Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says it is unacceptable that after 16 years of economic growth, up to 100,000 Australians can be sleeping in shelters or on the streets on any given night.
Mr Rudd wants a new approach to get people off the streets and back on their feet and has formed a committee to improve crisis services and help people get long-term housing.
Experts cite drug and alcohol abuse as well as mental illness as the main reasons people end up homeless. Homeless people give their own, varied accounts.
The gospel reading this week is a call to Jesus’ disciples to learn the ‘fishing for men’ trade. This has sparked much evangelistic zeal over the centures. Sacha explores for us ways to live as disciples with an integrity to Christ’s call.
Sermon 27th January, 2008 (Sacha Miller-MacDonald)Â [pdf]
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Our annual Shrove Tuesday pancake meal to raise funds for the Share Appeal. This popular community event includes all you can eat pancakes with both savoury and sweet toppings.
Venue: The hall, Oakleigh Worship Centre, 154 Drummond St., Oakleigh
Enquiries to: Pancake Day
All welcome, no bookings required.
Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is awash in profitable oil reserves yet pouring billions into renewable- and sustainable-energy technologies to build the world’s first zero-emission city, “a metropolis that emits not a single extra molecule of carbon dioxide — the cause of global warming”.
Osama bin Laden’s 26-year-old son Omar wears dreadlocks and a biker jacket and tells the AP “there is a better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an “ambassador for peace” between Muslims and the West.”
A director who shares the ideas of Iran’s hardline President has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show “common ground” between Muslims and Christians.
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, Jesus, the Spirit of God,” as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster The Passion of the Christ.
As Jesus begins his ministry and calls Simon Peter, destined to be the leader of the Roman Catholic church, we reflect on a bold initiative by Richard Branson to gather a group of Elders to be brokers of world peace. In terms of our own personal journey, we too can live as elders who make a difference in the lives of others.
Sermon Sunday January 20th, 2008Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga
Earthly Reflections of Heavenly Things, an exceptionally beautiful exhibition celebrating the transcendent and ineffable in art, opened at the University of Melbourne’s Ian Potter Museum of Art recently for a season to 17 February 2008.
The exhibition, curated by the Potter’s Joanna Bosse, brings together 21 works from three senior Australian artists who engage with mystical and immaterial subjects.
The artists, Asher Bilu, Leonard Brown and Emily Kngwarreye, are noted for their ethereal and contemplative works. Although from different cultural, religious and artistic traditions, all three have developed a language of refined abstraction that is non-dogmatic, evocative and thoroughly immersive.
‘Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something – find it and keep it lit!’
(Mary Lou Retton)
As Jesus calls, we are invited to follow. And as we follow, we answer the call of God on our lives. The detail of it will change from person to person, but the process, the way to get there is the same.
Sermon 13th January, 2008Â (pdf)
St. David’s Uniting Church, Oakleigh
Rev. Arnie Wierenga
A Virginian Baptist minister, Steve Reynolds, appauled at the addiction of many of his flock to fatty takeaway foods decided it was time to make a difference.
A year ago he set his entire congregation on a diet, and developed a Bod4God program.
There has been a remarkable difference in outlook as between them there are 952 less kilograms …