UnitingCare Pancake Day will be officially celebrated on Shrove Tuesday- 5 February 2008. Churches are invited to host a fundraising event anywhere in the month of February to raise funds to help UnitingCare provide assistance to low income earning Australians who are struggling to access affordable housing, are facing high rents or who are homeless.
The first 1,500 school, community, church and business groups to register will be provided with bottles of Green’s Pancake Shake and maple flavoured syrup to use at their event, free of charge.
So that everyone can enjoy a pancake each party pack will also contain one bottle of Basco Gluten Free Pancake Shake. Green’s will also donate 10 cents to UnitingCare from every specially marked bottle of Green’s Pancake Shake sold at supermarkets across Australia during February 2008.
To register your event go to www.pancakeday.com.au or free call 1800 060 543.
The St. David’s Oakleigh congregation will join the Balkara Parish and host a pancake day celebration on February 5th at 154 Drummond St., Oakleigh.
The web site: Jesus is the gift has free flash based e-cards that you can send now to friends this Christmas.
This web site urges people to both give and receive in a way that reflects the love that God shows us through the gift of Jesus.
The electronic cards can also be customised allowing you to share your own special gifts this season.
If anyone knows of other great web sites with special free Christmas e-cards, please sign in and comment below.
On Saturday, the St. David’s Uniting Church again hosted their annual ‘Search for an Angel’ event.
Search for an Angel is a fun event for children where they look for angels who provide clues to the gift of Christmas. The ‘treasure hunt’ ends with a live nativity of farm animals and baby Jesus.
A big thanks to all who helped make the day a success. And big congratulations to our two prize winners who get a free entry to the Rain, Hayne and Shine animal farm on the Mornington Peninsula.
This year’s winners are:
The Ferdinands family of Oakleigh &
John Berlangieri of Mt. Waverley.
You can check out a photostory of the day here (1MB)Â : Search for an angel 2007 (1M)
or for those with a fast connection, you can check out this larger version (7MB): Search for an angel, 2007
Ministry intern student, Jay Robinson, reflects on how her new personal ministry situation and changes involved has given her a new sense of what Advent is really like.
Jay shares her thoughts along with many others on the new UCA synod of Victoria-Tasmania’s blogsite called trapeza. Trapeza is an online community of people who are interested in faith. It is a place of reflection, spirituality and contemporary theology.
Along with stimulating content to read, trapeza is a place to leave a comment, to have a voice. There is an invitation there to share your view on spirituality, the church, or whatever is on your soul.
TEAR, an international Christian agency that is a strong advocate towards eliminating global poverty, has announced that the signing of the Kyoto protocol by the new Rudd Labor government in good news for the world’s poorest people.
Advocacy Co-ordinator for TEAR Australia, Ben Thurley, said he was “thrilled that the first act of our new Prime Minister was action on Kyoto. I hope it signals a new era in climate change negotiations and that Australia will now take more of a lead in the right direction.â€
Andy Atkins, Advocacy director of Tearfund UK, added: “This is a huge boost to the Bali talks, good for Australia and the world’s poorest people who suffer most at the hands of a changing climate. ”
Sydney man, Jeremy Jones, has been awarded a human rights medal for his work in promoting interfaith dialogue, in particular between Jews and Muslims. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Council issues the award for outstanding work in the area of human rights.
Mr Jones said, “If you relate to other human beings by thinking of them first and foremost as being people who deserve to be treated with dignity, you see unfairness.”
Eight new chaplains have just started work in the Inverell district’s schools. The federal government has made available $150,000 for the funding of chaplains, and Inverell is just one area in the country to benefit from successful applications for funding.
Following on from a successful first year, the churches of Oakleigh are proud to present the 2007 Carols in the Park on December 7th.
Last year a crowd of around 2000 enjoyed a community Christmas celebration that included cultural items, a choir, and items from the local schools.
In response to last year’s event, local councillor, Denise McGill wrote:
The combination of energetic enthusiasm by all the churches, a fine display from local schools, a beautiful evening and many young families attending was a sight to behold. … this can only be an indicator of the appreciation and need in our community for such an event.
We invite you to mark this special evening in your diary.
The historic Anglican church of St John’s in Footscray in Melbourne’s west is discovering the generous spirit of local Sudanese refugees.
Members of the Sudanese Bari community have collected money to assist with reconstruction of the church’s arch. Earlier this month this money was presented to Bishop Philip Huggins.
Many members of the Sudaneses community are subject to harrassment and race-related threats. Following the welcome gift, there were prayers in the church about this issue. Since arriving in Australia, many of these people have been praying regularly in this church.
– How the largest Movement in the world came into being, and why no one saw it coming…
Paul Hawken decribes a phenomenon that “is the largest social movement in all of history, no one knows its scope, and how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye.”
“What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”
Find out more about Paul Hawken and his hope for our future in this article how to remake the world.