Groups of five or more can now register to attend NCYC’09 in Melbourne through bulk registrations. Larger groups of at least ten delegates receive one additional tent or budget registration for free.
Bulk registrations close on 15 May 2008. You can now register online at www.ncyc.org.au, or for a hard copy form contact the NCYC office on 1300 00 NCYC (6292).
Music is a big part of NCYC. Not only do delegates enjoy seeing their favourite bands live, but it is also great way for promising musicians to have their music heard by an international audience.
NCYC is looking for delegates to get creative and start writing music for the National Christian Youth Convention 2009. For information about music submissions, requirements and guidelines please visit the NCYC website www.ncyc.org.au/music.
NCYC’09 is encouraging as many congregations as possible across Australia to conduct a barbeque on May 4 2008 and be a part of Australia’s Biggest BBQ.
The event can be used to raise funds to support your local delegates to come to NCYC’09, or donate the money to the NCYC’09 Disadvantaged Delegates Fund to participate.
For more information visit the website ncyc.org.au or contact the NCYC office on 1300 00 6292.
UnitingCare Australia and Uniting Missions Network will hold their national conference Sunday 6 to Tuesday 8 April 2008 in Melbourne.
The conference theme is Shaping our future, Informed by experience, Inspired by vision.
Board members, CEO’s and program managers, organisational development and business managers, mission staff and volunteers are all invited to come along.
The conference will be held at Hotel Jasper, 489 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne (next to the Victoria Market). More details to come soon.
For further enquiries contact Uniting Care Victoria and Tasmania.
As the stormy weather in Melbourne this week has caused all sorts of chaos, it is reminder that the cosmos has been brewing for an event that keeps surprising us – Immanuel means God is with us …
Sermon, Sunday December 23rd, 2007Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga
Paddington Uniting Church on Oxford St has welcomed the gay and lesbian community to a light-hearted Christmas celebration last Sunday.
It’s a first Christmas Together event conducted with St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on Oxford St and St George’s Anglican Church at Five-Ways.
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.
“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”
John the Baptist is in prison and seems life-weary. His purpose in life was to proclaim the coming of Jesus and now he questions whether his life has had meaning and purpose.
For all who are jaded or find Christmas a distressing time, the answer the Jesus provides might spark some new hope, and a place to lay down the heavy burdens that seem to track close to us.
Sermon Sunday December 16th, 2007Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga
The prophet Isaiah speaks of a world where wild animals live in harmony. His image of utopia is a pointer to the difference that the promised one will make.
If this promised one comes to us at Christmas, it is time to consider those places of hope and promise and the difference that God’s work of Christmas makes.
Sermon 9th December, 2007Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga
Isaiah shares words of hope for a peaceful future where swords will be beaten into ploughshares. We explore what it means to be people who “walk in the light of the Lord”, and our own call to peace in the name of Christ.
Sermon 2nd December, 2007Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga