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Uniting Church Assembles

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Uniting Church Assembles The Uniting Church in Australia QUEENSLAND SYNOD inspire • provoke • engage Uniting Church assembles Frontier journeyonline.com.au • Services When Christian A new road August 2015 2015 August media sucks We Have! Will YOU? Driven by our faith to serve others, we wanted Bethel Funerals our Will to reflect our beliefs. Peace of A not-for-profi t Christian Funeral Company mind, We have provided for Wesley Mission not profi t. Offering Compassion, Peace and Hope to grieving families Brisbane in our Will because they have Prepaid funeral planning served those on the margins of society for over 100 years. All profi ts go to mission and community work We know our gift will be in safe hands. Brisbane 07 3219 9333 For moreinformation on bequests, speak with your solicitor,gotowww.wmb.org.au or call 07 3621 4679. Tap someone Position vacant on the shoulder Alan Walker Lecturer in Evangelism, Mission & Education The Synod Governance, Nomination and Uniting Mission and Education is seeking a suitable person Remuneration Committee (GNRC) is asking you to join United Theological College as a lecturer in mission, evangelism and leadership. to tap someone on the shoulder! You will be developing an understanding of and effective Not just anyone, but someone you think has the gifts and skills to serve engagement in mission, evangelism and leadership within on one of the many boards or committees that support the governance the sub-discipline of Practical Theology in the life of the of our church. Uniting Church, Synod of NSW and the ACT, particularly through the Uniting Learning Network and networks through These important roles provide appropriate governance of Synod and the Pacific region. its agencies while developing and richly blessing the individuals who contribute. A full position description is available upon request and can be downloaded from ume.nsw.uca.org.au There are opportunities now, and in the immediate future, to join the For further information contact Gerard Moore, Finance, Investment and Property Board (FIP), the GNRC and a number [email protected] or phone 02 8838 8958. of school and college boards. Applications, due by August 31, All you have to do is tap someone on the shoulder, or maybe offer should be sent to the NSW/ACT Synod yourself, and send an expression of interest to the governance mail at [email protected] box [email protected] or call Lucille on 07 3377 9710. The position is open to lay and ordained persons. All we need to start the ball rolling are contact details and areas The successful applicant must hold or apply for a valid of interest/experience. We will do the rest! Working With Vulnerable People number. ucaqld.com.au INDOOROOPILLY ASPLEY JINDALEE LOGAN KAWANA BUNDALL INDOOROOPILLY CENTRAL HOMEMAKER CITY HOMEMAKERCITY LOGAN MEGA CENTRE HOME CENTRAL KAWANA 17 Upton Street 34 Coonan Street 825 Zillmere Road 38 Goggs Road 3525 Pacific Highway 566 Kawana Way,Birtinya (Beside The Good Guys) Phone 3720 1877 Phone 3862 8374 Phone 3279 1961 Phone 3299 4588 Phone 5493 6044 Phone 5504 6777 Contents The real work Assembly has come to a close for another triennium, but really the work has just begun. The meeting resolved to undertake all kinds of tasks that will keep us well and truly busy over the next three New road for Frontier Services years. Committees, working groups and task groups 7 have been formed; regulations have been changed and now need enacting; awareness-raising campaigns have been planned and some people need to finish up in old Moderator’s message roles and settle into new ones. (You can find an Assembly 4 overview on page nine.) In the flurry of post-Assembly activity it’s important that New Assembly we remember that Jesus is the reason for the work. Our 5 general secretary new president Stuart McMillan sent Assembly members out into the world with the following blessing: Partners in ministry “Go forth from here to live out the covenant in which 6 we the First and Second Peoples of this land have entered into with one another. Mapoon 8 Church Appeal “Confront and challenge injustice wherever you see it. Act justly yourselves and insist that others do the same. Rejoice in the richness of our diverse cultures and learn Profile: Noah Kim from them. Celebrate and demonstrate the unity we share 12 in Jesus our Lord. Commit to worship and witness and serve, as one people under God.” 9 Assembly roundup Are you called to be a minister? Jesus reconciles us to God and to each other. All our work 14 should reflect this call to reconciliation, not only between First and Second Peoples, but for strained and broken Formation relationships everywhere. 15 for ministry Reconciliation calls us to listen before we speak. That’s hard. That’s when the real work begins. 