Amanda Hunt, CEO of Uniting WA, shares her hopes for a socially inclusive post-COVID world.
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Re-Uniting WA
Opinion
Refugee Week 2020: academics and activism
From 14 to 20 June we celebrate Refugee Week, welcoming those who have come into Australia and celebrating the valuable contribution refugees and people seeking asylum make to our society. The Uniting Church has always been a strong advocate for the rights of people fleeing persecution – but we are not alone in our calls for justice.
Wherever possible the Uniting Church seeks to collaborate with service providers to ensure we are reflecting the needs of people most in need. In the complex field of immigration issues it is also handy to have assistance from academic friends – like Dr Caroline Fleay. Continue Reading
Spiritual Practices in a time of pandemic: shared music
Rev Dr David Ferguson, Presbytery Officer for the Uniting Church WA, reflects on the power of shared music.
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Spiritual Practices in a time of pandemic: collective creativity
Are you feeling creative in these times of physical distancing? Rev Dr David Ferguson, Presbytery Officer for the Uniting Church WA, shares some ideas and inspiration for how we can collectively create while we are physically apart. Continue Reading
Review: Saint Judy
Directed by Sean Hanish, 2020, Cannonball Productions
Saint Judy is a film based on real life events of lawyer, Judy Wood, who’s thrown in the deep end in her first immigration law case. Her belief that the truth and doing what’s right can overcome almost insurmountable obstacles to forever change asylum law in the United States of America, as well as the lives of those around her.
Judy represents an Afghani woman, Asefa Ashwari who’s betrayed by her Tribal Leader father, persecuted by the Taliban for ‘Crimes against God.’ She faces the certainty of being murdered by her own brothers in an honour killing if her fight for asylum in the United States is unsuccessful, because she encouraged girls to think for themselves and to get an education by opening a school for girls in her village. Continue Reading
Review: Climate Church Climate World
How people of faith must work for change, by Rev Jim Antal, 2018, Rowman and Littlefield
The national synod of the United Church of Christ, USA, passed a motion in 2017 that: “The climate crisis is the opportunity for which the Church was born.”
Jim Antal’s book opens with historian Lynn White’s words from 1967: “More science and technology are not going to get us out of the present ecological crisis until we find a new religion or rethink our old one.” Continue Reading
A ‘time out’ to prepare, act and change
While we are physically distancing due to COVID-19, Louise Powell, member at Northway Uniting Church who is currently undertaking a Period of Discernment with the Uniting Church WA, reflects on the ‘time out’ many of us have been given. Continue Reading
Moderator’s Easter message: Thank God for Easter
Rev Steve Francis, Moderator of the Uniting Church WA has shared his Easter message for 2020. Steve reflects on the troubled times we are currently living in, and the hope which the death and resurrection of Jesus brings us.
Watch the video, or read the transcript below.Continue Reading
Moderator’s column: The cross at the core
Many years ago I was invited to speak to a group of students at an art college.
The meeting was arranged by one of the art lecturers who thought art students should be aware of some of the ways Christianity had influenced the arts over many centuries. Most of the students were Marxists, materialists or agnostics. I gave a short address and then engaged in a ‘question time.’ After some vigorous debate I was asked what was core or central to Christian belief and practice. All I could think of was two words “the cross”. Continue Reading
Editorial: Bushfires, climate change and Australia’s long, hot Summer
It’s been a huge summer for Australia. Continue Reading
