Ration Challenge

Bringing hope and comfort to refugees in Jordan with over $2.3 million raised

Last November, I travelled to Jordan to see Act for Peace’s work with Syrian families living in urban refugee camps. These were mothers, fathers and small children who’d been living normal lives and then suddenly lost everything – their homes, belongings, people they love – and found themselves strangers in a foreign country, cold, hungry and alone.

Bible and Ecology: Reading scripture through ecological eyes

Join this national webinar to engage ecology and biblical theology with scholars from around Australia and the world

Monday 19th September 10:30am to 5:30pm (Australian Eastern Time) 

In recent years, in the context of growing ecological awareness, biblical scholars have been working to move beyond human-focused perspectives and read the Bible with a deliberate sympathy for the wider Earth community. In this full-day webinar, we will hear from scholars around the country about reading the Bible through “ecological eyes”, and will practise applying such lenses to scripture.

On 1 September 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios invited the whole Christian world ‘to offer together with the Great Mother Church of Christ (the Ecumenical Patriarchate) every year on this day prayers and supplication to the Maker of all, both as thanksgiving for the great gift of Creation and as petitions for its protection and salvation.’

If you would like to read this message visit goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8052

Call to a Year of Prayer

The first meeting of the new board of National Council of Churches in Australia met on last Friday, 22 July 2016.

Following a request from the NCCA Forum the Board of Directors have released a statement calling all to a Year of Prayer.

2 July Federal election

3-10 July NAIDOC week

3 July National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday

1-7 August National Homeless Persons week

The holy season of Ramadan is drawing to a close. The Parliament of the World Religions issues a Ramadan Challenge, inviting people to honour the tradition of Islam in a number of ways:

• Participate in fast
• Pray or meditate (in my own tradition) five times per day
• Break the fast with my Muslim neighbours and attend an Interfaith IFTAR
• Share my experience of Embodied Solidarity at Ramadan on Social Media and elsewhere with my family, friends, and networks.

Corinne is employed as the Safe Church Program Office, a part-time role which is 2 days per week. Her responsibilities are to provide and develop resources to support churches with safeguarding children, develop and review training for those within the Safe Church Training Agreement (SCTA), update the national Safe Church workshop calendar and network and support those in professional standards roles within their denomination.

Safe Church Update

As part of a Safe church, we also want to ensure that those who may be vulnerable in our communities are also safe.  One particular group of people who would be considered vulnerable would be the elderly.  And recently Australia acknowledged this with “Elder Abuse awareness day” (15th June 2016).

Their website www.elderabuseawarenessday.org.au provides information and resources to help understand elder abuse.

Ration Challenge

Ration Challenge raises over $1.9 million to support refugees 

Last week, more than 8,000 passionate people took the Act for Peace Ration Challenge and showed refugees we’re with them, not against them.During Refugee Week, 19-25 June, participants ate the same rations that a Syrian refugee living in a refugee camp in Jordan receives - just a small amount of rice, beans, lentils, fish, oil and flour. It’s a tough but eye-opening experience. 

Installation of NCCA President

New President of NCCA

Our new President installed as the 8^th President of National Council of Churches in Australia on the Sunday 26 June 2016.

Bishop Philip Huggins was ordained in the Anglican Communion in 1977, and has served the people of God in a range of appointments, as industrial chaplain and university chaplain, and in parish ministry in Bendigo and Melbourne. He has served as assistant Bishop in Perth (1995-1998), and Diocesan Bishop of Grafton (1998-2003).