As we learn to live with COVID-19 and reconnect with those dear to us, this winter brings an opportunity to share hearty meals with family and friends.
But winter also brings a world of worry for many people unable to put food on their table.
One program in Ballarat is addressing that issue and helping to fill bellies and keep ...
Jenny Byrnes retired recently, 42 years after she was ordained in the Uniting Church. Before her retirement, Jenny sat down for a chat with Stephen Acott.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Queensland, in Toowoomba, but I was only there a week before my parents moved down to Melbourne. My father worked for a bank so ...
A number of UCA members have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their outstanding church and community service.
Banyule Network of Churches Heidelberg congregation member Gwenda Lucas was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for significant service to church, calisthenics and the community.
By Denise Liersch
We are in a time of changing seasons. We’re entering winter. We’re navigating a change in seasons with the pandemic and flu season. And we are moving from the seasons of Lent and Easter, into the season of Pentecost, filled with life and hope for a long season of growth and green shoots and all the struggles ...
By Andrew Humphries
As our First Nations people mark two important dates on their calendar this week, Tasmanian indigenous spokesperson Alison Overeem urges Uniting Church members to continue driving the change towards reconciliation.
Today marks National Sorry Day while National Reconciliation Week runs from tomorrow until June 3.
The theme of Reconciliation Week this year is “Be Brave. Make Change” ...
Birthing kits packed by Bairnsdale Uniting Church members are helping pregnant women and saving lives in developing countries.
Kits packed last year have made their way to a number of African countries, as well as Papua New Guinea.
The kits are important resources given free of charge to recognised agencies which support women before, during and after childbirth to help ...
By Donald Moss
Dr Anne Pattel-Gray has lived a life of many academic firsts.
For example, in 1995, Anne became the first Indigenous person to graduate with a PhD from the University of Sydney and, two years later, she became the first Indigenous person to be awarded a Doctor of Divinity from India. As such, Anne is a recognised and ...
By Andrew Humphries
When a two-bedroom property at Sulphur Creek in Tasmania went on the market recently, keen buyers would have noticed an interesting feature in its kitchen.
In a nod to its history as the former Sulphur Creek UC, owner Suzanne Koblenz had created a mosaic featuring the Uniting Church logo on a wall in the ...
By Andrew Humphries
While some organisations pay lip service to the concepts of inclusion and diversity, one regional congregation is setting the standard in giving a voice to some groups who might otherwise never be heard.
After a lengthy break, Uniting Queenscliff will hold its popular Sacrededge Festival at the end of this month, and support worker and volunteer Margot ...
By John Evans
I recently read The Plague by Albert Camus and it became my meditation on these past two years of COVID-19. I was forced to think: what we have done well and not so well and, more particularly, where has God been during this time?
The Plague is an account of an epidemic in a French city after ...
By Stephen Acott
In 1999, as Mary Neale was kayaking down a river in North America, she came upon a waterfall. She knew it wasn’t too steep so she went down without a second thought.
And then something tragic happened.
Or so it seemed.
When the nose on Mary’s kayak hit the rocks at the bottom, it became wedged, pinning ...
By Denise Liersch
“Jesus keeps opening our eyes to recognise him walking life’s path with us. He keeps surprising us with new possibilities of life in God.”
Luke 24: 1-12
Every year we come to Easter via a long journey through Lent, Holy Week and Good Friday, telling each other stories about what Jesus’s life means for us, his ...