By Meg Hocking
They say the eyes are a window to the soul and the smile a front door to your heart.
When you speak with Nancy, it’s difficult not to be captured by her warmth, her care for others and her kindness.
However, behind her beaming smile and infectious personality, Nancy is a pillar of resilience, strength and courage.
...
Rev Deacon Wendy Elson, Minister at Wonthaggi and Inverloch UC
This week looks quiet when I look in my diary and that always makes me nervous. Justifiably, because these are the weeks that have the potential space to get very busy.
Sunday
6am alarm: Up and about with time and space for a quick walk around the block and ...
By Andrew Humphries
Every five years, Australians everywhere wade through a mountain of paperwork as the Federal Government’s Census takes a snapshot of the economic, social and cultural make-up of the country.
And on each occasion since 1991, former Uniting Church Minister Rev Philip Hughes has become the “Census Detective”, as he takes a deep dive into what the data ...
One of the things that I enjoy about celebrations of Pentecost is that they often involve congregations stepping out of their usual comfort zone and either employing other languages, or sharing worship with other congregations which have different customs and cultures, or both.
This can be true even for congregations that are already richly multicultural. It helps us to remember ...
By Andrew Humphries
In his role as Northern Rivers Cluster Uniting Church Minister, which includes Rochester, Rev Brian Morgan wears many hats.
Ask him what his main role is, though, and he doesn’t have to think hard to provide an answer.
“My main job here is to love people,” is how Brian describes his approach as Minister.
By Professor Greg Carey
Eschatology is quite a big word. It has 11 letters, after all.
Divinity students routinely ask me to spell it out on a board.
But eschatology is big in a more fundamental sense: it is the theological word that spells out our dearest hopes: what, if anything, lies beyond death; where history is ultimately headed; and ...
By Rev Associate Professor Geoff Thompson
Claiming to be a “born scientist”, Rev Bob Thomas in a Crosslight magazine feature, dismisses various alleged “absurdities” of the Christian faith, including that of rising from the dead.
He suggests that there is an opt-out clause from this absurdity by suggesting that Paul’s language of “resurrection” is synonymous with his language of ...
Three years ago, many of us were in lockdown for Easter. Many churches were closed. In a mirror of the Gospel stories, if two women had gone to the church early in the morning, around sunrise, they would have found it empty.
Perhaps they would have seen a bright white page of paper beside the door, bearing the message: “He ...
Rev Bob Thomas
As a born scientist, “but that I can’t believe!” has been my usual response to so many of the beliefs that some would claim are required of Christians.
I can remember arguing with my Sunday School teacher at age seven that the story of Noah and the Great Flood was impossible, and as time went on, I ...
By Rev Sally Douglas
He lurched across the stage. He strutted and spat. He spoke about Christ, death, love, loneliness, and suffering. He laughed and shared lament. He talked about the hand of God, and he whispered about hope. He even dared to suggest that “peace will come” and repeatedly referred to the “kingdom in the sky”.
By Andrew Humphries
Growing up as a “preacher’s kid” within the Uniting Church, Paddy Macrae remembers a childhood of fun and adventure with his siblings and friends and a long line of quirky characters who used to drop into the various churches where dad Alistair was the Minister.
Fast forward to 2023 and Paddy is kicking serious goals as a ...
By Andrew Humphries
Sometimes in the midst of chaos, drama and uncertainty it is a simple idea that resonates and brings people together.
In January 2020, Australia recorded its first case of COVID-19 and, by March 18, concern around rising infection numbers meant Prime Minister Scott Morrison plunged Australians into the first of what was to become ongoing restrictions on ...