories, create craft, join in meaningful conversation and share a meal together. It’s a Fresh Expression of church which is reaching out to people across the world.

In Bunbury, the congregation started with about 25 people attending, and has now grown to about 50–70 attendees at each monthly gathering. Many of those had either never previously attended church, or had left the church for a significant period of time and have started attending again.

Tags Church and Community, Youth

Stories & Feature Articles

NYALC: a space for young people

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 9, 2016

Three years ago, the Uniting Church in Australia, in conjunction with the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC), established a conference for young adults. The National Young Adult Leaders’ Conference (NYALC) is run each year to provide an opportunity for young people in the church to meet, network, be refreshed and to learn and develop their leadership skills.

This year, NYALC was held from Friday 8 to Wednesday 13 July in Burleigh Heads, Queensland. A cohort of eleven young people from Uniting Church Western Australia and UAICC Western Australia congregations attended the conference.

Jack van der Pal, from Rockingham Uniting Church, was one of the young people who attended.

Jack is in his final year of a double degree in Geology and Geophysics at Curtin University. He serves his congregation in music, audiovisual, and helps to run the young adult ministry.

On why he chose to go to NYALC Jack said, “At first, I was a bit unsure and then I started speaking to people [who had attended previously] and they said that it’s amazing when you get so many young people together. So I wanted to go and discover what it was like for myself.”

Tags First Peoples, Youth

News & Announcements

Emily Evans elected to WCC Executive Committee

Post author By revivewa
Post date August 7, 2016

The Uniting Church will be represented by a youthful voice at the World Council of Churches (WCC) with the election of Emily Evans to the WCC Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee is the top governance body of the WCC and implements strategic objectives set by the Central Committee. It meets twice a year and oversees council finances, monitors ongoing program work and appoints leadership staff.

Emily was one of 11 new members elected to the Executive Committee at a meeting in Trondheim, Norway in June. She has worked with the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania’s Justice and International Mission unit and has been a member of the WCC gender advisory group. She was elected to the Central Committee in 2013 and is on the WCC’s ECHOS Commission, which consists of 20 young Christians involved in the ecumenical movement.

During the week-long meeting, the Central Committee approved a range of reports and decisions. These included statements on the global refugee crisis, the human rights situation in West Papua and a call for prayer following the recent Brexit vote. As a relative newcomer to the international ecumenical movement, Emily hopes to achieve greater understanding of the role and responsibility of the WCC.

“This includes learning about the lives and lived experience of other member churches, gaining a deeper understanding of what true Christian unity means in the world today and bringing back to the UCA new learnings and insights,” she explained.

Tags Youth