Spiritual first responders
PENNY MULVEY Chaplains volunteering with the Victorian Council of Churches Emergencies Ministry spoke to more than 3300 people on the day of, and the days following, January’s Bourke St rampage.
Coming out and speaking out in Islam
DAVID SOUTHWELL Australia’s only openly gay imam says that religious leaders with progressive views on sexuality need to speak up to save young lives.
Call for unity
REVIEW BY NICK MATTISKE BOOK | THE END OF PROTESTANTISM | PETER LEITHART Peter Leithart’s book The End of Protestantism is not a lament for the decline of Western Christianity or a pessimistic prediction, but Leithart’s
A helping hand
The story of Alan Stafford and the Uniting Church Emergency Fencing Team came to my attention via a copy of an article in the Benalla Ensign last month.
Space for grace in sexuality debate
WILLIAM LOADER In November last year I was invited by the Evangelical Theological Association to present a paper at their annual conference in San Antonio on same-sex relations.
Search on for next moderator
Wanted: Nominations for moderator-elect. Attributes: Practically perfect in every way (to quote Mary Poppins). Well, OK, no one is perfect.
Living our mission
Forty years ago, the inaugural Assembly of the Uniting Church issued a Statement to the Nation. This statement outlines the Uniting Church’s desire to be involved in “social and national affairs”.
Candidates’ Tasmanian retreat
Candidates at Pilgrim Theological College and faculty staff spent five days in Tasmania last month experiencing ministry and the life of the Church in the island state.
Leading the way
REVIEW BY MARGARET REESON BOOK | OUR PRINCIPLE OF SEX EQUALITY: THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA 1927-1977 | JULIA PITMAN FORTY years after the inauguration of Uniting Church in Australia
Breakfast club
PENNY MULVEY EARLIER this year, visitors to Melbourne have expressed concern about the increasing numbers of homeless either sleeping rough or begging on city streets.
Sprent Miles ahead in lay preaching
Rev Grahame Abrahams (left) presents Keeton Miles with his service certificate When it comes to lay preachers, Sprent Shalom Uniting Church is Miles ahead of all others.
Making compassion real
ALEXANDER BAKER Straight off the red-eye flight from Manila to Nairobi, my colleague Alexandra and I were greeted by possibly the biggest smile in Africa, and not just because it stood seven-foot-high off the ground.