18 Laudato Si Rohan Salmond Cross-platform editor 19 Letters 16 When Christian media sucks Cover: Consensus cards, illustrated by Rev Ellie Elia at the 14th Assembly. journeyonline.com.au Editor: Rohan Salmond ISSN: 0817-4466; Circulation: 15 000; Journey is published Writer: Dianne Jensen 11 times a year for the Queensland Synod of the Uniting Design: Holly Jewell Church in Australia. Opinions expressed in Journey do not Subscribe to receive Journey in your inbox necessarily reflect those of the editor or the policies of the Advertising: Ashley Thompson Uniting Church. Acceptance of advertising does not imply facebook.com/unitingchurch.queensland Publisher: The Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod. endorsement; inclusion of advertising material is at the Printing: Horton Media Limited, Narangba discretion of the publisher. Journey cannot guarantee the twitter.com/UCAQld publication and/or return of submissions but makes every Contact: Uniting Communications effort to do so if requested. The Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod youtube.com/UnitingChurchQLD 60 Bayliss Street, Auchenflower QLD Closing date for editorial and advertising for September GPO Box 674, Brisbane QLD 4001 Journey is Monday 17 August. The next issue of Journey will be available on Sunday 6 September. Synchronise stories to your blog reader Ph: (07) 3377 9910 | E: [email protected] F: (07) 3377 9717 | journeyonline.com.au Journey August 2015 3 From the moderator Monday Midday Prayer Prepare from day one Thank you for the diversity of your creation. “Preparation for married life begins the day you says, “Let them make their own choice”. It’s a dominant are born.” thought pattern in our society, but we have to be clear: May it encourage us to go beyond Coca-Cola has a plan for our children. Toyota has a plan. our familiar circles and discover It was one of those new thoughts that made such common McDonald’s has a plan. Facebook has a plan. Great big sense that as a 34-year-old, I wondered why I hadn’t the breadth of grace. billion dollar organisations have plans for our children; thought of it before. I still remember the time and place if we decide to leave life up to them, to which forces are Amen it was said 23 years later! We learn what married life is we subjecting them, unprepared? about by observing and modelling. That young people will make up their own minds about The members of the last Synod in Session asked the church life, the universe and their place in it is patently obvious; to think about formation—how ministers of the gospel are the question for those who care for them is how are we being formed. That’s a critical question for our theological preparing them for that? How are our communities Moderator’s highlights colleges, one they wrestle with constantly. We are in a of faith shaping and forming people in the ways of the world that asks for the capacity in Christians to make kingdom, that they may discern the difference between 1–2 August the gospel intelligible and defendable in the marketplace what is life-giving and what is not? Rockhampton South of ideas. Our ministers need to be able to do that; they also need to be able to resource the church to do that. So As for marriage, so for Christian formation. We learn it Parish celebration service, formation is also a critical question for ministers, church by observing, experiencing and modelling so much more Rockhampton councils, youth workers, and communities that are called than by being told! together around word and sacrament. 4 August So, how are the agenda of congregational meetings King’s College Annual Dinner, If preparation for married life begins the day you are and church councils reflecting this? How much is St Lucia, Brisbane born, then preparation for ministry, the ministry of the this worked on in home fellowship groups? How are whole people of God in the ways of the kingdom, begins families supported in their life and work by our faith 8 August at baptism. communities? What discipleship are we demonstrating? South Moreton Presbytery When I meet with parents who are seeking baptism Rev David Baker meeting, Beenleigh Uniting Moderator, Queensland Synod for their children, I feel I have to confront the idea that Church 4 journeyonline.com.au Colleen Geyer. Photo: Osker Lau Steady hand at the helm With Rev Terence Corkin stepping down as Assembly general secretary at the end of the year, Queenslanders will find a familiar face at the helm in 2016. Nigel Tapp reports. The 14th Assembly has appointed UnitingCare Network and the Roman Catholic/Uniting Church Queensland’s director of mission, Colleen Geyer National Dialogue. as its incoming general secretary. The Assembly’s retiring president Rev Dr Andrew Dutney Colleen will take the reins from Rev Terence Corkin, who said Colleen emerged as a preferred candidate who had will step down from the position after 15 years of service a deep understanding of the vision, values and processes at the end of this year.
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