By Cathy Withiel
The first thing that strikes you about Tracy Barron is her kindness and honesty – and the joy she feels from reaching out to others.
And the feisty 71-year-old Uniting AgeWell volunteer is happy to tell her life story just like it is, in the hope of encouraging people from all walks of life to accept and ...
By Rev Associate Professor Geoff Thompson
What is Christianity? What is the gospel? What is the church?
Christian people have constantly wrestled with such questions.
Even if they are perennial questions, they are asked with a particular edge in our current context of Christians being a minority in Australia.
Minority status, stripped of all the accrued overlays enjoyed in previous ...
By Rev Nigel Hanscamp
For generations Lent has been a time of reflection and action in the 40 days before Easter.
Lent invites us to pause, pray, and act together with Christians around the world as we journey with Jesus towards Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Day.
Recent studies and experience have emphasised the missional nature of ...
For hundreds of years the joy of song has been an important part of worship, as people of faith have raised their voices high in praise of God.
But as times have changed, the words to some songs have become unfamiliar, old-fashioned, and even, at times, archaic.
With that in mind, a new book by former Moderator of Victoria, Rod ...
In a week we will be moving into the season of Lent, with Ash Wednesday on February 14.
Lent is a particular opportunity to hear Jesus’ call to “follow me”, and to reflect on our own disciplines of discipleship.
To me, the reading from the Hebrew Bible set for the first Sunday of Lent this year seems particularly significant.
...
By Andrew Humphries
Tasmanian Australia Day Honours recipient Helen Geard’s first congratulatory call came at 6.45am on Australia Day.
Her phone ran hot throughout the rest of the day with calls and texts from many friends, wellwishers and fellow Claremont-Bagdad congregation members delighted with the news of her honour.
Helen was one of a number of Victorian and Tasmanian Uniting ...
Rev Gereldine Leonard, Presbytery of North East Victoria
There is no time of the year more holy for me than Christmas. Not Christmas in the secular sense, as we so often celebrate it, even in the Church, but Christmas for what it really is: the revealing of the nature of God.
Whale’s tooth
This is a tabua (Tam-Boo-wah) from Fiji. Tabua are pierced and braided whales’ teeth, originally taken from the lower jaw of sperm whales and are highly significant and valuable objects in traditional Fijian society. Fijians consider them to be kavakaturanga (chiefly items).
This one was presented by the Methodist Church in Fiji to the Methodist Church in Australia ...
Rev Wes Hartley
I grew up in a strong church family, with my parents, Rev Frank Hartley and Marion, being the greatest influence on my early life.
A returned missionary from India, in 1933 my mother became the first woman in Australia accepted for training by the Presbyterian Church, and this was where my parents met as my father ...
By Devanandan Anandarajan
I joined as a Minister in the Uniting Church in 1997 after having served in Sri Lanka as a Minister for 10 years.
I came as a Minister from another denomination to a placement in the Balkara Parish at Oakleigh as a Minister to the Tamil congregation.
After having served in three congregational placements I was called ...
By Paul Tonson
About the Act 2 Project, I have two viewpoints to share, of which the first is crucial for understanding the second.
I hope these viewpoints can deepen the conversation we have to have.
The first viewpoint is that I love and treasure the UCA for the unique place it occupies among the faith communities in Australia as ...
By Andrew Humphries
Filipino writer and polymath Jose Rizal described youth as “the hope of our future”, Greek philosopher Diogenes suggested the education of youth was “the foundation of every state”, and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi said “the power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world”.
As denominations everywhere grapple with a decline in numbers, it’s today’s ...