By Marina Williams
A group of boys had spent the afternoon playing basketball.
Within hours, two of the South Sudanese boys, aged 15 and 12, were dead, killed in a violent attack carried out by a group wielding knives and machetes – a tragedy that stunned families across Melton and sent shockwaves through Grace Community Uniting Church.
By Marina Williams
At his Launceston home, Craig Osborne pauses as kookaburras call through the trees.
“There’s four of them hanging around lately,” he says. “It’s pretty cool.”
That same ease shapes how Craig approaches life and faith.
Each Sunday he plays piano at Launceston South Uniting Church, where he has worshipped for more than three decades.
By Andrew Humphries
In one sense, it felt like a homecoming for Rev Prof Kylie Crabbe when she took up the position of Pilgrim Theological College’s Head of College last month.
The appointment feels, she says, like a good fit for where she is in her vocational life.
It’s certainly a good fit for the college, which is getting a ...
By Mark Zirnsak
Uniting Church congregations and members across our Synod continue to provide pastoral and material support to people working on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. People on the PALM scheme are from the Pacific Islands and Timor Leste and work in Australia for up to four years, sending money home to their families and communities. Key ...
From time to time, a familiar concern resurfaces within our life as a Uniting Church, not from outside critics, but from people deeply shaped by this church. It is often spoken with care and concern: Have we become too focused on social justice? Too concerned with inclusivity, diversity, and unity? We need to sharpen our focus on the Gospel.
Faithful Futures is the shared strategic direction for the Uniting Church across Victoria and Tasmania.
It will guide our ministry and mission for the next decade.
Faithful Futures was developed collaboratively through consultation, research, prayer and discernment.
It was adopted at the 2025 Synod Meeting and is being adopted by all presbyteries.
By Andrew Humphries
When Dennis Johnston retired in 2014 and was looking for something to keep him occupied, he stumbled across Biala Ringwood.
“I was listening to the radio one day and an advertisement came on about Biala needing volunteers,” Dennis says.
“I thought ‘wow, this seems something worth getting involved with’.”
Eleven years later, Dennis is Biala Ringwood’s chairperson, ...
By Rev Alistair Macrae
The language of “public theology” is a tautology. Theology, at least in the Uniting Church’s account of it, is inherently public. According to the Uniting Church’s Basis of Union, God’s big project is the renewal of the whole creation, not only individual souls. To regard ...
By Rev Will Nicholas
“Where two or more gather, in cosplay or community, there is church.”
The Sonderverse arrived at PAX Australia 2025 not as tourists, but as pilgrims.
More than a dozen members of our ever-growing digital congregation – streamers, gamers, clergy, and chaotic good disciples of play – came together to create what we call intentional community inside the convention floor.
By Andrew Humphries
After a long career in the legal profession, and then a stint driving buses, Peter Byrne could have been forgiven for winding down a bit when he hit his late 50s.
Instead, his thoughts turned towards an opportunity to pursue something he had been thinking about for a long time, a pursuit which led him to Pilgrim ...
By Marina Williams
When groups of men and women arrive from Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste and Kiribati to work in Tasmania’s fields, orchards and processing plants, they bring with them far more than labour.
Their presence, songs and stories leave a lasting imprint on local communities, and at the heart of this exchange is Taua Ritiata.
By Marina Williams
When Junior Manase gathers Samoan Uniting Church members in Victoria for a weekend workshop, the atmosphere is alive with conversation, storytelling and reflection.
For Junior, a non-placement Samoan Ministry Pastor at St Stephens in Keilor, these gatherings are far more than training sessions.
They represent a long-held vision coming to life – one where Samoan leaders can ...