Letters to the editor – July 2016

Reality of God

I recently bought a telescope to watch the night skies. At first I was a little perplexed when the image of a tree I trained it on was upside down. On further research, it seemed that it doesn’t matter. This was an astronomical telescope, not a terrestrial one.

In space, ‘right-side-up’, north, south, east and west are ...

June Crosslight now available


Syrian children in a refugee camp in Jordan collect much-needed food packs distributed by Act for peace. Many of the packs were funded thanks to the generous support of Uniting Church Members in Victoria. Click here for a first-hand account of life in the camps. (Pic credit: Ben Littlejohn/Act for Peace.)

All of the June Crosslight stories ...

Vision with intent

DAVID SOUTHWELL

VISION TESTING

Throughout the past three years, the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania has asked itself some big questions about where it is going. Now, it has proposed some responses.

In April, the Synod Standing Committee (SSC) approved the Vision, Mission Principles and Statements of Intent that Major Strategic Review (MSR) developed as a primary aid ...

Interview with the Moderator – Rev Sharon Hollis

ROS MARSDEN

What first called you to the Uniting Church?

It’s an accident of birth. I was raised in the Uniting Church so there’s that whole sense of being formed by my childhood exposure and watching my parents live out their faith. My mum remains active in the Dookie UC and we lived with my grandmother for a time, a ...

Uniting AgeWell receives LGBTI award

Uniting AgeWell has received a prestigious Dorothies Award for its work in providing LGBTI-inclusive aged care services.

The Dorothies are organised by Working It Out (WIO), a Tasmania-based organisation that provides support for people negotiating their sexuality and gender identity.

The awards are named after Rev Dorothy McRae-McMahon, a former Uniting Church minister and respected leader in the LGBTI community. ...

It is written

I am writing this in an in-between time. I have finished my placement at the CTM and am awaiting my installation as moderator. I am in a time of learning and preparation and my mind and heart are pondering what it might mean to be moderator for the next three years.

Over the last few months I have often been ...

The price of cotton

The central-Asian country of Uzbekistan is one of the largest exporters of cotton in the world. However, much of their cotton is made from child and forced labour. This cotton finds its way to garment factories and suppliers and eventually into Australian shops.

The Uzbek government forces more than a million adults and children to plant and harvest cotton ...

Life in a refugee camp  

KAREN MCGRATH recently travelled to an urban refugee camp in Jordan to meet with Syrian men, women and children forced to flee their home to escape war and violence. Ms McGrath was on assignment with Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia. She shared with Crosslight her reflections of life in ...

A celebration of ministry

Many people gathered at Castlemaine Uniting Church recently to celebrate 50 years since Rev Adrian Pegler was ordained as a minister of the Presbyterian and later the Uniting Church.

His time in ministry included placements at churches in Melbourne, Tongala, Yarram, Bendigo West, Romsey-Lancefield and Alexandra.

Mr Pegler recalled arriving at his first parish as a young minister and ...

Just keep swimming         

One wet Thursday evening in May, a throng of new Monash University graduands lined up to receive their academic awards from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Even though the velvet-capped doctoral students looked so very grand in their peacock finery, it had taken me three years of sheer hard work to complete my little Graduate Diploma ...

From Mooroolbark to Kampala

DEB BENNETT

In the early morning hours of 27 April 1996, a weary Australian educator and a disheartened social worker from Africa met at the breakfast bar of a café on 500 West Broadway, San Diego. Their meeting was not chosen by either of them: it was random, unexpected and unscripted. When the educator entered the café, the stool ...

Commitment to safety

Brunswick Uniting Church recently became the latest church to be presented with the Safe Church Recognition program certificate. Moderator Dan Wootton joined the congregation for worship to celebrate the achievement, which came after two years of work by a group of dedicated members.

They facilitated Safe Church training and developed a Code of Conduct for all volunteers. Recognising the ...