Church response to Nauru Files

The Uniting Church has demanded the immediate closure of Australia’s offshore detention centres following the publication of leaked documents from the Nauru facility. More than 2000 reports detailing harrowing incidents of physical, sexual and psychological abuse were collated and published by the Guardian Australia last month. Over half of the documents involve incidents with children.

“The revelations confirm again ...

Back to basis

Review by Rev Dr Craig Thompson

BOOK | MANIFESTO FOR RENEWAL | ANDREW DUTNEY

A good history is informative, sobering and inspiring. Rev Prof Andrew Dutney’s 2016 revised and expanded edition of his 1986 Manifesto for Renewal is such a history. Manifesto tracks the progress of the parent denominations of the Uniting Church towards Union, with particular attention to ...

Local church creates Commonwealth Games stars

The Penguin Uniting Church, located in a small North-West Tasmanian coastal town, will send 10,000 stars to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

They will not be stars of the sporting kind but, rather, the woven kind.

The eight-pointed stars will form part of the One Million Stars to End Violence project, which was begun by Maryann Talia ...

Synod Snaps – September 2016

Congregation members at Emerald Uniting Church donated a carload of food and toiletries for UnitingCare Harrison’s homeless clients. They also donated $10,050 for their services.

Wendouree Uniting Church held a Messy Church on 31 July, where blankets were made for people in need. The theme for the day was ‘Bind us together’.

A History of the ...

Fostering a sense of belonging

DAVID SOUTHWELL

With three foster children, two adult offspring of her own still in residence, a husband and a multitude of drop-ins who stay for varying amounts of time, Maree Armitt might be excused for looking for a simpler life. What she is actually looking for is a bigger house.

Ms Armitt has been a foster care parent with Wesley ...

Bigger than…perhaps, but not better than

Review by Penny Mulvey

FILM | BEN-HUR | M

It is a brave director who takes on the might of a movie so iconic for its size and excesses that it is part of our lexicon.

The 1959 version of Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards, including best actor for Charlton Heston. It cost more than any movie in the history ...

Spirit of embrace

Approximately 150 people from around Australia and overseas attended a conference on spirituality and disability organised by the Uniting Church in Melbourne last month.

Rev Andy Calder, synod disability inclusion officer and convenor of the Exclusion and Embrace: Disability, Justice and Spirituality conference, said the feedback from the three-day event had been very positive.

“I think there was a very ...

Interfaith spirit in Bendigo

The regional city of Bendigo has been a hotspot for anti-Islam tensions in recent years. In 2014, the Greater Bendigo City Council approved the construction of the city’s first-ever mosque. A small but vocal group of anti-mosque protestors campaigned against the decision and some tied black balloons outside a councillor’s house.

In response, the Uniting Church organised an event where ...

New Uniting Church agency announces inaugural CEO

Experienced public sector and community services professional Paul Linossier has been appointed the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the new Uniting Church community services organisation due to come into operation on 1 October.

The new organisation will be formed from the merger of 20 UnitingCare agencies and Wesley Mission Victoria (WMV). It will be one of the largest community ...

A Christian perspective on the future of work

The rapidly changing nature of work will be the focus of the Justice and International Mission (JIM) unit’s annual convention this month.

Held at the Centre for Theology and Ministry in Parkville on Saturday 17 September, this year’s convention, ‘Making Working Lives Better’, will explore the intersection between social justice and the future of work.

Employment has altered dramatically in ...

Locked out even in laneway

PENNY MULVEY

When is an alcove a home? Sadly, it is more often than any of us would like to imagine as we enjoy the comfort of four walls and a cosy bed.

Hosier Lane, which features on the Crosslight cover, is a famous Melbourne laneway. Tourists flock there to take selfies among the colourful street art adorning the ...

Faith in science

Review by Garth Jones

BOOK | CONFRONTING RELIGIOUS DENIAL OF SCIENCE: CHRISTIAN HUMANISM AND THE MORAL IMAGINATION | CATHERINE M. WALLACE

In last June’s Crosslight, I reviewed Prof David Tacey’s Beyond Literal Belief: Religion As Metaphor. Tacey’s book characterised the Bible as ‘a tapestry of stories designed to challenge and enhance life’s meaning’. Tacey acknowledged the work of ‘fundamentalist ...