Remember, renew, rejoice…
During the past several days people from our member churches gathered at Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney for the 9th Triennial Forum. These were special days. Written evaluations from participants included such words as ‘engaging’, ‘inspiring’, relaxed, ‘efficient’, ‘educational’, ‘providing opportunities for networking’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘blessings of diverse gifts and energies’, ‘active involvement’, ‘rich experience’ ‘new time’.
Installation of NCCA President
 New President of NCCA |
Our new President installed as the 8th 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).
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.
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.
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.
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:
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
